Cadwalader Park
Trenton, Mercer County
100 acres

located in a residential area near the Delaware River.

Directions:

From the New York Area:
Take NJ Turnpike south to Exit 7A. Take 195 West that merges into Rt. 129, Rt. 29 follow directions to 29N.through the tunnel and past the Baseball stadium. Take 29 North to the Parkside Avenue Exit. Continue through traffic light at West State Street to next light (2nd) go left into Cadwalader Park, follow signs to Ellarslie, The Trenton City Museum.

History:

The park honors Dr Thomas Cadwalader, the community's first chief burgess and a pioneer in the use of preventive inoculation.

1834  -- opening of the Delaware and Raritan Canal.  The feeder canal went through what became Cadwalader Park. 

Young people used to swim in the cool waters of the feeder canal of the Delaware and Raritan Canal.  They even had a dock with stairs to make access to the water more convenient.  (Linda J. Barth 2002. Images of America: The Delaware and Raritan Canal. Charleston, SC: Arcadia Press.)

1845  --  Ellarslie, a 32-room Italianate villa in the Park, is built by  John Notman for young Philadelphia lawyer Henry McCall Sr. as a summer residence .  (It now houses the city museum of Trenton).

1870 --  the Cadwalader family moved into Ellarslie (it had been vacated for several years).

1881  -- Henry McCall Jr. sold Ellarslie to George Farlee for $25,000.

1888  --  people wanted to see public parks as a retreat from city industrial life and so the city of Trenton acquired the property from Farlee for $50,000, which also included the surrounding 80 acres.  Over the years Ellarslie was used as a restaurant, ice cream parlor and monkey house.

1890-1892  -- the park is built; the only park in New Jersey designed by Frederick Law Olmsted (designer of Central Park, NYC). The Park retains the characteristic curvilinear paths.

1920s -- plays and music events were a staple of the park.

1971  --  renovations of Ellarslie were begun in order to create the Trenton City Museum.

1978  -- opening of the Museum.

1998 --  the city commissioned a restoration master plan with the help of historians, landscape historians, architects, landscape architects and civil engineers. Rhodeside & Harwell Incorporated developed a long-range master plan for the Cadwalader Park that would identify remaining historic elements of the Park to determine which "lost" elements to restore.

2002 (May)  --  Trenton has a three-day celebration for Cadwalader Park's 100th year anniversary.

(Source: Trenton City Museum; http://www.artcom.com/museums/nv/sz/08618.htm)

Trails:

The Delaware and Raritan Canal goes through the property.

PLANTS:

weeping beech
copper beech
white oak