WWII Observation Tower (1940's). At the home of Palmer J. Cook, Southfield, MA. "Civil Defense efforts were largely manifested by the Defense Board and the Ground Observation Corps, a group of volunteers which, according to the New Marlborough Town Report of 1942, was headed by Palmer J. Cook, co-owner of Turner & Cook buggy whip factory in Southfield. The aircraft warning system used the structure pictured as an observation post... it was manned continuously 24 hours a day, and one of the few stations in this section of New England. It was discontinued in 1944.
The tower actually lived three lives. First as the WWII Observation Post; then it was moved just up the road where the fire department used the tower once again as an aircraft observation post... in the mid-1950's there was national concern that the US was vulnerable to atomic attack by the Soviet Union. The post's second life came to an end in 1957 when the DEW (Distant Early Warning) line system was completed and made operational.
The tower was acquired a few years later by a local resident and moved to their property on East Hill Road in Southfield. Its third and final life was a playhouse for the neighborhood children, and eventually razed in the 1980's." (Reported by David Lowman, NM 5 Village News, 2003).
A friend of mine commented on the photo: "How well I remember going up in the tower with your mom, and watching in awe as she would report what types of planes were flying over."
©2010 Photographs property of Janice Stiles-Boults
