https://www.ttbrown.com/the-hawthorne-h ... like-to-me.
Building a recreational resort during the middle of a prolonged depression? It was an optimistic plan, but profits were far from guaranteed.
Townsend put the club and two more parcels from the Hawthorne Estate into a receiver's sale immediately after the 1936 season. One parcel included two buildings that had clearly been used as research facilities in the recent past.
The building with the "special cement floor" was set up to serve as a theater. complete with balcony and stage, though lacking permanent seats. I have a strong feeling that this location was where the reportedly delightful special lighting effects that were a proclaimed part of the 1935 Revue ) were tested.
While stage lighting might seem to be frivolous work for a serious scientist, the military, as well as the Caroline telecommunications pioneers, would have had a common interest in furthering research into cinematic illusions, FWIW, or perhaps, IIIWAAA, Stereovision. and holography were still over the horizon, and were the subject of future research papers to be authored by James Butterfield, the director of Brown's Lake Securities in LA.
The mention of the open air "Nudist Colony" floor reminded me that metaphorically and otherwise, sand permeated Townsend's entire life. He grew up in the sand molding business. The Atomic Bomb tests were conducted at the White Sands Proving Grounds. His work on Kaui would have made use of the Army's former Barking Sands base. Even toward the end of his life, he kept vials of sand from a variety of places hooked up to his electrometers.
Was this enclosed space, open to the elements, used for similar research? And was this the planned construction described by Jo, in her 1935 incorporation comment?
I don't know, but we can be certain that there was was a high powered radio set somewhere on the grounds during that time. I suspect that James Ervin was involved in some aspect of this.
From Kettering, Ohio, Townsend had been transferred to the State Emergency Relief board in 1935, replacing Dean Laurence H. Snyder of OSU, who had joined the Federal Emergency Association in Washington. Snyder's 1935 textbook, The Principles of Heredity, had five editions and was widely used in genetics courses, but his support for eugenics was generally disavowed.
When the Great Ohio Flood struck in 1937, the disaster was met with a patched together, multi-state telecommunications network, that was augmented by Zanesville's Boy Scout volunteers working around the clock for days.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ohio_River_flood_of_1937Around January 18, Huntington, WV radio station WSAZ (1190 AM) began hourly broadcasts of flood related news. On January 22, the station received permission from the Federal Communications Committee to broadcast around the clock. The studios and offices in the downtown Keith-Albee Theatre Building became a regional communications center. They established direct telephonic communication with the city's general relief headquarters in City Hall with Red Cross, the Naval Reserve, the American Legion, the police and fire departments, and the Coast Guard. Messages of inquiry concerning the safety of friends and relatives, warnings of rising gasoline-covered waters, appeals for help from marooned victims, orders to relief agencies and workers poured into the cramped studios and quickly broadcast. Staff and local volunteers stayed on the air and provided information and support for nine days until 8:00 o'clock the following Sunday night, Jan. 31, when the station's regular schedule was resumed
If Townsend was not the mastermind behind this whole operation, he was certainly the Naval Reserve link, albeit a wounded link with a very fresh amputation, in January of 37.
The Scouts were recognized for their efforts during the flood and Townsend, for assisting them in moving 3 aged people.
https://www.newspapers.com/article/the- ... 129419389/
Stopping here for now....
