Basking Ridge’s Spencer Road is Important to Mr. Local History Too

It’s always fun to hear how a story becomes a story for us. In fact, there’s always a story about a new story. History is a bit like sewing…. when you pull a thread, you never know where it will go and who is involved. This one is no different. We were researching veterans and soldiers from the area. We stumbled upon this fascinating story, which is tied to today’s New Jersey affordable housing developments, the cost of living, and how to help provide housing in a suburban environment. Spencer Road brought us here.

This story came about after the Mr. Local History Project researchers prepared research of Bernards Township developments in the 20th century. Many residents started asking about the Spencer Road development, one of the first in the township to provide lower-income homes for veterans returning from WW2. Spencer Road was one of the township’s first large-scale developments with a few of the area’s developers.

Coincidentally, Mr. Local History’s founder and his family moved to Basking Ridge in 2004, and guess where they chose to live? YES, Spencer Road.

Spencer Road – An Affordable Housing Development Paves the Way (1940s)

Official Street Dedication – August 1945

In 1945, two years after a tragic event at sea, a new street in Basking Ridge was dedicated as a memorial to Ridge resident and Navy pilot Austin Spencer. The 33-acre tract from West Oak Street to Lake Road, owned by Bernardsville’s Stuart Sutton, was later developed by Stewart K. Sutton, Dobbs Realty, the Basking Ridge Development Company, and others.

Austin Pendleton Spencer – US Navy

Leutenant Austin Pendleton Spencer was born on January 17, 1918, in Colchester, Connecticut. He was later raised as the eldest of four siblings, Emily, Alice, and Trueman Jr. in Basking Ridge, New Jersey, and grew up on West Oak Street, across from today’s Oak Street Elementary School. After graduating from Bernards High School, Spencer graduated from the University of Connecticut in May 1940. Shortly after he graduated, Spencer enlisted in the United States Navy.

During World War II, Spencer was lost at sea in 1943 while piloting a Lockheed PV-1 bomber on a submarine search mission in the North Atlantic. “Spike” Spencer served as a naval aviator after achieving his pre-war Aviation Cadet (AVCAD) program credentials.

Spencer held the rank of Lieutenant Junior Grade, with the service number 0099935. Although his remains were never recovered, a memorial stone exists in his honor alongside his parents.

A cenotaph memorial for Spencer is located at the Linwood Cemetery in Colchester, Connecticut, commemorating his service and sacrifice. A cenotaph is a monument or empty tomb erected to honor a person or group of people whose remains are unrecoverable.

Spencer Road Development

There’s a general assumption that the curvy part of Spencer Road is the original and older section between the curvy and straight sections, but this doesn’t seem to be true. After looking at the age of the homes, most homes were built along both sections between 1950 and 1955. We found one built in 1946, which seems to be the oldest house on the street. Yes, it’s on the curvy section. Did Spencer Road have a street name before the dedication? The answer is leaning towards no. The curved section meanders a left and right based on elevation since Lake Road is at a lower height than the top of the curve by Culberson Road, which may have started as a trail up the hill that was later turned into a dirt road in the mid-1940s to build the first house off Lake Road. MLH will continue to dig.

On September 20, 1949, the Bernards Township Committee passed a resolution to approve developer Stewart K. Sutton’s construction of a new 3,200-foot road connecting Oak Street to Lake Road, eliminating two dead-end roads. Then, on October 20, 1949, it was reported that the Spencer Road request was approved to connect Lake Road up the Spencer Road hill (the curvy part) north to West Oak Street.

Alice Follows in Brother’s Footsteps

It was interesting that as I was searching for more information about Austin’s parents, I found this about Austin’s younger sister Alice Clarice Spencer who, at just 25, became the first woman Veteran to earn her pilot’s license at Basking Ridge’s Somerset Hills Airport. After receiving her license, she would later that year marry Walter Van Horne at the US Naval Air Station in Alemeda, California, where she was based. She graduated from Bernards High (as there was no high school in Bernards Township then). She also had a younger brother, Trueman Jr., an older sister, Emily, and her oldest brother, Austin.

Austin’s younger sister Alice Spencer, 25, became the first woman veteran to acquire her private pilots license as part of the G.I. Flight Training Program at Basking Ridge’s Somerset Hills Airport.

Bernardsville News, June 26, 1947

For women, the WAVES (Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service). Approved by Congress and signed into law by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1942, the WAVES program recruited women between 18 and 36 years old (and officers between 20 and 50) to serve onshore in the continental United States. Many of these women started in 1944. Women maintained aircraft, tested parachutes, were domestic air traffic controllers and weather specialists, and trained men in navigation and gunnery. The WAVES trained male celestial navigators using one of the most sophisticated training devices of the time, the Link Celestial Navigation Trainer. WAVES was integrated into the regular Navy in 1948 with the Women’s Armed Services Integration Act.

Spencer’s Parents Move from West Oak to the Road Dedicated to Their Son

Records show that on June 1, 1954, Austin’s parents, Trueman and Emily Spencer, moved to 122 Spencer Road. Before moving to the street named after their son, the Spencers lived at 65 West Oak Street, across from the Oak Street School off Hillside Terrace.

Cosmic Occurance?

2025: Interestingly, we learned that the home Austin Spencer grew up in in the 1930s actually has another “Austin” living in the same house. The owners reached out to let us know. We’re glad this “Austin came home.”

Mr. Local History’s Connection

After WWII, many veterans wanted to take advantage of the GI Bill and get a piece of the American dream. In Bernards Township, that area became Spencer Road. While not a “typical complex development,” it became known as one of the first neighborhoods built at a rapid scale.

In 2003, before there was a Mr. Local History Project, there was Spencer Road. After losing out on a bidding war on our new home on Melborune Way, we went on a one-day fifteen-house tour and FINALLY closed on our first home on Spencer Road. Our life in Basking Ridge began.

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