Abandoned Airport | Preston Airfield (Marlboro Airport)

New Jersey is filled with history. Some of it is preserved, and some of it is left to rot. This is the case with this abandoned airport. Preston Airfield, also known as Marlboro Airport, located in Morganville, New Jersey is one of the top places that I have been to. While it is a smaller airfield, it’s not something that is as common as an abandoned house.

Rhea Preston was the man responsible for building the airport. In 1932, Preston flew his first plane at age 20. After that, he started taking lessons, and was hooked. In 1939, he began using a flat portion of the Preston Farm to take off and land his Luscombe Silvaire that he bought that year. When WWII started, he left for the Navy.

When he came back home, be wanted to build is own airport on the 44 acre farm. It took a while for the township to get on board, but all the necessary paperwork was completed, and the Preston Airport opened in 1954 with a single dirt runway. Just before 1972, the airfield gained a paved runway and was later sold. Preston said it was a lot of work to keep the place running, and it wasn't exactly profitable.

By 1974, there were about 100 planes associated with the airfield. The same year, it was named the “best maintained” airport by the state’s Aviation Advisory Council. The next year, it was approved for 21 new hangers and an 840 square foot operational building. As time went on, the name was changed to Marlboro Airport (due to the township it was in – Marlboro Township), and owners changed.

Its fate became sealed when it was purchased in 2000 by Marlboro Holdings LLC, and that land was to be turned into housing. It was closed for good in 2002, and the hopes of it being turned into housing failed after federal count cases proved the mayor accepted bribes to get the area re-zoned.

Today, everything is gone expect for some rubble and the crumbling runway. When I went in 2010, the buildings were still there, and so was the runway. Part of the airfield is used as a cemetery, and I believe the rest is now owned by the Monmouth County Park System.

I sort of went on a whim while scouting another location that will be featured in an upcoming post, and I went while the sun was going down. I don’t like going to abandoned places in the dark. It’s harder to see, harder to take pictures, and looks more suspicious. However, I parked my car at the end of the cemetery, which still had some snow on the ground where it was piled up after the last storm, and walked up to the field.

With the sun setting, my pictures were not that great, so I apologize. The area was eerie. It was empty. Therefore, I loved it. The buildings and hangers had some plane parts, paperwork, and other historic artifacts of the once popular airport. It was messy inside, but it did not seem like it was too vandalized. I didn’t get to explore all the buildings due to the setting sun, but I did get to see the hangers on the north side of the property, and south-west side.

It’s a shame that history falls apart sometimes like this, but it’s people like me who hope to help preserve it, if only just text and some pictures. If you wish to learn more about the airfield, there is a book by Randall Gabrielan that has a small section on it, but it also covers some great local history. There is also a website by Paul Freeman that covers abandoned and little-know airfields and covers the airport history in great detail. If you want to see more of what Mother Nature takes back as hers, then keep coming back to this blog, as there is plenty more to come.

Abandoned Mafia Hideout

Have you ever heard the expression, “if walls could talk?”  Well that was just the case when I stumbled upon what is left of this house in ruins.  I did some serious research on what appeared to just be a nothing special, completely abandoned house, because I was planning on using it for a filming location.  As you could imagine, not much turned up on this house in Orlando, Florida.  I was able to trace down the company (not individual) who owned it in a different state.  Before contacting them, I decided to scope out the location first.

Upon first seeing the house, you will notice in the pictures that there is not much left.  Most of the walls still stand, but vandals and fire have consumed a lot of it.  There are a couple sections where parts of the roof remain, and there is furniture, magazines, trash, porn DVDs, and countless other things littering the property both inside and out.  It was a real mess.

Upon entering the house, I decided to implement a trick I learned from the famous YouTuber, AdamTheWoo, and say hello when entering.  This was the first time I ever announced my arrival.  I said hello and continued, but I was taken back when I actually heard a response.  This is where I met “Ross the Tree Climber”.  Ross made a living off of removing Spanish Moss from tress, hence to name, but there was something about him that was awe-inspiring.

He was living in a section of the house there still had a closeable door and a roof.  He had some furniture there, and some of his belongings.  Right away, he welcomed me in, and cleared off a chair and offered me a place to sit.  He was a very fact knowing man.  He talked about history and local news.

After some chitchat, I told him why I was there (scouting for a filming location).  He told me the owner’s name, but it did not match what I had dug up.  That leads me to believe that was the owner’s name before he perhaps lost the property, or Ross didn’t have his facts straight.  Regardless, he told me about the house as well.  The stories were too good for them to be fabricated.

Apparently, someone in the local mafia lived in that house long ago.  I didn’t even know Orlando had a mafia, but apparently they did.  The house was the forefront of corrupt police, murder, and other illegal activities.  The house eventually became what you see now: a pile of nothing.  Apparently the fire happened in the recent years from vandals.

Ross was a very generous man for not having much.  He offered me a place to sit, and his company.  When leaving the house, I mentioned to him my other blog, The Random Firearm.  There was a book about guns sitting in a pile of things once part of the house.  Aside from some dirt on the cover, it was in fine shape.  He gave it to me.  A man who had nothing gave me something.  I still have the book. 

The house rots away, but even now with Ross and the encounter I had with him, the walls will continue to accumulate stories to tell, for as long as they will remain standing.  From corruption to generous giving, the stories will continue.