Fourth of July 2023 Issue

High School Architecture
Students Help Design New
American Legion
Story by MELISSA SUMMERS
Photos by Karen Fucito
From the charred remains of the longtime
home of American Legion Post 245 of
Lake Hopatcong will rise a new and improved
version of a hall that hosted dozens of fish
fries, weddings, memorials and other social
gatherings before it was destroyed by fire
almost a year ago.
While many will have a hand in rebuilding the
structure lost on August 26, 2022, the veteran
members determined to make it happen
will have help from some young talent from
Jefferson Township High School.
Jason Nicholas, who teaches architecture
and computer-aided design, or CAD, classes
at the high school, recruited 16 students, some
from his classes, to form the JT Design Studio.
Under his guidance and in cooperation with
the members of Post 245, the group is drawing
up designs for the new building,
Nicholas, a registered architect who began
teaching at Jefferson four years ago, said when
he saw the news about the fire, he immediately
wanted to get involved.
“I believe in something called ‘design for
community’ so I wanted to pay back with my
skills,” he said. “I thought it would be a really
cool project to bring to one of my classes or a
group of students—to bring them the real-life
experience of what an architect does.”
After speaking with his department
supervisor and the district superintendent,
Nicholas was put in contact with Jefferson
Township Mayor Eric Wilsusen who reached
out to Post 245 Commander Donald Doty.
Doty is one third of the Rebuild the Legion
committee that includes Eric Sudak, committee
chair, and Russ Felter, former township mayor.
It wasn’t long before meetings were set and
the students got to work.
While Legion members are looking forward
to the new structure, the trauma of the fire still
lingers.
The fire was especially tough on Carl Gross,
90, of Jefferson Township, who has been a
Legion member for over 55 years. Gross had a
front-row seat to the event that August day.
The morning of the fire, his brother, Tony
Gross, and his wife were preparing for a fish
fry dinner when a grease fire broke out in
the corner of the kitchen. Despite their best
efforts, the couple could not get it under
control.
“My brother’s wife came running over to my
house because my brother wouldn’t leave, so
she figured she would get me and
I’d get him out of there,” Gross
said. “And I did, I came running
over.”
As Gross pulled into the parking
lot, his brother, the prior post
commander, had just come out.
“We just stood there and watched
the thing go. What a sight,” he said
of the fire that quickly consumed
the decades-old building.
“When you are involved in
someplace for 50, 60 years, it’s a
lot of work, a lot of time,”
Gross added. “And to lose
everything … the pictures. It’s too bad.”
Tony Gross passed away just months after
the fire. “I think what did him in was this fire. He
put his whole life into [the Legion],” his brother
said.
Doty, who has been a member of the
American Legion for over 50 years, wasn’t
able to get to the site right away on the day
of the fire because the roads were blocked
off. “Everyone was calling, texting, so I knew
about it right away,” he said. “We recovered
very little—some ceremonial guns that we are
trying to get refurbished and a few pictures—
but nothing else.”
Nicholas introduced the project to his
students in October. “The first thing we did
was come out to the site, and the students
took measurements,” he said. “After we
documented and photographed it, we put
together a layout of the existing floor plan and
then came up with the design concepts for the
project.”
Those working on the project are a mixture of
students enrolled in his classes, former students
and a few with other interests. Savannah
Peters, assisted by fellow videography student
Kiley Shatzel, is filming the progress as part
of a project for the Multimedia Broadcasting
and Journalism Academy at the high school.
Another classmate, Kyle Peters, contributed
drone footage of the site.
The group drew up floor plans, exterior views
and met multiple times with Legion members.
“They [Legion members] were very heavily
involved in the initial drawings and the concept
designs,” Nicholas said.
The current plans are considered conceptual
for preliminary cost estimates and could
be adjusted as the project progresses, said
Nicholas.
Senior Ainesh Gobind, 18, a CAD student,
didn’t know what he was getting into when he
joined the team. “Architecture is not my thing,
but I wanted to get out of my comfort zone
a little bit,” said Gobind, who lives in the Lake
Hopatcong side of town. “I thought, why not
just go for it.”
He’s glad he did, and he’s glad to have a
professional on his side during this project. “As
long as we have Mr. Nick here, we are going to
be OK. If he’s not here, we’re not OK,” he added
with a laugh.
Jacob Black, a 17-yearold
senior from Milton,
has always been interested
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LAKE HOPATCONG NEWS Fourth of July 2023
Top, left to right: Fire
burns through the roof of
American Legion Post 245
in August 2022. Jacob
Black walks through
the rubble with a set of
architectural plans. Nick
Roberts makes changes to
the design.