Branch Brook Park
Encyclopedia
Essex County, New Jersey
Essex County is a county located in the northeastern part of the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the United States 2010 Census, the population was 783,969, ranking it third in the state after Bergen County and Middlesex County; Essex County's population has declined from 786,147 as of the bureau's...
, New Jersey
New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...
in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, located in the North Ward of Newark, between the neighborhoods of Forest Hill
Forest Hill, Newark, New Jersey
Forest Hill is an affluent pre-World War II neighborhood in Newark, New Jersey's North Ward. It is bounded on the west by Branch Brook Park, on the south by Bloomfield Avenue , and on the east by both Summer and Mt. Prospect Avenues, the neighborhood of Broadway...
and Roseville
Roseville, Newark, New Jersey
Roseville is a neighborhood in northwestern Newark, New Jersey, bordering Bloomfield and East Orange. To the neighborhood's immediate east is the Newark City Subway and Branch Brook Park...
. At 360 acre
Acre
The acre is a unit of area in a number of different systems, including the imperial and U.S. customary systems. The most commonly used acres today are the international acre and, in the United States, the survey acre. The most common use of the acre is to measure tracts of land.The acre is related...
s (1.5 km²), Branch Brook Park is the largest public park in the city of Newark
Newark, New Jersey
Newark is the largest city in the American state of New Jersey, and the seat of Essex County. As of the 2010 United States Census, Newark had a population of 277,140, maintaining its status as the largest municipality in New Jersey. It is the 68th largest city in the U.S...
. The park is noted for having over 4,000 cherry blossom trees in more than fourteen different varieties, collectively called Cherryblossomland, as well as its spectacular Cherry Blossom Festival each April.
The park was formally created in 1895 by the newly-created Essex County Parks Commission, making it the nation's first county park. The area had served as an Army
Union Army
The Union Army was the land force that fought for the Union during the American Civil War. It was also known as the Federal Army, the U.S. Army, the Northern Army and the National Army...
training ground during the American Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
. At the time, the northern portion of the area had been a marsh known as Old Blue Jay Swamp. In 1898, a public appropriation financed the conversion of the swamp into a landscaped lake. The initial park was only 60 acres (0.2 km²) in size but grew in the 1920s through private donations from prominent Newark families, such as the Ballantines, eventually reaching the city limit with Belleville
Belleville, New Jersey
Belleville is a Township in Essex County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the township population was 35,926.-History:...
and becoming one of the largest urban parks in the United States. The Morris Canal
Morris Canal
The Morris Canal was an anthracite-carrying canal that incorporated a series of water-driven inclined planes in its course across northern New Jersey in the United States. It was in use for about a century — from the late 1820s to the 1920s....
originally ran on the park's west side, until its old bed was turned into the Newark City Subway, providing access to the park from Downtown Newark
Downtown Newark
Downtown Newark is Newark, New Jersey's major central business, retail, and cultural district. It is located at a bend in the Passaic River.Downtown is the site of the original Puritan settlement of Newark. The first settlers, led by Robert Treat, landed not far from the present site of the New...
.
The first designs of the park, based largely on romantic garden themes, were proposed in 1895 and 1898, after the Parks Commission hired several architectural firms to plan the park. In 1900, the commission hired the firm of Frederick Law Olmsted
Frederick Law Olmsted
Frederick Law Olmsted was an American journalist, social critic, public administrator, and landscape designer. He is popularly considered to be the father of American landscape architecture, although many scholars have bestowed that title upon Andrew Jackson Downing...
to redesign the park. The result was the park's current naturalistic look and feel, with acres of meadows and forests, in a manner similar to Olmsted's earlier designs of Central Park
Central Park
Central Park is a public park in the center of Manhattan in New York City, United States. The park initially opened in 1857, on of city-owned land. In 1858, Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux won a design competition to improve and expand the park with a plan they entitled the Greensward Plan...
and Prospect Park.
The famous cherry trees were the result of a 1927 gift from Caroline Bamberger Fuld
Caroline Bamberger Fuld
Caroline Frank Fuld was an American businesswoman and philanthropist most noted for co-founding the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey....
, sister of department store magnate Louis Bamberger
Louis Bamberger
Louis Bamberger was Newark, New Jersey's leading citizen from the early 1900s until his death in 1944. He was a businessman and philanthropist and at his death all flags in Newark were flown at half-staff for three days, and his large department store closed for a day.Louis Bamberger was born in...
and widow of the store's vice president. The Cherry Blossom Festival
Cherry Blossom Festival
Cherry Blossom Festival may refer to:* National Cherry Blossom Festival in Washington, DC* The annual Cherry Blossom Festival in San Francisco, CA * International Cherry Blossom Festival in Macon, GA...
attracts approximately 10,000 visitors each April.
During World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, the park's grounds served a tent city for recruits, as well as a landing strip for airplanes of the United States Postal Service
United States Postal Service
The United States Postal Service is an independent agency of the United States government responsible for providing postal service in the United States...
.
The neighborhood on the east side of the park, Forest Hill
Forest Hill, Newark, New Jersey
Forest Hill is an affluent pre-World War II neighborhood in Newark, New Jersey's North Ward. It is bounded on the west by Branch Brook Park, on the south by Bloomfield Avenue , and on the east by both Summer and Mt. Prospect Avenues, the neighborhood of Broadway...
, is Newark's most affluent. Also on the east side of the park is the Cathedral of the Sacred Heart Basilica
Cathedral Basilica of the Sacred Heart, Newark, New Jersey
The Cathedral Basilica of the Sacred Heart, the fifth-largest cathedral in North America, is the seat of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Newark. It is located at 89 Ridge Street in Newark, New Jersey. Envisioned as a "fitting monument to the faith," construction began in 1899 and was finished in...
, one of the largest cathedrals in the United States.
It has been placed on both the New Jersey
New Jersey Register of Historic Places
The New Jersey Register of Historic Places is the official list of historic resources of local, state, and national interest in the U.S. state of New Jersey. The program is administered by the Historic Preservation Office of the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection.The register was...
(1980) and National
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...
(1981) Registers of Historic Places.
Branch Brook Park is currently in the midst of $25 million, ten-year, restoration program. In 2004, the Park Avenue bridge was repaired, as were the ballfields in the center of the park. a 2007 plan provide for more than 5,000 cherry trees in the park and a renovation and renaming of the Welcome Center, using to a $650,000 grant from the Essex County Recreation and Open Space Trust Fund in 2006 and private donations.