Millville Army Airfield Museum. Photo courtesy of Millville Army Air Field Museum.
Millville Army Air Field in was established in 1941 as “America’s First Defense Airport,” months before the United States entered World War II. It was completed in 1943, and in its three years of operation as a gunnery range and alert field, 10,000 men and women served at the air field and 1,500 pilots received advanced fighter training there. Today, Millville Army Air Field Museum stewards four historic buildings, including the original Link Trainer Building, which contains one of five fully operational WWII flight simulators in the world. Additionally, the museum collects and displays artifacts, documents the lives of veterans, and shares the story of the site in the context of American military aviation history with more than 12,500 visitors a year.
The original buildings at Millville Army Air Field were constructed quickly and were intended to be temporary, which today presents unique maintenance challenges to preserving the museum site. In their grant application, MAAFM identified four chimneys on the Base Headquarters building that were in need of repair — two masonry chimneys with decaying mortar that posed a threat of leaks, and two metal chimneys that had reached the end of their useful life. In FY24, Millville Army Air Field Museum (MAAFM) was awarded a $30,000 grant to repair all four chimneys through the Cultural Trust’s Capital Historic Preservation Grant Program. The Capital Historic Preservation Program, operated in partnership with the New Jersey Historic Trust, supports capital facilities projects at historic sites listed on the New Jersey and/or National Register of Historic Places.
Scaffolding stands at Base Headquarters as work on the museum's chimneys continues in summer 2024. Photo courtesy of Millville Army Air Field Museum.
In discussing the importance of the grant-funded repairs, MAAFM Executive Director Lisa Jester described the historic buildings as “the backbone of the museum” and “fundamental to Museum stability.” Base Headquarters houses MAAFM’s main museum, and preventing water infiltration was a priority to avoid further deterioration of the building and protect the museum’s collections, “the very essence of MAAFM that visitors come to explore every day.” For Jester, the chimney repair project is a small piece of the organization’s overall focus on proactive maintenance of its historic structures, which she said “helps bring credibility to the museum.” She added, “We stay on top of things, and we’re proud of that.”
Page Last Updated: 02/13/25
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