Maury Hall
Building 28
Maury Hall, a substantial two-story concrete building, stood on this site from the 1930s or early 1940s until 1999. It served as classrooms for the U.S. Maritime Service officers’ training program at Fort Trumbull during Worl War II. Known to the navy simply as Building 28, it housed the Electromagnetics Division of the Navy Underwater Sound Laboratory from 1948 to 1963. The Electromagnetics Division developed submarine antennas, radio communications systems, periscopes, and other optical equipment.
The floating wire antenna, also known as the buoyant cable antenna, was one of the important technological advancements developed here by teams of civilian engineers and scientists. First successfully tested in 1954, it consisted of a long wire that floated to the surface when a submarine was submerged below periscope depth. It received very low radio frequency signals, allowing contact with the submarine at lower depths than ever before possible. A more advanced version of the floating antenna is used on all U.S. submarines today.
Other work conducted here included research in optics, infrared radiation, microwaves, and radio waves from very high frequencies to extremely low frequencies. The Submarine Electromagnetics Division transferred to a new building in 1963. Building 28 served as administrative offices when the base closed in the 1990s.
Marker can be reached from East Street, on the left when traveling south.
Courtesy hmdb.org
