About
Grover Cleveland Park in Caldwell/Essex Fells celebrated its centennial in 2013. As the first county park in western Essex County, the site was originally selected for its natural beauty and its potential to provide a space for relaxation and recreation. It contains gentle rolling hills, broad meadows and other environmentally aesthetic features
Historic Profile
Grover Cleveland Park, the seventh largest park in the county park system, is a heavily wooded park of 41.48 acres located in the western section of Essex County along the Caldwell-Essex Fells border line. It is bounded by Runnymede Road, Brookside Avenue, and the abandoned Erie Railroad. The setting of this park is that of a formal design with manicured lawns, well-spaced large trees, three acres of waterways, including Pine Brook Creek, which runs through the park feeding a small pond at the lower end. A small footbridge at the far end of the pond marks the location of a former sawmill which at one time was used for grinding tanbark to make paper.
The park was acquired between 1913 and 1916 and is named after President Grover Cleveland who was born in Caldwell, and was the 22nd and 24th President of the United States.
The Olmsted Brothers were asked to develop a park plan designed to make a large portion of the area usable for recreation purposes. By the summer of 1914, improvements were underway which included tennis courts, baseball fields, a playground, sand court, wading pool and a shelter house to service these facilities. The park improvements were completed in 1916.
