Documentation found at the post shows that nineteen members of Post 54 signed a mortgage note in the amount of $3,500 ($47,741 in 2017 dollars) with the Freehold Trust Company, making themselves personally liable for repayment. We owe a debt of gratitude to those 19 members who risked their own financial well being during the great depression to secure a post home. Those members were: Thomas W. Mahar, Stacy Matthews, Edward Welsh, Nicholas Torello, Marcel Krater, William A. Cox, J. Hallam Conover, George D. Frommell, Joseph Hardiman, Raymond Lykes, Rensen Meyers, Otto Deedmeyer, Joseph R. DuBois, Raymond Thorne, James F. Ballew, Lew Tannenbaum, Joseph Kennedy, James McMahon, and Joseph Levy. The note was paid off in 1947 and a mortgage burning celebration ceremony was held at the post.
