After graduation from the Naval Academy on 10 June , he served at sea for six years, with consecutive duty in USS Tennessee , Flagship of the North Atlantic Station; the training ship Saratoga for more than four years engaged in training Apprentice Boys, during which he first evidenced his interest in the enlisted me, which never lessened throughout his career ; and the Receiving Ship New Hampshire.
For a brief period he was with a party making astronomical observations in the West Indies, after which he was ordered to USS Albatross , assigned to the Coast Survey and Fish Commission. On board the Albatross he made three cruises in the Bearing Sea, and took part in the deep sea exploration preliminary to the laying of the cable between San Francisco and Honolulu.
Then a Lieutenant, he was highly commended for his coolness and bravery in action. Four years later he was ordered to command USS Chester , scout cruiser. In this command his reputation for smart ship-handling and all-around seamanship and ship-keeping came to full attention.
He was in command of the Pennsylvania in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, when diplomatic relations with Germany were broken.
These Patrol Squadrons, so hurriedly got together under the impetus of war, were a composite of cruisers, destroyers, gunboats, Coast Guard cutters, and sea-going yachts taken over from their private owners.
The assigned mission was to protect shipping in the Atlantic waters of the United States, from Maine to the Panama Canal. Later in the summer of some of these ships, as US Patrol Squadrons, were sent to Gibraltar to base. His forces were soon engaged in serving as ocean escorts for convoys in the Mediterranean, and between Gibraltar and the British Isles. Shortly after his arrival at Gibraltar there was need for his services in French waters, and on 23 October , he left Gibraltar with three members of his Staff overland through Spain for Paris.
He continued in this duty until 30 January During that period all US naval sea, shore and aviation activities in France were under his command. His paramount mission was escorting troop and storeship convoys to and from France. It is especially noteworthy that not one passenger was lost by enemy action either inbound or outbound in his area of command.
This is a distinct tribute to his skill and leadership, for many months the available escort vessels were inadequate in size, speed and numbers. For example, he had no true combatant type ship capable of escorting the Leviathan. The adopted alternative was to depend on her speed and run her in convoy with the Great Northern and Northern Pacific , which could maintain position on her at high speed. Such enforced makeshifts were usual. These were erected by men of the US Naval Forces in France, and were completed and operating in ten months.
One of his most widely known and difficult decisions made during this period was the one accepting the responsibility for the press dispatch, sent without his prior knowledge, which promulgated the False Armistice a few days before the True Armistice was signed on 11 November Naval Forces in France, in successfully cooperating with the French Navy and in expeditiously operating transports and cargo ships in French ports and War Zones.
Maurice and St. Detached in June , he reported in July for duty as Superintendent of the Naval Academy, and served as such until his transfer to the Retired List on his 64th birthday, 23 February During nearly four years of his incumbency, the Naval Academy passed the greatest transformation since its beginning in , a transition from a Training School to the University it still is.
Though classed as Training School in , it had by the time of his retirement, and largely through his efforts, became a full-fledged member of the Association of American Universities and had qualified for the subsequent authorization to award the degree of Bachelor of Science to its graduates.
The entrance requirements had been raised to compare favorably with those of the better Engineering Colleges. The certificate method of admission had been strengthened to its present unchallenged position.
The policy of rotating Midshipmen officers to give a wider spread of command experience and responsibility among all members of the First Class had become a fixture. A text book on Naval Leadership had been especially prepared and introduced into the curriculum. More privileges, though in limited degree, had been allowed First Classmen on the theory that the transition from Midshipman to officer would be smoother and more efficient if less abrupt than in the past. He also emphasized the need for smartness in person and dress, and taught this daily by precept and example.
His tour at the Naval Academy was marked, as was his entire Naval career of forty-eight years, by his particular interest in the development and training of personnel. The first class to graduate under his command was the Class of , the members of which dedicated their Lucky Bag class book to him with the following lines:. Navy, the Class of respectfully dedicates this number of the Lucky Bag - inspired as we have been by his devotion to the Navy and his continued efforts to make us better material for officers, it is our hope that our future success may, in some degree at least, reach the heights which his has attained, and that we may occasion in our subordinates that same spirit of cooperation which he has inspired in us.
It is of considerable interest that when the Class of held its Thirtieth Reunion at the Naval Academy in , they invited Admiral Wilson to attend in order to again thank him for the inspiration he had been to them as Midshipmen.
