Weymouth Township Historical Society
The World War One 1918 Belcoville Post Office Building
The Township of
Weymouth Historical Society has spent the past year researching the history of the 1918 Belcoville Post Office building formerly known as the
Belcoville School and Marsh Community Center. This building was originally built as part of the huge 6000 acre munitions manufacturing plant
built and operated by Bethlehem Steel. The munitions division of
Bethlehem Steel was known as Bethlehem Loading Company and a contraction of the company name is how Belcoville got its name.
The Belcoville munitions plant was a cooperative effort between the US Government and Bethlehem; essentially this was the beginning of the
military-industrial complex of the 20th century. As a result our research took us from Washington D.C. to the archives of old area news papers and other
publications of that era. The purpose of the research was to gather authentic
factual, documented historical facts concerning the building for nomination to the State of New Jersey register of historic structures. The nomination
forms comprise some 50 pages of a complete factual history of the building. This document would easily suffice as a Masters Thesis; it meets and
exceeds all the requirements for New Jersey historic registration. The State Historic Preservation Office is expected to approve the historic registration
of the 1918 Belcoville Post Office Building in June of this year. Once this is accomplished the New Jersey Office of Historic Preservation office will
send our documentation on to Washington for inclusion in the National Register of Historic Properties. Since our 1918 Belcoville Post Office
Building was part of a military industrial complex NATIONAL registration of the building will be virtually automatic.
Historic registration will result in making the building eligible for many forms of historic preservation type grants to Weymouth Township for any needed rehabilitation of the structure. During 2006 The Township of Weymouth Historical Society charted the history of this building. During 2007 our Society will be charting the FUTURE of the building. We want to elevate the 1918 Belcoville Post Office Building from a liability into a valuable income producing property for the taxpayers of Weymouth Township. We think this ancient building can not only be an historic treasure of which we can all be proud, but in addition could be a viable part of Weymouth Township's 21st century economy. To that end, during 2007, we will be meeting with people at the State and National levels, bankers, local political officials, real estate investors, architects, etc. TO MAKE THIS HAPPEN FOR YOU. We will keep you informed as to our progress in later editions of The Weymouth Post.
Contact Person: Suzanne Smith, Chairperson of the
Historic Nomination Research Committee 609 909 5265
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