With demolition of the old Wheatena buildings and clearing of the site in recent months, I thought it’d be a good time to go deep into the archives.
The white, four-story building at the corner of Elizabeth and West Grand avenues loomed vacant for about 40 years despite a variety of plans over the last decade and a half. The plan that finally received approval and now is moving forward is a 487-unit development called The Brownstones, by Capodagli Property Company. Over the past year or so, the company has cleared much of the 7-acre site and environmental remediation is part of the project.
Here’s a timeline of milestones over the last few decades (I’ve linked to what I can, which is mostly previous posts):
- 1907: Wheatena factory opens in Rahway.
- 1965: Wheatena factory closed and sold, at some point becoming a warehouse for a book publisher.
- 1975: The building becomes vacant “as plans to renovate the reinforced concrete structure” don’t materialize.
- 1985: David & Sylvia Weisz Foundation acquires the largest parcel for about $2 million.
- 2004: Redevelopment Agency selects one of five plans, which proposed 264 condominiums and 36 townhouses.
- Early 2007: Plans are revised to scale down from 300 residential units to a 130-unit complex with 72 “stacked” and 58 “traditional” townhouses called Carriage Park.
- December 2011: Plans for Carriage Park dropped.
- August 2012: Concept plan presented for The Brownstones.
- June 2013: Redevelopment agreement approved with Capodagli Property Company.
- December 2014: Planning Board approves 487-unit Brownstones.
- May 2015: Capdagli acquires the property for approximately $4.7 million.
- October 2015: Demolition begins.
- December 2015: Demolition of most of the main building is completed.
A Google search yielded a flickr account that features some pretty cool photos from the Wheatena site taken in 2013 that are worth checking out. There’s also a fun piece from Atlas Obscura from earlier this year that includes some remarks from city historian Alex Shipley.
Interesting to see these pix. And thanks for the link to the Steven Bley flickr page. He’s very talented.
Am I crazy or did there use to be a huge box of Wheatena on the roadside across from the prison. Perhaps it was an elevated box of Cream of Wheat or Farina. Of course, this was back in the 1960s
The answer to you 2nd question is that Wheatena encased the water tank on their tower with a square box painted to look like the Wheatena package.
I am unable to answer your 1st question.