Cadwalader Park
Cadwalader
Park
Cadwalader
Park is the largest urban park in the City of Trenton (109.5 acres). Originally
the Delaware & Raritan (D&R)
Canal State Park flowed.
Dr.
Thomas Cadwalader of Philadelphia moved to Trenton in 1743 to become Chief
Burgess (Burgess was a British title used in the medieval and early modern period to
designate someone of the burgher class.
It originally meant a freeman of
a borough or burgh but
later coming to mean an official of a municipality or a representative in
the House of Commons.).
He bought a large tract of land northwest of
town where he built a country home, in 1746.
The
most notable change to this land came between 1832 and 1834 when the feeder for
the D&R canal company constructed a canal to supply water from the Delaware
River . A bridge crossed the canal near Cadwallader’s house.
Cadwallader’s
property sold off in various parcels after 1776 and in 1841, Henry McCall
bought a parcel of this land that included most of the current park.
McCall
hired architect, John Notman, of Philadelphia to build him a house, which he
called Ellarslie. It is an Italianate villa with large piazzas on the west and
south side intended to take advantage of a view down the slope to the Delaware.
The property also featured landscaping with specimen trees and a tree-lined
entry drive, which came from West State Street and crossed the D&R feeder
canal.
Planning the Park’s Development
McCall
sold his property to George Farlee in 1881. Farlee subdivided some of the land
across the current Stuyvesant Avenue north of the park into lots for a
residential neighborhood called Hillcrest. In 1888, Farlee put the remaining eighty
acres, including Ellarslie and a few outbuildings up for sale. The City
of Trenton was looking for land for a park and acquired the property for
$50,000. The property transferred to the City on May 22, 1888. Five days after
the City purchased the estate.
Thousands of Trentonians showed up to
inspect their new park. This is particularly impressive when one considers that
many of them walked there from downtown Trenton. For those who could afford the
fare, Trenton had horse-drawn streetcars that ran on Spring Street as far as
Prospect, but its riders had to hike the rest of the way.
In
1892, the horse-car line extended from Prospect Street out West State Street to
the Park. On July 4th of that year, an astonishing 12,000 people visited the
newly accessible Park. The first electric trolley car made the trip two years
later.
Initial improvements simply added park features, such as benches, tables, and a temporary bandstand, or demolished agrarian estate features, such as the fences. The Ellarslie residence converted into space for a natural history museum and a refectory. Citizens began to donate small animals and birds to the park, thus establishing a menagerie. The old stable and other outbuildings converted to accommodate this “zoological garden” and the variety of animals grew to include larger animals such as deer, monkeys, and a black bear cub, brought to the park by Edmund Hill, a baker, caterer, diarist and civic leader in Trenton.
Discussions among Hill and other Trenton civic leaders led to the engagement of Frederick Law Olmsted’s firm to design a park in 1890. Olmsted was the premier park designer in the United States and is best known as the designer, with Calvert Vaux, of Central Park in New York City. For Cadwalader Park, Olmsted prepared plans for pedestrian paths and carriage drives by which the scenery of the park maximized the leisure and tranquility intended. Lawns and groves surrounding the Ellarslie mansion located in the heart of the park. Ellarslie formed a central element of the plan. Olmsted wanted to turn the mansion into a restaurant for park patrons and add a large vine-covered trellis next to the building.
|
|
Within
this guideguide there
are more than 250 projects designed by the various iterations of the Olmsted
firm, from seminal works by Olmsted, Sr., to the local parks and campuses that impactimpact
on our daily lives. The Olmsted firm shaped the continent from
coast-to-coast, from Vancouver, Canada, to Lake Wales, Florida. The
bicentennial of Olmsted, Sr.'s birth, provides an opportunity to reflect on
this extraordinary and influential legacy and the lasting impact of his core
tenet: designed with democracy and democratic values in mind. Olmsted firm's
work intended to be free and open to the public, and their benefits were
available to everyone.
https://www.tclf.org/places/view-city-and-regional-guides/new-whats-out-there-olmsted/olmsted-landscape-legacy
In
1892, the horse-car line extended from Prospect Street out West State Street to
the Park. On July 4 of that year, an astonishing 12,000 people visited the
newly accessible Park. The first electric trolley car made the trip two years
later.
Discussions
among Hill and other Trenton civic leaders led to the engagement of
Frederick Law Olmsted’s firm to design a park in 1890. Olmsted was the premier
park designer in the United States and is best known as the designer, with
Calvert Vaux, of Central Park in New York City. For Cadwalader Park, Olmsted
prepared plans for pedestrian paths and carriage drives so that park attendees
could enjoy the location and type of vegetation and trees, and lawns and groves
surrounding the Ellarslie mansion located in the heart of the park. Ellarslie
formed a central element of the plan. Olmsted wanted to turn the mansion into a
restaurant for park patrons and add a large vine-covered trellis next to the
building. He created an approach to the mansion from the new entrance to the
park on Parkside Ave. The park plan also featured a concert grove – a meadow
designed for both carriages and pedestrians to attend concerts in a bandshell.
Figure 10 Olmstead Firm Design Of Park
The
ravine just west of Parkside Avenue, where Olmsted sited the new main entrance
to the park, received attention during the early years of the park. This was
one of the areas that Olmsted urged the city to acquire to fill out the park
boundaries beyond the property acquired from George Farlee in 1888.
John
L. Cadwalader and his family gave the seven-acre ravine area to the city in the
fall of 1891. The development of this section intertwined with the Cadwalader
family’s development of Cadwalader Heights on the other side of Parkside
Avenue.
