SUNSET BEACH — The World War II Lookout Tower: Fire Control Tower No. 23 Museum & Memorial is scheduled to opening to the public, Friday, March 27 from 12 p.m. to 3 p.m.

Coastal artillery reenactors from Cape Henlopen State Park will be out at the tower. Fire Control Tower No. 23 is located on Sunset Blvd. in Lower Township near Cape May Point.

Cape May went from beach town to becoming a pivotal part of America’s homeland defense efforts during the war years.

In 2008-09, Cape May’s Mid-Atlantic Center for the Arts (MAC) restored New Jersey’s last freestanding World War II Lookout Tower, an important part of Cape May’s World War II history.
The World War II Lookout Tower was part of the immense Harbor Defense of the Delaware system known as Fort Miles. The tower was used for spotting enemy ships during World War II and aiming guns to fire on them.

From Fire Control Towers along the coast, soldiers would determine the exact location of an enemy ship using the geometric principle of triangulation. Each of these towers had at least two azimuths, which were binocular-like instruments that gave the precise angle between the ship and a base line.

When a target was spotted, a bell would ring at regular intervals, enabling the reader and plotter working the instrument to predict the location of the ship a few seconds in advance. This coordinate was used to aim the guns at the battery on the beach. For larger guns, it could take as long as fifty-three seconds for a shell to travel twenty-six miles to its target.

Fire Control Tower No. 23 was one of fifteen concrete fire control towers that were built for Fort Miles, eleven on the Delaware side and four here in New Jersey. It is the only New Jersey tower that has survived intact.
The towers in North Wildwood and Wildwood Crest have been demolished, while the one in Cape May City has been engulfed by the Grand Hotel on Beach Drive (you can still see its top sticking above the roofline).

As war clouds gathered in the late 1930s, the Army started building massive fortifications at the entrance to the Delaware River and Bay. Called Fort Miles, the main batteries and headquarters were in Cape Henlopen, Delaware, near the main shipping channel, while a supporting battery and lookout towers were located on the Cape May side of the Bay. Fort Miles’ charge was the protection of the highly strategic industrial centers along this waterway, including the DuPont munitions and chemical plants in Wilmington, oil refineries in Chester and shipyards in Philadelphia and Camden.

Following a nationwide Harbor Defense Modernization plan, the Army Corps of Engineers began pouring the eleven-foot thick concrete emplacements for a pair of 16-inch guns in 1940. These guns (similar to those on the Battleship New Jersey) were to be the primary weapons of the fortification. The plan also called for the five additional batteries, including a 12-inch battery, two 6-inch support batteries and a 6-inch battery on the Cape May side.

Together, these guns sealed off our region from enemy invasion. Fire Control Tower No. 23 was built in 1942 by White Construction of New York. They used a “sliding form” or “slip form,” allowing for a continuous pour of concrete.

At the top of the Fire Tower are the slits for the observation level and the rooftop platform. As it was being designed, there was debate about whether the tower should have one, two or three observation levels. In March 23, 1942 it was decided that the tower would have a single two-slit observation level, since it was only connected with one battery, at Cape May Point.

Soldiers only occupied the top two levels of the tower. The top level housed the azimuths and communications, and the next level down was a “dayroom” or a lounge for the soldiers. The rest of the building was built to give the observation level a good, high vantage point from which to spot enemy ships. Soldiers would climb to the top of the tower using wooden ladders that were attached to the wall. The ladders led to manholes in the floors, which were staggered so that if a soldier fell he would only fall one story.

The Army started dismantling Fort Miles before it was even finished – not in the face of enemy invasion but because advances in warfare made it instantly obsolete. In fact, as early as 1943, construction of the entire nationwide Harbor Defense Modernization Plan was suspended when it was only two-thirds completed.

Fire Control Tower No. 23 was listed on the New Jersey Register of Historic Places on May 29, 2003 and on the National Register on Nov. 17, 2003. In 2004 the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, Division of Parks and Forestry, leased the Fire Control Tower No. 23 to MAC which signed a 20-year lease with the mission of restoring the structure, interpreting its history, opening it to the public and operating it as one of its three historic sites along with the 1879 Emlen Physick Estate and the 1859 Cape May Lighthouse.

Starting March 27, the tower will be open daily; call for times. Tower admission is $6 for adults and $2.50 for children (ages 3-12).

The $1.3 million restoration of the tower, completed in 2008-09, was funded by grants from the Casino Reinvestment Development Authority, the New Jersey Historic Trust, the New Jersey Historical Commission and a Small Cities Block Grant administered by the New Jersey Department of Community Affairs.

From 1940 to1945, Cape May was bustling with military activity. The Army, Navy and Coast Guard all had bases in the area. Cape May harbor had a Naval Air Station, a Coast Guard base and an airport, and Naval Air Station Wildwood (where the County Airport is now) trained aircraft carrier pilots. Cape May Shipbuilders on Wilson Drive, where the Cape May Whale Watcher is now, built Navy tugboats and dredges. The Northwest Magnesite plant, which made an ingredient used in firebricks for steel mills, was located across Sunset Boulevard from the newly restored coastal artillery lookout tower, Fire Control Tower No. 23.