Branch Brook Park

 

Branch Brook Park became the nation's first county park in 1895. The land that we know today began to first be used and noticed in 1862. The park was used as a training ground for New Jersey volunteers during the Civil War. As the years went on the park continued to build and grow. In 1927 Caroline Bamberger Fuld would bring what makes the park well known. She donated “2,000 Japanese flowering cherry trees to a display in Newark that would rival that in Washington, D.C. The Olmsted Brothers' firm laid out the trees naturalistically on the tiered slopes along the narrow valley of the Second River, evoking the way the trees would be seen in Japan and distinguishing Branch Brook Park's display from all others. Eventually the collection would grow to more than 3,000 trees.” In 1981 the park was placed on the National register of historic places. The park continues to bring hundreds of visitors every year during the Cherry Blossom Festival.