Initial
improvements added park features, such as benches, tables, and a temporary
bandstand, or demolished agrarian estate features, such as fences. The
Ellarslie residence converted into space for a natural history museum and a
refectory. Citizens began to donate small animals and birds to the Park, to establish
a menagerie. The old stable and other outbuildings converted to accommodate
this "zoological garden," and the variety of animals grew to include
larger animals such as deer, monkeys, and a black bear cub, brought to the Park
by Edmund Hill, a baker, caterer, diarist and civic leader in Trenton.
Discussions
among Hill and other Trenton civic
leaders led to the hiring of Frederick Law Olmsted's firm to design a park in
1890. Olmsted was the premier park designer in the United States and was best
known as the designer, with Calvert Vaux, of Central Park in New York City.
For
Cadwalader Park, Olmsted prepared plans for pedestrian paths and carriage
drives by which the scenery of the Park maximized the leisure and tranquility
intended. Lawns and groves surround the Ellerslie mansion in the heart of the
Park. Ellarslie formed a central element of the plan. Olmsted wanted to turn
the mansion into a restaurant for park patrons and add a sizeable vine-covered
trellis next to the building. He created an approach to the mansion from the
new entrance to the Park on Parkside Ave. The park plan also featured a concert
grove – a meadow designed for carriages and pedestrians to attend concerts in a
bandshell.
Initial Olmstead Firm Design Of Park
The
ravine just west of Parkside Avenue, where Olmsted sited the new main entrance
to the Park, received a large amount of attention during the early years of the
Park. This was one of the areas that Olmsted urged the City to acquire to fill
out the park boundaries beyond the property acquired from George Farlee in
1888.
John
L. Cadwalader and his family gave the seven-acre ravine area to the City in the
fall of 1891. The development of this section intertwined with the Cadwalader
family's development of Cadwalader Heights on the other side of Parkside
Avenue. (See the website for more information on the Cadwalader Heights
neighborhood.)
The Park's Construction
Construction
of the Park with Olmsted's guidance began soon after he received the commission
in 1890. He and his son, John C.
Olmsted, Jr., offered suggestions
incorporated into working drawings.
Olmsted
designed the Park on Parkside Avenue
entrance with a bridge over the stream and the "rustic stone parapet"
along the eastern ravine. In 1891, an entrance appeared.
The
northwest corner of the Park, with the ball fields and a large pond, developed
with the acquisition of the land in 1926.
In
1892, a new city administration opposed toopposed
expenditures for parks came into power, and Olmsted's involvement ceased until
1910.
|
Figure 11
Scenic Vista |
|
Figure 12
Rock Garden |
It
was during this time that the City built the deer paddock (against Olmsted's
wishes) on the western side of the Park (the barns went up in 1913), a statutestatue
of George Washington resided in the Park (later moved to Mill Hill Park), as
well a statue a of John Roebling. As part of the Park Commission's Report, the
1906 Annual Report of the City of Trenton contains a list of the animals in the
Park menagerie. At one point, the Cadwalader Park Zoo even boasted a lion, but
the roaring kept nearby residents awake at night, and the lion had to go.
The
Cadwalader Park's first black bear, named Kitty Hill in honor of Edmund Hill,
was young but committed to freedom. When she arrived at the train station on
Clinton Avenue, Kitty broke out of her crate and ran amok in Mercer Cemetery.
The
Park's last bear, Briar Patch, lived longer in captivity than any other black
bear. Briar Patch died in 1983, and the burial is just behind the bear pit.
Olmsted's
firm did have some continued involvement with the development of the Park below
the Canal from 1910-1911, but the City abandoned many parts of the plan.
Cadwalader Park in the 1920s
The
original entrance to the Park was a tree-lined path known as Lover's Lane that
ran from West State Street up a sloping hill to the D&R Canal feeder. At
the top of Lover's Lane, park visitors had to dash across the Belvidere
Division of the Pennsylvania Railroad tracks and then cross a small bridge over
the Canal Feeder to enter the Park. The City recognized the dangers of this
situation, and in 1910 the road tunneled under the Canal, and Parkside Avenue
extended to State Street. The 1910 road Canal feeder is still in use today. In
1925, the park employee dissembled the bridge over the D&R canal. The
Parkside entrance became the main entrance of the Park. In the photo above,
Lover's Lane is still visible as the tree-lined road on the lower-left side of
the picture. The railroad tracks travel along the south side of the Canal, but
the bridge is no longer there. The Parkside Avenue tunnel is also partly
visible in the lower-right corner of the photo. Ballfields, tennis, and
basketball courts appeared on either side of Lover's Lane in 1967. A new bridge
across the Canal Feeder 1982 to connect Cadwalader Park to the D&R Greenway
State Park replaced the railroad tracks.
|
Figure 13
Leisure |
|
Figure 14
Graham Holmes's 1931 painting of the Bandshell in the Park |
with
a more substantial traditional band shell structure replaced the original
pavilion built for concerts under Olmsted in 1913. The exterior of the band
shell was white, and the domed backdrop was sky blue. It served as the
all-purpose stage for weekly concerts, events, and ceremonies in the Park.
|
Figure 15
Original Bandstand |
The
band's shell burned down in 1967 during an unintentionally spectacular production
of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.
Cadwalader Park Carousel
Growing
up in Trenton has long included memories of the playground in Cadwalader Park.
The playground featured a merry-go-round, swings, and pony rides in its early
years. Later, the Horan family held the concession for rides in the playground
for over 30 years. For fifteen cents a ride or four for fifty cents, kids lined
up to ride the airplane swings, the Kiddie Whirl, the fire engines, or the
merry-go-round.
|
Figure 16 Cadwalader Park
Carousel |
Comments
Post a Comment