| 1918: On Oct. 21, 1918, an explosion at the American Can Company artillery shell loading facilities on Monroe Avenue killed seven people and injured 30. The day is referred to as �the blackest day in Kenilworth history.� 1919: Rahway Valley Railroad ended regular passenger service due to the use of motor transit. 1920: The Fire Department, which until 1919 had been storing fire equipment in the barn of the Kenilworth Inn, purchased land on Washington Avenue and built a Fire House. 1921: Due primarily to the efforts of then-Mayor Oswald J. Nitschke, Union County extended the Boulevard to Springfield Avenue, Cranford, giving Kenilworth its first major artery. Around this time, Kenilworth bus service to and from Cranford and Roselle Park was established. The Union County Bandits were captured in Kenilworth by Alfred Vardalis on Feb. 26, 1921, ending a three-month crime wave in the county. Vardalis was cited for bravery by the state and county. 1922: Alfred Vardalis was appointed Kenilworth�s first police chief. 1923: Warren G. Harding School was constructed next to McKinley School. It initially comprised nine classrooms and an auditorium with a balcony. A number of additions were constructed in the 1950s and 1960s. The final wing was built to replace McKinley School, which was demolished in 1964. 1924: Upsala College moved from Kenilworth to East Orange, N.J. 1925: Union Baptist Church was constructed at the corner of North 13th Street and Sheridan Avenue. The church suffered two fires, one in the 1920s and a later more devastating one in 1965. Through the cooperation of Kenilworth business people and industrialists, principally the Rotary Club and Harold B. Snyder, Jr., a campaign was launched to rebuild the church. The new building, constructed on the foundation of the old one, was opened for worship in 1968. Howard Anthony was appointed to the Kenilworth Board of Education. Anthony, a local coal dealer, was the first black man to serve on the Board of Education and reportedly was the first black member of any Board of Education in the history of Union County. 1927: The Kenilworth airfield that in 1925 was located across from Harding School and later was moved to the Boulevard near North 24th Street was officially declared a U.S. emergency landing field. 1928: Construction of St. Paul�s A.M.E. Church at 369 Monroe Avenue, which had begun in 1927, was completed. 1929: Famed aviator James Doolittle, who in 1942 won particular acclaim for his raid on Tokyo, crashed his plane on Faitoute Avenue in Kenilworth on the foggy night of March 14, 1929, while attempting an emergency landing at Kenilworth�s airfield. Doolittle credited the accident with reinforcing his commitment to finding a solution to all-weather flying. He later achieved this through the use of blind-landing instrumentation � a feat considered to be one of the aviator�s most notable aeronautical achievements. |
| Historical Highlights of Kenilworth, N.J. 1918-1927 |
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