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Branch Brook Park

Belleville, New JerseyCherry blossomCounty parks in New JerseyCulture of Newark, New JerseyGeography of Newark, New Jersey
Historic districts in Essex County, New JerseyHistoric districts on the National Register of Historic Places in New JerseyNRHP infobox with nocatNational Register of Historic Places in Newark, New JerseyParks in Essex County, New JerseyParks on the National Register of Historic Places in New JerseyTourist attractions in Newark, New JerseyUse mdy dates from August 2023
Branchbrook Park
Branchbrook Park

Branch Brook Park is a county park of Essex County, New Jersey. It is located in the North Ward of Newark, between the neighborhoods of Forest Hill and Roseville. A portion of the park is also located within the Township of Belleville. At 360 acres (150 ha), Branch Brook Park is the largest public park in the city of Newark. The park is noted for the largest collection of cherry blossom trees in the United States, having over 5,000 in more than eighteen different varieties collectively called Cherryblossomland, as well as its spectacular Cherry Blossom Festival each April.The area had served as an Army training ground during the American Civil War. At the time, the northern portion of the area had been a marsh known as Old Blue Jay Swamp. In 1867, Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux, the designers of Central Park, presented their report on the site to the Board of Commissioners of the Newark Park. It recommended Concourse Hill, with its commanding views of Newark and distant Manhattan, as the best location for the park.The park was formally created almost three decades later, in 1895, by the newly created Essex County Parks Commission, making it the nation's first county park. In 1898, a public appropriation financed the conversion of the swamp into a landscaped lake. The initial park was only 60 acres (24 ha) 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 and becoming one of the largest urban parks in the United States. The Morris Canal 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. 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 Olmsted Brothers firm 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 their father's earlier designs of Central Park and Prospect Park. The park is home to many architecturally significant structures, including bridges, buildings, gates, and sculptures. Many of these were designed by the beaux-arts architectural firm of Carrère and Hastings headed by John Merven Carrère and Thomas Hastings. The pair designed two Subway Bridges now referred to as Subway 1, East and Subway 2, West.The famous cherry trees were the result of a 1927 gift from Caroline Bamberger Fuld, sister of department store magnate Louis Bamberger and widow of the store's vice president. The Cherry Blossom Festival attracts approximately 10,000 visitors each April. Branch Brook Park also features a lake and a pond. During World War II, the park's grounds served a tent city for recruits, as well as a landing strip for airplanes of the United States Postal Service. The neighborhood on the east side of the park, Forest Hill, is Newark's most affluent. Also on the east side of the park is the Cathedral of the Sacred Heart Basilica, one of the largest cathedrals in the United States. It has been placed on both the New Jersey (1980) and National (1981) Registers of Historic Places. In 1999 Branch Brook Park began a $25 million ten-year restoration program. In 2004, the Park Avenue bridge was repaired, as were the baseball fields in the center of the park. In 2007, a plan was created to provide for more than 5,000 cherry trees in the park and renovate and rename the Welcome Center. The plan uses a $650,000 grant from the Essex County Recreation and the Open Space Trust Fund from 2006 and private donations.In 2012, statues dedicated to sports figures Althea Gibson and Roberto Clemente were unveiled in the park. In 2013 the park was in the final phase of the restoration plan.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Branch Brook Park (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

Branch Brook Park
West Park Drive, Newark

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Latitude Longitude
N 40.770277777778 ° E -74.176388888889 °
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West Park Drive

West Park Drive
07107 Newark
New Jersey, United States
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Branchbrook Park
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Forest Hill, Newark, New Jersey
Forest Hill, Newark, New Jersey

Forest Hill is a neighborhood in the city of Newark in Essex County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. It is a pre-World War II neighborhood in the North Ward. It is bounded on the west by Branch Brook Park, on the south by Bloomfield Avenue (some maps place the southern limit at 2nd Avenue), and on the east by both Summer and Mt. Prospect Avenues, the neighborhood of Broadway. The neighborhood's ZIP Code is 07104. Forest Hill is located on a ridge between the Passaic River and the valley of the Branch Brook. It was first developed by Elias Heller, who owned a file factory in North Newark, on the Belleville border. Heller Parkway is named in his honor. From the 1870s to the 1920s, generations of wealthy Newarkers built hundreds of stately homes in the area in various styles, including Beaux-Arts, Victorian, Colonial Revival, Gothic Revival, and Spanish Revival. One such house is the Wright-Clark house, a Tudor style manor built during the early 1900s. Along with their mansions, the wealthy of Forest Hill also developed scores of social and literary clubs. Other than the homes, landmarks include the old Tiffany factory and the Ballantine Gate. The North End branch and the Branch Brook Park branch of the Newark Public Library serve the neighborhood. The neighborhood is well preserved and maintained, and few of the historic homes have been torn down, renovated into apartments, or transferred to institutional use. The northern part of the neighborhood is part of an official historic district, containing a marker that was erected by The Newark Preservation and Landmarks Committee, a non-profit organization dedicated to the care of Newark's past history. During special times throughout the year, there are special tours made possible by several organizations such as the New Jersey Historical Society where homeowners open their homes to visitors, and the Mount Pleasant Cemetery Association. Working alongside the neighborhood, the Forest Hill Community Association provides assistance by offering a chance to volunteer, and hosting various events of engagement. This area also includes a diverse community, standing out for its calm environment.The Sydenham House located on "The Old Road to Bloomfield" (east of Branch Brook Park) and built in 1712 is the city's oldest private residence. It was later expanded in the early 19th Century. D.J. and Elizabeth Henderson restored it in the 1950s.

Newark Schools Stadium

Newark Schools Stadium (originally named City Field, nicknamed "The Old Lady of Bloomfield Avenue") is the name of two stadiums that were both located on Bloomfield Avenue between Abington and Roseville Avenues in the Roseville section of Newark, New Jersey. The first stadium was used primarily for football and was built in 1925. It was the home of the Newark Tornadoes of the National Football League during the 1930 season. The stadium was used for high school football until 2006. Baseball's Newark Stars of the Eastern Colored League, which was a part of the Negro leagues, also used the stadium in 1926. Its primary use, however, was for Newark's high schools. The original stadium was a reinforced concrete horseshoe shaped venue that had a maximum seating capacity of 25,000. The original stadium was condemned in 2006 and demolished in 2009. In its place, a brand new Schools Stadium was constructed on the site and the new stadium opened in 2011. The current Schools Stadium is also horseshoe shaped, but the seating is not arranged throughout the horseshoe like the old stadium was; instead, there are two metal bleacher sections, one on each side of the venue, and it has a capacity of 5,600. The current stadium plays host to football games played by Barringer High School and Newark Collegiate Academy. It is one of four venues in Newark that are used by the seven high schools that field football teams in the city. In addition to Schools Stadium, games are played at Shabazz Stadium at Shabazz High School and Untermann Field at Weequahic High School. Shabazz shares their stadium with Central High School, and Weequahic shares theirs with West Side High School. East Side High School, which played their games at Schools Stadium until 2021, now plays at Eddie Moraes Stadium near their campus in the city’s Ironbound section.