From airmailpioneers.com comes this 1920 photo of a Martin twin-engine mail plane that did a "nose-over" at old Heller Field in North Newark. The caption to this photo noted that the pilot, Walter Stevens, was "slightly injured. This field was considered the most miserable of air mail fields and abandoned after a year because of dangerous approaches." Heller Field may have been named for one (or both) of the Heller Brothers, who ran a big tool-making business on Mt. Prospect Avenue.

I've been trying to figure out exactly where Heller Field was. From the above photo it looks like it was somewhere near the park. I checked a couple maps. One was from 1904:



The other was from a few years later, after "Freedonia Avenue" (which had started out as Old Bloomfield Road) had been renamed Heller Parkway:



Can't quite figure out where that airfield was. Anyway, Newark Airport soon replaced it.

The McCree's lived at 15 Heller Parkway from 1950 to June 30, 1957. It was directly across the street from Our Lady of Good Counsel Grammar School. Down the street on the corner of Summer Avenue was Bernie's Candy Store. We were evicted in June of that year by Mr. Jamison, the landord, for his son to move into. We went around the corner to 273 Woodside Avenue, before buying th McCree mansion at 102 Fourth Street in December of 1958.

I am sure Heller Field was the current Branch Brook Park. Remember the extensions were not added until the depression. MY grandfather Andy Caulfield supervised the
guys who put down the curbs and the sidewalks.

I remember him telling me that they used to go into the bushes and hide.