History

The Lost Somerset Hills Airport in Basking Ridge

Lord Stirling, Rev War Buildings, First Airmail, Tuskegee Airmen, the VA, a proposed Super Airport and more historic moments tie back to this small strip of land in Basking Ridge, New Jersey.

If you were driving around the small town of Basking Ridge, New Jersey and you were looking for an airport the only thing you’d find is a sign. But for residents who’ve lived here since the 1930s, the area contained a small grass runway airport called the Somerset Hills Airport.

A historic marker on Lord Stirling Road just off Maple Avenue in the Lord Stirling Village. The sign marks the spot where the Somerset Hills Airport once stood.

Before there was an airport, there was a 70 acre tract that had a long history in Basking Ridge. The original owner goes back to the early 1700s when James Alexander, the father to Lord Stirling aka William Alexander bought large tracts of land in the area. The land was part of a farming community in the 1800s and was owned by the Fenner family with an abundance of corn fields before it was sold to Standard Flying Services to develop the airport that officially opened in 1932 and lasted for 50 years.

Matchbook cover advertising the Somerset Hills Airport c.1940. Source: eBay

Somerset Hills Airport Dedication October 23, 1932

Flying was taking hold in American in the 1930’s. While the military and commercial aviation lead the way, private aviation and local airports were spreading across the country. On Sunday, October 23, 1932 the vision met reality when Somerset County’s first airport opened with an air meet organized by Standard Flying Services, the owner of the new Somerset Hills Airport facility in Basking Ridge, New Jersey. The event included competitive flying, aerobatic exhibits, parachute jumps, and a bomb dropping contest with cash prizes.

Under the watchful eye of Project Manager George Viehmann and Waldron Schanz, manager, the two dedicated an airfield in the quiet Basking Ridge community.

Three grass runways served the public facility initially. Later, the facility became an Army Air Corps flight training facility from 1941 through 1945.

The first plane to land on a paved runway at SHA was on July 19, 1969. The paving took two weeks to complete.
A video of airflight in the 1930’s. It was a bold move to build an airport in the Somerset Hills back in 1932.

Historic Moments

Willie Dade wrote ” This is my Uncle’s Piper Cherokee. Many Saturdays we would hear a single engine plane circling the neighborhood. If it was Uncle Bill we would get a white sheet out of the closet and wave it at at him, if he waggled the wings , which was the signal that he was headed to Somerset Hills ,we would all run out to car , and drive to the airport. He would let us take turns flying with him over Bernard’s Twp. The last trip would be my Uncle and I,after flying around town, we would head to the Linden airport on 1 and 9. Then he and I would drive back to our house on S Alward for dinner. He drove a beautiful bright red 1965 Food Thunderbird , black leather, and a 390.”

Providing support to private pilots was one of the key activities at the Somerset Hills Airport. Most of the managers at the Somerset Hills Airport over the years were also certified in airplane mechanics and flying instructors. Many were also former military pilots.

This video is for those pilots that remember how the mechanic played an important part in aviation. The Somerset Hills Airport was the first in Somerset County, New Jersey to offer such service.

On Thursday, June 10, 1947, Mrs. Alice Spencer of W. Oak Street in Basking Ride was the first woman veteran to receive a private pilots license under the GI training program. Alice was the daughter of Mrs. Truman Spencer, who served three years in WAVES as an aviation machinist mate. Her father was the Bernards Township Tax Collector.

Somerset Hills Airport manager George Viehman stands with Basking Ridge Postmaster William Scheuerman Sr. back in the 1930s . The Somerset Hills Airport served the local community by bringing mail by air, a novel approach back in the day. Source: Arcadia Publishing
Watch as you see some of the bi-planes that served the US Postal Service back in the 1930s.
A first day issue stamp from the airport dedication on October 23, 1932. Source: eBay
Third from the left is George W. Lee, President of the Red Devil Tool Company. Mr. Lee was the donor of the property that later became Ridge High School, Cedar Hill School, and the War Memorial Field. Learn more. This image was taken in 1959: Source: Arcadia Publishing

Flying School and Local Enjoyment

Many area residents have fond memories of attending flying school at the Somerset Hills Airport that existed since its inception in 1932. The Great Depression virtually decimated the private aircraft industry, and aircraft manufacturers scrambled to develop a low-cost light airplane that could be bought by anyone with an average income and a desire to fly. In response to this need, Clarence Taylor of Taylor Brothers Aircraft in Bradford, Pennsylvania, designed the E-2 Cub in 1930. It was a small fabric-covered highwing airplane with a steel tube framed fuselage, wooden wing spar and aluminum wing ribs. This led to the resurgence of private leisure flying and let to many of the stories our local friends sent in.

