The Piper Cinder Block Factory
Overview
From around 1940 until some time between 1997 and 2002, a factory close to the intersection of Meadow Road and Brunswick Pike noisily produced cinder blocks, fueling the construction of numerous buildings in the township. Known as the "Piper cinder block factory," the establishment employed a number of local residents. In 1999, Bob Piper - son of the founder of the factory - shared his memory of the establishment with the Historical Society of West Windsor:
From around 1940 until some time between 1997 and 2002, a factory close to the intersection of Meadow Road and Brunswick Pike noisily produced cinder blocks, fueling the construction of numerous buildings in the township. Known as the "Piper cinder block factory," the establishment employed a number of local residents. In 1999, Bob Piper - son of the founder of the factory - shared his memory of the establishment with the Historical Society of West Windsor:
“We moved to the U. S. Highway 1 site about 1940, if memory serves me right. My father, who was a civil engineer by training (though that went out the window during the Depression), designed the structure and we all played a role in building it. We lived in the same building as the plant. Keeping the living quarters clean was a burden for my mother because the manufacturing process on the other side of the wall was dirty with a fair amount of cinder dust and cement dust. The machinery also was noisy and caused some vibrations.
The building was solid, reinforced with big steel I-beams (that must have been a challenge to obtain during the shortages already beginning in 1941), and cinder block walls, in some places as thick as 18 inches. I am sure that is why the building is still standing . It will be expensive to knock it down. The plot, about five acres, was deep and rectangular with not much highway frontage. The highway had just been converted from three lanes to four with a center strip two or three years before we puchased the land. As a result, we had no opening in the center island at our driveway. For years this made it exciting for trucks leaving or departing, depending on the direction, because they had to come to a stop in the inside (fast) lane in order to make a U-turn.
The building was solid, reinforced with big steel I-beams (that must have been a challenge to obtain during the shortages already beginning in 1941), and cinder block walls, in some places as thick as 18 inches. I am sure that is why the building is still standing . It will be expensive to knock it down. The plot, about five acres, was deep and rectangular with not much highway frontage. The highway had just been converted from three lanes to four with a center strip two or three years before we puchased the land. As a result, we had no opening in the center island at our driveway. For years this made it exciting for trucks leaving or departing, depending on the direction, because they had to come to a stop in the inside (fast) lane in order to make a U-turn.
Location of the now-gone factory
You may be interested to know that we had previously been located on an old farm at the corner of Washington Road and Fairview Avenue, across from the Engelkes. That corner was part of the land bought by RCA during the 1940s. We rented from a man named Reigrod, or something like that, who lived in New York and occasionally came down on summer weekends. He maintained some sort of living accommodations in the barn, a place we youngsters were instructed not to visit. There was an old apple orchard in back .
We must have moved there around 1932. RCA razed the farm buildings and the corrugated tin factory building where my father and a small crew manufactured cinder block using machinery he had accepted in lieu of cash for unpaid back wages when the firm where he had taken employment went bankrupt.
Washington Road was narrow, with ditches on either side, in the 1920s. Fairview Avenue was unpaved. I do not remember the Martian landing at Grover Mill but heard about it for years afterward. My parents had heard the show and understood that it was fictional. They were astounded at the traffic pile-up along Washington Road as people tried to drive to Grovers Mill where, as I recall, three roads converged. Less well known is that some locals had departed in terror earlier in the day (as related to my father and older brother by the proprietor of one of the four gas stations at the Penns Neck traffic circle)”
We must have moved there around 1932. RCA razed the farm buildings and the corrugated tin factory building where my father and a small crew manufactured cinder block using machinery he had accepted in lieu of cash for unpaid back wages when the firm where he had taken employment went bankrupt.
Washington Road was narrow, with ditches on either side, in the 1920s. Fairview Avenue was unpaved. I do not remember the Martian landing at Grover Mill but heard about it for years afterward. My parents had heard the show and understood that it was fictional. They were astounded at the traffic pile-up along Washington Road as people tried to drive to Grovers Mill where, as I recall, three roads converged. Less well known is that some locals had departed in terror earlier in the day (as related to my father and older brother by the proprietor of one of the four gas stations at the Penns Neck traffic circle)”
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