Who was Howard Hughes? Now that’s really looking back — a very long way. And, to me, it’s amazing that his name is now of interest in West Windsor simply because the company that bears his name owns one of the largest undeveloped land areas in the township. If and how it ends up being developed can have a major effect on the future of the township and the people who live here — whether we like it or not. But, since I do not speak for any who favor one kind of development over another, I will not just write about its potential “development,” in the usual sense. We already have too much of that, anyway.
I first saw the name Howard Hughes in a book called “Flying for 1936.” It was given to me by my parents, I think as a birthday present. They realized I liked airplanes as a little boy, and they thought I would enjoy the book. In fact, I used to spend hours looking at it and came to know what was on just about every page. It recounted all the latest advances in aviation and airplane design, and contained three-view drawings of most of the airplanes of the day. There is no doubt that Flying for 1936 was very influential in my eventually becoming an aeronautical engineer.
And one of my favorite parts of the book was the story about how Howard Hughes had set a new airplane speed record in 1935 of 352 miles per hour in his self-built H-1 racer — a speed that seemed impossible at the time. (Then, if you were clipping along in your car at 30 or 35 miles per hour on a highway, you were really moving.) The book said very little about Hughes himself — simply that he was an aviator with an interest in designing and building airplanes that could go fast. Since the book was about aviation as it was in 1936, some of Hughes’s other unique aviation ventures such as the “Spruce Goose,” of a decade later, were not mentioned. His earlier career as a movie producer was mentioned, however. I should also point out that his speed record was for an airplane that took off from land. A faster speed record had been set a couple of years earlier with a seaplane.
But the book had fascinating pictures of all kinds of the latest advances in aviation. One of my favorites was the picture of Eastern Airlines passengers eating lunch on a Douglas transport, the latest in passenger airplanes. That plane was large enough to carry about a dozen passengers in its cabin. Another showed a flight attendant making up the bed on an American Airlines sleeper plane. Flight attendants — or stewardesses — had to be registered nurses in those days because many passengers became airsick and there needed to be someone handy who knew how to take care of such cases. But the idea of actually eating in your seat or sleeping in a bed on an airplane was very strange.
The company that calls itself Howard Hughes these days is very different from that of the aviator’s or tool maker’s day. Its main business seems to be land development. Now they have control over what was once the agricultural research center of the American Cyanamid Company, a company that did research on new products that helped in farming and the raising of livestock.
During the 1960s and ‘70s — and maybe into the ‘80s — they kept an outdoor laboratory where they raised pigs and other livestock for all to see. When you drove past a spot on Clarksville Road about halfway between the railroad overpass and Quaker Bridge Road you passed the pigs in their pens on the side towards the railroad. Many times the kids insisted that we pull over and let them get out and go over to the fence and watch the pigs for a while. This was especially fun when there was a new litter to see.
At some point — maybe in the 1980s — American Cyanamid built a new facility that appeared to be the makings of a new laboratory for continued product development. You could even see a new greenhouse from the road. But not long after that there seemed to be a change in course and the whole operation shut down. (The driveway in to the new facility from Clarksville Road was indicated by a useless “Construction Entrance Ahead” sign for many years, until the township had it removed.) The new place has been in that abandoned condition for a long time, and the Howard Hughes connection has only recently become known to most people.
By the way, another abandoned building that appears to be with us permanently is that of the NJ Bell Telephone Company at the corner of Clarksville and Quaker Bridge. What will become of that?
So what might Howard Hughes do with its property? It’s huge — more than 650 acres, a little more than 1 square mile. A long time ago it was the site of several family farms, including those of Stuart Reed, Jesse Coleman, and Daniel Faccini. Even longer ago, during the American Revolution, a skirmish took place near the property’s western end during which British soldiers were captured and divulged information that was instrumental in Washington’s eventual victory in the Battle of Princeton. But now it seems that farming the area again is out of the question, unless Howard Hughes wants to try being really innovative and some of its people learn to drive tractors — which seems very unlikely, unless there’s a lot of money in it. So here is a list of possible uses for an area of 1 square mile of really flat West Windsor land in this day and age:
1. Airport or heliport: West Windsor used to have one of each and they could both be useful again for some as a back-up for the train.
2. Racetrack (horse or auto): Remember that East Windsor used to have a stock-car track until around 30 years ago. You could hear the cars in most of West Windsor during the summer evenings if the wind was right. And as for horse racing, it might be complicated to get it going, but think of West Windsor’s potential share of the parimutuel betting handle.
3. Zoo: Big potential for audience of kids and other animal lovers. Naturalized exhibits of all animals native to central New Jersey. There are quite a few.
4. Botanical garden: Possible collaboration with other area organizations involved in natural preservation of local plant species, such as D&R Greenway
5. Agricultural museum: Live demonstration of what it means to be “The Garden State.”
6. Cultural center: A collection of buildings, gardens, etc that represent and demonstrate the many cultures found in West Windsor and the nearby area today.
7. The Howard Hughes Museum: Feature a replica of the Hughes Hercules or “Spruce Goose” for all to see, with a small museum with exhibits that explain why it was built and what its history was with Howard Hughes at the controls. If you don’t know, the Spruce Goose was for many years the world’s largest airplane. It was a flying boat with eight piston engines and made entirely of wood. It was designed and built by Hughes and flown only once, in 1947. It is now in a museum in Long Beach, CA. (Years later, a larger airplane, the Antonov An-225 was produced in Russia in 1988.)
8. Amusement park: How about a local and scaled down version of Six Flags Great Adventure? One of the problems with that place is that it’s too far away. That could be a money-maker, but the added traffic might not be so good.
9. Golf course: Probably unnecessary, since West Windsor already has nearly three.
10. Donate the whole thing to West Windsor as open space. Let the property revert naturally to whatever it will become on its own: open fields, forests, habitat for wild animals, etc. And, by all means, take away the abandoned buildings that remain. In other words, stop messing with it!
Now there’s a list of possibilities of how to use an area of open land without necessarily having to “develop” it for potential financial profit — although there is potential profit in some of the suggested uses since most could charge admission. Sometimes there are alternatives that make sense, even for business. And, after all, does West Windsor exist just to provide profit-making opportunities for anyone without limit? If you think so, start promoting West Windsor City, a place complete with expensive hotels, exclusive restaurants, high-rise apartment complexes, and the best of everything at your fingertips.
In short, the kind of place where Howard Hughes himself would have wanted to live. But I certainly wouldn’t want to live there myself.