  • Local resident Deborah Lewis in 1959 sitting on the fence at the Somerset Hills Airport in Basking Ridge, New Jersey
  • Deborah-Lewis preparing for a cross country flight to ocean city nj with the my instructor, Al Kolvites. The line worker was Billy Bold. Pretty sure he was a little younger than me and went to Ridge HS.
  • Deborah-Lewis preparing for her first solo October 17, 1970
  • The Somerset Hills Airport runway alongside Maple Avenue
  • Airport crash at Somerset Hills airfield October 30, 1961

I took flying lessons there for about four years like ‘68 to ‘72. My flying buddies included Sid Sussman, George Mennon and Al Needleman who owned Basking Ridge Pharmacy. Probably have some pictures. My husband grew up on Riverside Drive behind the airport and he had plenty of his own stories.

Deborah Lewis – Basking Ridge Resident
Somerset Hills Airport advertisement for flying lessons. Source: Bernardsville News

I remember growing up in Basking Ridge, the airport was in my backyard. We used to ride our bikes up there and get orange sodas and watch the planes

Jim DiQuattro – Basking Ridge

I remember sitting at the dinner table on Gerard Ave. watching one of the planes hit nose to tail across our back yard until it landed at the farm behind us. We moved a few years later to Homestead Village only to have one nose dive into neighbors trees. Everyone walked away. Just a broken arm in the 2nd crash.

Wendy Wahl
The airport always had a fun side as well. Hobbyists young and old flocked to the airfield for flight instruction and casual flying. In addition to plane storage, the flight school always served as the airports major source of income. In 1976 introductory flight lessons were advertised for as little as $5.

We used to go to the Henry St bakery after church on Sunday and then to the airport to watch the planes.

Erika Leigh – Basking Ridge

1966 Memorable Flight of Rinker Buck

In the winter of 1965/1966, Rinker Buck, a 15 year old, and his 17 year old brother Kernahan, got his pilot license, devised a plan to rebuild their father’s 1948 Piper PA-11 and fly it from Somerset Hills Airport to Capistrano Airport in San Juan Capistrano, CA. Then they flew back!

The memoir of Basking Ridge’s Rinker Buck, a young 15 year old pilot’s journey from New Jersey to California and back in 1966. Flight of Passage

Their journey took six days and was completed in July 1966. The flight is the subject of Buck’s 1997 memoir Flight of Passage.

The Jetport That Almost Flattened Basking Ridge

It was 1959 and what many people never knew was the time when not only would the area lose the Somerset Hills Airport, but we almost lost the entire community. Saving The Great Swamp: Battle to Defeat the Jetport is a one-hour documentary about the events, people and politics behind the struggle to preserve a rural area of New Jersey between 1959 and 1968 including the Great Swamp and Basking Ridge.

Watch the Jetport Trailer – Click Here

The fight began when the powerful Port of New York Authority announced plans to construct a huge 10,000 acre “jetport” 26 miles west of New York City in a little-known place called the Great Swamp. In the name of progress, entire towns would be obliterated, the aquifer and wildlife destroyed, and a way-of-life threatened for thousands of people.

Public Pressure Shuts Down Airport

Pressure had been growing for years at Somerset County’s oldest airport as the population grew in the Basking Ridge community. A new high school had been constructed in 1960 just to the west of the Airport. In addition, a number of





P-51 Mustang, N6523D crash landing on February 4, 1960 on what was coined “Crash Corner”. Leo Corbin, who worked at the airfield wrote us and stated it was the same day they took delivery of the plane.
Source: Bernards Township Police Department

Pilots who knew the airport had a term for the corner just to the west of the runway approach. They nicknamed the area of South Maple and Lord Stirling Road “Crash Corner”  as they approached 2,300 foot runway. That location was the scene of a number of near fatal crashes in the 60’s and 70’s. Local resident George Fricke of Peachtree Road said “It’s like Russian roulette around here.”

On October 17, 1975 a private plane crashed into an above ground swimming pool after tearing apart an apple tree at 67 Woodstone Drive. Vincent Smith of 67 Woodstone Drive who had lived there for 28 years stated that he had witnessed five crashes on his property.

A crash in the field just off the runway in 1951. Source: Bernards Township Police archives.

It was in 1975 when ordinaces were formed permitting the airport property to allow for low income housing as reported in local newspapers. There were a number of high profile crashes in the area in 1975 and increased pressure was being mounted by the Bernards Township Board of Education’s Superentindent Dr. Philip Tieman.

After a severe fire in 1981 and investigations into a number of severe crashes by the FAA the Municipal Board, local school boards, and the community that lived around the airfield put enough pressure on the Airport owner to close the facility.

The Somerset Hills Airport officially closed on October 15, 1982 almost 50 years to the day!
(Dedicated) Sunday, October 23, 1932.

