The current manor house at Lindy’s Lake was included in George Spinnler’s community developed in 1928 named in honor of aviator Charles Augustin Lindberg Jr. (
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When George Spinnler named his Lindy’s Lake community in the Township of West Milford in 1928, he was honoring Charles Augustin Lindberg, Jr., a national hero who made the first solo nonstop air flight across the Atlantic Ocean. The ambitious aviator, 25, took off from Roosevelt Field, Long Island NY, on May 27, 1927, piloting a single-engine plane named “Spirit of St. Louis”, arriving in France 33.5 hours after takeoff.
Lindberg had successfully accepted a challenge from Hotel owner Raymond Orteig who offered a $25,000 prize in 1919 to the first pilot who could fly nonstop across the ocean. The flight covered 3,600 miles. When Lindberg landed at Bourguet Field near Paris on May 21, 1927, greeted by a crowd of 100,000 people, he immediately became an international celebrity.
Born Feb. 4, 1902, in Detroit, Mich., Lindberg grew up on a Minnesota farm. His father, born in Sweden, was a lawyer and Congressman and his grandfather was a member of the Swedish Parliament. To prepare for a life in aviation, Lindberg studied at the University of Wisconsin. Early in his life he became a daredevil pilot, performing at regional fairs and similar events. He was a Service Reserve Pilot in the US Army in 1924. Returning to civilian life he became an airmail pilot with routes between St. Louis and Chicago.
Lindberg met Anne Morrow Lindberg (1906-2001) when she was a 21-year-old senior at Smith College. Here father, a U.S. Senator from New Jersey and U.S. Ambassador to Mexico, invited Lindberg to Mexico to advance relations with the United States. Charles and Anne, both interested in air flight, did exploratory flights together. They were married and lived in their home outside of Howell, N.J. Four years after his historic flight, the couple’s 20-month-old son was mysteriously taken from his crib and found dead in the woods near their home. The details of the case and trial of an individual charged with the crime were well covered in the press and historical reports are available online for those who want to know more. The reports include information in Lindberg’s later life that changed his image.
When Spinnler created his Lindy’s Lake home development, he visualized a big picture that included the homes, a manor house for community use and recreation considerations with a playground, tennis and basketball courts, horseshoe pit, and softball field. Decorative native Eastern White Pine trees known for growing to as much as 80 feet and over tall, were planted around the building. Around the 1960s or 70s there was litigation over the ballfield property that had come into Nell McCann’s ownership. She successfully won a court case and built some homes. The manor house remains part of the Lindy’s Lake community today. A full kitchen included in the design provided what was needed for having breakfast and lunch available daily at the manor during early days at the development. There were weekly arts and crafts lessons on the porch, Wednesday night movies and Friday night card parties. Georgie Spinnler and his instrumental music band played music for weekly teenage dances. There was also a juke box.
Adult social events were often classy, and sometimes formal attire was required. Women were aware of fashions and during special occasions “dressed to the nines.” Like many other township lake communities created in the 1920s and 30s era the original homes were log cabins built with logs from native chestnut trees. The early developers usually hired township natives, with building skills handed down from their ancestors when they came from Europe, to build the cabins. Among these log home builders were my grandfather John F. Mathews and his oldest son Albert Mathews. John’s plans for his own development that he named “Vacationland” died with him in 1934 when after constantly working outdoors during a wet spring season, he was stricken with pneumonia and died. How surprised the early chestnut cabin builders would be if they could see the transformation of the humble homes they built, remodeled into some of the township’s outstanding homes of today!
