{"nrhp_refnum":"93000911","name":"US Naval Ordnance Testing Facility Observation Tower No. 2","other_names":["Queen's Grant Tower"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"1000 blk. S. Anderson Blvd.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Topsail Beach","county":"Pender County","state":"NC","lat":34.381610489000025,"lon":-77.61262069399999,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1993-09-14","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture"],"significance_levels":["national"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A four-story reinforced concrete observation tower on Topsail Sound (Banks Channel) in Topsail Beach, Pender County, North Carolina, built for the U.S. Navy's missile testing program in 1946 under specifications by the Kellex Corporation.","why_significant":"The tower housed calibrated instruments that recorded data from \"Operation Bumblebee,\" the 1946-1948 ramjet missile tests. It is one of the few surviving resources of early post-World War II missile development and a forerunner of later missile programs. It qualifies despite being under fifty years old because of its exceptional national importance.","narrative":"Observation Tower #2 is a four-story reinforced concrete tower on Banks Channel in Topsail Beach, North Carolina. It was one of eight instrument towers placed along Topsail Island's beach during the Navy's \"Operation Bumblebee,\" a secret program that tested ramjet missiles from 1946 to 1948. Technical crews used equipment in the towers to measure the speed, angle and distance of the missiles' flight. The tower sits on a concrete slab supported by piles and remains almost unaltered, though its doors and windows are open and the interior stairs have been removed. After the Navy left in 1948, the surrounding land was subdivided, and condominiums were later built across a canal from the tower. Its isolation preserves much of its original setting. It was listed for its military significance as a surviving part of the early effort that led to modern missile and jet engine technology, and because the Topsail Island resources are the only ones of three similar Atlantic coast facilities known to survive.","period_of_significance":"1946-1948","architect_builder":"Kellex Corporation/George & Lynch","architectural_style":"No style","criteria":["A"],"status_note":"Listed as vacant/not in use. The tower is almost unaltered, with open doors and windows, and its upper stories are inaccessible because the interior stairs were removed.","vacant_flag":true,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:57:49.450549-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/29/7183/47718329/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_NC/93000911.pdf"},"photo":null,"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/47718329","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/US_Naval_Ordnance_Testing_Facility_Observation_Tower_No._2","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q23023261"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/north-carolina/pender-county/us-naval-ordnance-testing-facility-observation-tower-no-2-93000911/"}