During the early days of his career he served in Tennessee and Saratoga and on coast survey expeditions to the Bering Sea. During the Spanish-American war Wilson was attached to gunboat Bancroft and was commended for bravery. In the years that followed he served in many ships, and was Pennsylvania's first commanding officer in He commanded the Atlantic Fleet's patrol forces during the First World War, and was responsible for the safe convoying of troops and supplies to Europe.
Following the war, he was Commander-in-Chief U. Atlantic Fleet and later the Battle Fleet commander. In Admiral Wilson took over as Superintendent of the Naval Academy, and in his 4 years at Annapolis did much to raise its academic standing and improve the quality of education. Admiral Wilson retired in after nearly 50 years of service as seaman, leader, and educator. He died 30 January at New York City. Admiral Henry B. Born on Mt. Vernon Street in , the son of Camden postmaster, teacher, and legislator H.
Wilson worked his way up the ranks, becoming commander of the American fleet in French waters by the First World War. Leavitt believed the entryway into South Jersey should showcase Camden, and city boosters lobbied for a hotel near the foot of the bridge, as well as a civic center.
The remainder of the Boulevard, which extended into the suburbs, would feature extensive landscaping and a park with a view of the western tributary of the Cooper River and Camden High School.
It was not long before business interests saw opportunities on the new Boulevard that would alter its original civic goals. The company and the city struck a deal that modified the original plan for a civic center near the western end of the Boulevard, and instead a new Sears with ample parking opened there in Although the city abandoned the civic center concept, it still influenced the design of the store. Unlike other Sears retail stores it had designed in Boston and Chicago, the architecture firm Nimmons, Carr and Wright adopted the classical revival style for the Camden location, influenced by Leavitt and the City Beautiful Movement.
The first drive-in movie theater was opened on Admiral Wilson Boulevard in June Its inventor and owner, Richard Hollingshead Jr. Historical Society of Pennsylvania. With the opening of Sears, other businesses envisioned opportunities to appeal to the driving consumer on the Boulevard. In , Camden native Richard Hollingshead Jr.
Based on a design he worked out in his driveway, Hollingshead combined his blueprints and received a patent on the drive-in theater in In ensuing years, drive-in movie theaters opened all over the country. Unfortunately for Hollingshead, most of the theater owners ignored his patent and he received few royalties from their success.
Hollingshead sold the theater in to a Union, New Jersey, theater owner who relocated the screen and equipment to that city. Businesses continued to grow and expand through the s and s. The opening of a bar in called The Admiral prompted Henry Wilson to unsuccessfully petition the city to remove his name from the Boulevard, after which he vowed never to travel on the road again.
This photograph of holiday traffic on the Boulevard also shows newly constructed liquor stores and bars along the south side. In the s a business model that had not been seen before on the Boulevard emerged: the go-go club. By the s, adult-themed clubs, hourly rate motels, and other businesses related to sex work dominated the southeastern end of Admiral Wilson.
In addition to the clubs and motels, many sex workers lined the Boulevard working outside the sanctioned businesses. As these new businesses thrived, the car dealerships and retail businesses that had been at the heart of the Boulevard for much of its existence closed or moved to new suburban locations, following Sears, which left Camden for Moorestown in the early s. In the s, the state of New Jersey and the Delaware River Port Authority DRPA proposed a new plan for the road that would incorporate the original tree-lined design with new development.
Called the Gateway Project later expanded to the Gateway Redevelopment Plan , the proposal called for the destruction of a majority of the businesses on the southeast end of the Boulevard, to be replaced by a park along Cooper River with paths for pedestrians and cyclists.
In the late twentieth century, Admiral Wilson Boulevard was lined with liquor stores, hourly rate motels, and strip clubs. An initiative in closed and demolished most of these buildings in preparation for the Republican National Convention. The plan remained dormant until the national Republican Party announced it would hold its presidential nominating convention in Philadelphia.
Convention planners expected many delegates would stay in hotels in the South Jersey suburbs, using the Ben Franklin Bridge and Admiral Wilson Boulevard to commute back and forth to the city. There were exceptions: A new gas station and mini-mart opened on the south side of the road along Cooper River, and the Sears Building remained on the Boulevard until it too was demolished in At the other end of the Boulevard, the planned Gateway Park project had yet to be implemented as of Runoff gas and oil as well as remnants of the demolished buildings required an environmental cleanup in order for the space to be suitable for public use.
0コメント