Green Brook Park
North Plainfield, Somerset County and Plainfield, Union County, NJ

Directions:

From the NYC area.  Take the New Jersey Turnpike to Exit 14 to pick up US 78 west.  Get off at Exit 36 for Route 651.  Take King George Road/Mt. Bethel/Warrenville/Route 651 south.  Drive 4.3 miles and turn left onto Route 22 north.    Drive 2.4 miles and turn right on West End Avenue. 

To park on the Union County Side:  Just before reaching Route 28 (West Front Street) turn either left (to a small parking area) or right to enter a roadway through Green Brook Park.  (The walking path ends/starts at dead end of Brookside Place.)

To park on the Somerset County Side: Turn right onto Willow Avenue and go to its end where there is a parking lot.

Geology:

The park extends 1.2 miles along both banks of Green Brook.

History:

The park was the site of Blue Hills military post, a large earthworks fort guarding the paths to the American stronghold in the Watchung Mts. during the Revolution.

Green Brook Park to be considered for nomination to the New Jersey and National Registers of Historic Places. http://www.northplainfield.org/agendas/agenda20Oct2003.htm

WASHINGTON HEADQUARTERS (open daily 10-5), NW. corner. W. Front St. and Washington Avenue.  Built in 1746, this was the dwelling of Deacon Nathaniel Drake, a staunch patriot. Washington stopped here while on reconnoitering expeditions into the plains east of the town. The two-and-one-half-story, white, clapboarded Dutch Colonial building, oldest in the city, is occupied by the Plainfield and North Plainfield Historical Society.

(Source: NEW JERSEY: A Guide To Its Present And Past; Compiled and Written by the Federal Writers' Project of the Works Progress Administration for the State of New Jersey; American Guide Series; http://www.getnj.com/njags/tours/tour17plainfield.shtml)

Facilities:

On the Union County side: soccer field, basketball court, children’s playground, benches, picnic tables

On the Somerset County side: baseball field

Trails:

4/07/2005. This is a linear park on both sides of Green Brook with lots of lawn. The roadway through the Union County part goes 0.8 of a mile from Clinton Avenue to West End Avenue.

PLANT LIST:
Dr. Patrick L. Cooney
* = blooming on date of the field trip

Trees:
Acer rubrum (red maple) *
Fagus grandifolia (American beech)
Ilex opaca (American holly)
Magnolia sp. (magnolia)
Picea abies (Norway spruce) planted
Pinus strobus (white pine)
Platanus occidentalis (American sycamore)
Quercus palustris (pin oak)
Taxus sp. (yew tree)
Tsuga canadensis (eastern hemlock)
Ulmus americana (American elm) *

Shrubs and sub-shrubs:
Forsythia sp. (golden bells)
Kalmia latifolia (mountain laurel)
Rubus phoenicolasius (wineberry)
Taxus sp. (yew) hedge

Vines:
Hedera helix (English ivy)

Herbs:
Narcissus sp. (daffodil) *
Phytolacca americana (pokeweed)
Polygonum cuspidatum (Japanese knotweed)
Ranunculus ficaria * lots in bloom
Typha latifolia (broad-leaved cattail)