Finding this cache will take you to the edge of a once thriving community. Manor Heights was a four-road community of several hundred apartments, all homes for Navy men and their families. Manor Heights sat just outside the back gate to Bainbridge Naval Training Center (NTC). Bainbridge NTC served the Navy and our Nation for about 40 years.
During its World War II heyday, Bainbridge was home to Navy Boot Camp and several other schools as well. The Naval Academy Preparatory School, where my father was stationed for three years, was there as well. The Base was closed for good in the mid-1980s and almost all of the buildings were razed.
I have many memories of living in Manor Heights and going onto the base. I lived there from 1967-1970, from ages 10-13, so these were exciting, formative years. Bainbridge offered, close at hand, everything a young boy needed. There was a Boy Scout Troop, a Youth Center, several swimming pools (one indoor and one outdoor), a huge gymnasium (Barney Hall), a bowling alley, a Navy Exchange (where I would buy baseballs--the background image shows the counter where the baseballs were, on the right), and much more. At the time, women in the Navy were WAVES and I often saw legions of WAVES marching about the base.
If you look at the area on Google Maps in satellite view, you’ll see the outlines of the roads that are no longer there. Barton Road is where the officers and their families lived. The other roads were Preston Drive, Laffey Circle, and Henley Parkway. I lived on the latter, which Google Maps misspells as “Hendley.”
During your search you will find yourself on Preston Drive. This point on Preston Drive was at the top of a big hill (to a 10-year old, it seemed like a mountain). Every morning, the school children of Manor Heights would walk up Preston Drive to Bainbridge Elementary School. As I placed the cache, I remembered many fine days walking with a noisy gaggle of youngsters up the hill to school. The cache is just a hop and a skip from where the sidewalk was that we used 40 years ago.
I invite you to picture the scene of a new Spring day, just warm enough that jackets and sweaters were left home, a bright yellow sun, freshness in the air, girls in their neatly pressed dresses and boys in their Buster Browns enjoying a great morning together. It was a different time. I spent two years at Bainbridge Elementary before I went off to high school, on a bus(!), all the way to Perryville. But my fondest memories of this time are of Bainbridge Elementary, my many friends, Mr. Lisanti (the Principal), and Mrs. Moyer, one of the finest teachers I ever had. Just north and west of the cache is where Manor Heights was.
This area is now marked “No Trespassing.” You will not have to cross the berm or pass a “No Trespassing” sign to get to the cache, although you will come close. It's a micro, so bring your own pen. Please replace carefully for the benefit of the next cacher. Happy caching!
Congratulations to THE DAM TROLLS for a warp-speed First-to-Find!