[NJARC] Mysterious Radio Towers in Belvidere, NJ

[Robert Lilley]

Hello,

Anyone know anything about this?

My next door neighbors are 15 or so Mexican nuns - The Augustinian Recollect Sisters who recently took over the old 'Massenat Estate' in Belvidere, NJ (actually White Township) from the Brothers of The Sacred Heart. Stick with me, this is going somewhere -  Helen Kent Massenat owned this estate which was also known as 'Pequest Farms' from 1918 till her death in 1949.   After her death her heirs, et al sold off much of the old farmstead.  Approximately 30 acres to include the estate mansion were acquired by the Brothers in 1961.  The mansion and grounds were a park like setting which at one time sported a 9 hole golf course, a working water wheel on the Pequest River (still there), a swimming pool, tennis courts, faux streams & ponds, an industrial sized water tower ...and sometime between 1918 and 1949 - huge radio towers! 

According to local lore and 'ruburan legends' the radio towers were: a secret radio research project during the war; and or a nest of Nazi spies sending information to the Fatherland.  Recently I received some pictures of the estate in former days from a local who got them a while back from one of the Brothers.  Apparently the Brothers found German newpapers 1937-1943, and framed photos of Hitler and Goering along with several Nazi arm bands when cleaning out the old mansion when they moved in.  Personally, I have a hard time with the Nazi spy thing as these towers were huge (check out the car in the photo) - something the local wartime FBI would have tumbled onto rather quickly.  

http://www.flickr.com/photos/64054409@N07/

Rob
White Township, NJ