Branch Brook Park

Park Avenue and Lake Street, Newark, NJ 07104

(973) 268-3500

www.essexcountyparks.org

Branch Brook Park is the largest park in the city of Newark and the first county park to be opened for public use in the United States. The original park was located on what had been a Civil War training ground and nearby swamp. The original Romantic design was altered in 1900 when renowned architect Frederick Law Olmsted Sr. was commissioned, resulting in the park’s current landscape. The park is listed on both the New Jersey and National Registers of Historic Places.

The park is noted for the largest collection of cherry blossom trees in the United States. Today the park's 360 acres include vast lawns, playing fields, winding paths, and miles of streams, pools and lakes.

WHAT TO SEE AND DO

• Visit historic landscape features, such as the Prudential Lions, the Octagon Shelter and the park's unique bridges
• Take a guided tour of the park
• Visit the Cathedral Basilica of the Sacred Heart, one of the largest Gothic-style churches in the country, adjacent the park
• Enjoy the largest collection of Japanese flowering trees in one location in the United States, including 4,000 flowering cherry trees