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Recently a new resident asked me "What was here before Shadow Lake Village?" I responded "A farm". To that piece of news, she replied, "No, you're wrong. It was the Hammer Estate".
Looking into the matter, I found that we were both correct.
Shadow Lake Village is located in the River Plaza section of Middletown.
The River Plaza area was primarily farmland owned by the Hubbard family during the 19th century. Samuel Hubbard and his descendants were among the first settlers of the area with the bridge on West Front Street, connecting the River Plaza section with Red Bank, retaining the Hubbard name.
This area has residential origins as a Red Bank suburb and didn't have a separate identity until about 1910, when developer George Carpenter started to buy land and build homes. Many of the houses in the River Plaza section date from that time period.
An event to help define this area was the creation of Shadow Lake in 1929. The lake was formed by dredging and daming Nut Swamp Brook/Quigley's Creek at Hubbard Avenue; thereby flooding worthless salt meadow and swamp land, which was to enhance the value of the lake- front property. The dam separates Shadow Lake from the Navesink River.
The moving force behind this project was Elmer E. Alexander, owner of the 133-acre farm planned for the development of the lakefront community to be called Shadow Lake Park. He and five other owners had made an agreement on June 25, 1928 authorizing Daniel H. Applegate to secure necessary consent from affected property owners to construct the dam and make other necessary improvements. Three others joined them in a similar agreement dated September 10, 1928. What wasn't anticipated was the 1929 stock market crash and the Great Depression that followed.
The name Shadow Lake was probably chosen by the adjoining property owners, since it seemed most in keeping with the quiet, restful aspect of the lake and the surrounding shadows cast on the water by the shining sun or moon. The lake proved popular and was opened to the public for ice-skating in the winter of 1930. Winters were so cold then that residents could drive a truck onto the lake to gather up firewood from dead chestnut trees that had been killed by a blight.
Angela Carey Zevely bought the "Cook Farm" adjacent to Shadow Lake, which she renamed "Shadow Isle" farm.
In 1938 Armand Hammer's ambitions to enhance his social standing were rewarded when he met Angela at a literary party. Angela was 35 years old came from a prominent American family that moved in the same social circle as the Roosevelts and owned a large farm in New Jersey (Shadow Isle). Hammer was instantly impressed with her qualities and quickly decided, as he put it later, that this "was going to be a serious affair." Hammer had just turned 40. His efforts paid off and less than a year later, he became Angela's constant companion spending most of his time at her bucolic estate.
They took advantage of the Depression prices on rural land and Angela obtained mortgages to buy adjoining properties. With her money, "Shadow Isle" gradually expanded into a 500-acre property and was developed into a cattle-breeding showplace, stocked with a prize-winning herd of Black Angus [Photo of Black Angus bull]. "Prince Eric" was the Hammers' priceless "pride and joy" bull. [Footnote about Bulls]
Angela (6/23/09 - 10/7/87) and Armand (5/21/1898 -12/10/90) were married in 1943 and both filed for divorce in 1953, which was finalized in 1956. Angela got back her "Shadow Isle" farm, cash settlement of $30,000 (paid her legal bills) and alimony of $1,000 a month. Hammer retained his yacht, his art gallery, his carriage house in Manhattan and his freedom. Six days later he married his third wife, Frances Barrett Dolman, a frail, dignified wealthy widow from California. Hammer, a consummate dealmaker, dabbled in numerous fields until settling into his ultimate calling relatively late in life when he moved to Los Angeles in 1956, determined to retire. On a lark, he invested in oil and found himself the owner of a tiny, almost bankrupt oil firm called Occidental Petroleum Corporation (Oxy). In roughly four decades, he developed the firm until it became the nation's sixteenth largest industrial company. He remained an active chairman until his death at the age of 92. Shadow Lake Village will probably always be referred to as the former Hammer Estate. In the early 1970's, along came Hovnanian Enterprises (founded in 1959) and here we are 30 years later living in one of the first adult communities built in Monmouth County [Construction Photos from Early 70's] [Ad copy from old newspaper]. Today Hovnanian is the largest builder in New Jersey, ranks among the largest homebuilding companies in the US, has total revenues of $1.75 billion in 2001 and is a significant developer of active adult communities. The firm is again making local news with its plans to build their new corporate headquarters with an underground parking garage at the intersection of Riverside and Maple Avenues in Red Bank.
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The annual sale of prize black Aberdeen-Angus cattle, one of the most impressive events in the industry, took place September 12, 1953, at Dr. Armand Hammer's Shadow Isle Farm in River Plaza. Visitors from thirty-eight states and three other nations paid $260,400 for sixty-one head of thoroughbred Angus. Hammer was selling half-shares of the very costly ones, and those animals spent six months on each owner's farm or ranch. Two prize bulls, Prince Sunbeam 249th and Prince Sunbeam 328th, were flown in from Texas.
From Middletown Township, Volume III, Randall Gabrielan, ISBN 0-7524-0508-X
![[Photo of Black Angus bull]](anguspix.jpg){kind=link}
![[Ad copy from old newspaper]](hovnanianad.jpg){kind=link}