Airport Property Transforms to Lord Stirling Village

Prelim approval was granted by the Bernards Township Planning Board on July 14, 1981 to the Lanid (Lanidex) Corporation of Parsippany to develop the 77 acres where the airport stood.

Residents that live there today state they can’t dig into the ground without finding part of a past runway.

The approved plan called for for 150 townhouses to be built on the first 25 acre tract that were priced from $130-150k. The other 50 acre tract was carved out for single family homes ranging from $110- $135k. Lanid also constructed the Country Side complex off Mount Airy Road next to the Somerset Hills Cemetery.

Finally, in 1986 a report by the New Jersey General Aviation Study Commission’s Subcommittee on Airport Closings showed the airport’s taxes had risen 500 percent in its last 16 years of operation. By 1983, the airport was not listed as “active” by national flight guides, and the 1986 USGS map listed it as “inactive.”

Somerset Hills Airport Owners/Managers

Below is a partial list of what we found. If you know more, please let us know.

  • 1932 – George Viehmann, Manager
  • 1932, Waldron Schanz, Manager
  • George E. Lewis – Airport Manager former Navy pilot
  • 1946-1948 – Paul H. Housel – Airport Manager (United Aviation Corp. owner)
  • 1961 – 1963 – Owned by Basking Ridge Aviation Company
  • 1964- Webster Todd – Manager
  • 1968 – Jim Calvin – Owner and operator, 40 planes were permanently based at the airport, where there were two runways across 70 acres.
  • Jim Calvin and Robert Hartlaub
Jim Calvin served as the last owner and operator of the Somerset Hills Airport. He was also the first pilot to land on the newly paved runway at the airport on July 19, 1969 in a Cessna 150. Source: Bernardsville News Aug 11, 1972

The Tuskegee Airman from Basking Ridge, New Jersey

A GREAT STORY we learned while researching the Somerset Airport of a man who learned to fly at this airport and became a Tuskegee Airmen flight instructor. Basking Ridge’s USAAF Captain Robert Terry served the United States Army Air Force (USAAF) as a Tuskegee Airmen flight instructor from 1941-1945 and was from Basking Ridge, New Jersey. (1913 – 1958). Click Here

Have a story to share about the airport?

Share your stories below in the comments section.

Reference/Additional information

  • Learn more about the infamous Jetport Battle
  • Miss Janet Marilyn Shauger, a Bernardsville High School student died in a plane crash in Basking Ridge. Sept 1948.
  • The Nov 1977 DOT approval for a AT&T helipad was upheld in June 1979 court rules AT&T can have a helipad. Until then, the Somerset Hills Airport served as AT&T’s helipad.
  • American Aviation Historical Society
  • Airfields of New Jersey and New England by Paul Freeman
Mr. Local History Project

View Comments

  • Jean Smalley wrote: "I loved going there as a kid w my dad to watch the planes. We would sit on the hood of the car.. great article!thanks!"

  • Willie Dade - Before they paved the runway ,my Uncle was landing from the Lord Stirling School end of the runway , and the bumpy grass terrain bent the tip of one of the prop blades.

  • Gina Kalvin wrote "this is where my father had his 1948 Taylorcraft. Jackie soloed but he sold the plane before I could. Great memories!"

  • Mark Waters wrote us: " When I was about 10 or 11 years old I saved up $10, rode my bike to the airport, and, without my parents knowing about it, took may first plane ride. It was in a Piper Cub. There was some snow on the grass runway and the plane was outfitted with skis. That experience gave me the "flying bug" and I eventually got my pilot's license."

  • Judith Klein Woodruff wrote: " As children my dad used to take us there to watch the planes. Later in his life he took flying lessons there and got his pilot license."

  • Karen Jones Potts wrote: "My dad spent hours hanging around the airport. He also had a plane that he kept there. He loved that place and always wanted his ashes sprinkled over it during a fly by. He was unable to get that wish because by the time he passed away the airport was no longer there"

  • My buddies and I used to ride our bikes down Lord Sterling Rd to the airport, get a bottle of Dr Pepper out of the machine there and spend an hour or two hanging around and gawking at the airplanes. This was in the 1968-69 timeframe. Good memories of that place, sad that it's gone.

  • I believe one of the fatal crashes in the 60s involved a teenager with the last name Yingling. Can’t remember his first name. Such a tragedy.

  • When I moved in with my wife in Millington in 1985, I used to check out the field, sneaking in through the loosely chained gate. For years there was a derelict fuselage of what was probably a canvas covered aircraft still on the field, though I did not get to close to examine it as it was inhabited by a beehive. I'm pretty good at aircraft identification as an aviation historian, but could not identify it.

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