Castle Hill Base-End Station - Location 137

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A two-story wooden cottage and concrete tower was completed in January 1944 on a leased 17.83 acre site on the grounds of the Crane Estate at Castle Hill, and was jointly used as a Base-End Station for Fort Dearborn in Rye and Fort Ruckman in Nahant. The side-by-side observation deck was used for Battery 103/Seaman (B2 S2) and Battery 104/Murphy (B10 S10). A trap door on the roof opened to the anti-aircraft intelligence service post (AAIS OP 1) for Portsmouth. A one-story concrete block pump house was built behind the station disguised as a one-car garage. It housed two AC generators, a pneumatic well pump, chlorinator, heater, and an air compressor for an underground 2430-gallon water storage tank behind the pump house. The station was completely demolished by the landowners after the war (sometime between 1946 and 1949). The pump house still remains on site, located along the shore north of the Crane Mansion.

Located at the Crane Estate, Castle Hill, Ipswich, Massachusetts.

Castle Hill (The Crane Estate)

WWII TOWERS HOME