Roosevelt Park is a 217-acre

park A park is an area of natural, semi-natural or planted space set aside for human enjoyment and recreation or for the protection of wildlife or natural habitats. Urban parks are urban green space, green spaces set aside for recreation inside t ...

located in central east

Edison Thomas Alva Edison (February 11, 1847October 18, 1931) was an American inventor and businessman. He developed many devices in fields such as electric power generation, mass communication, sound recording, and motion pictures. These invention ...

New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...

, at Parsonage Road and

U.S. Route 1 U.S. Route 1 or U.S. Highway 1 (US 1) is a major north–south United States Numbered Highway that serves the East Coast of the United States. It runs from Key West, Florida, north to Fort Kent, Maine, at the Canadian border, making i ...

, just west of

Menlo Park Mall Menlo Park Mall is a two-level super regional shopping mall, located on U.S. Route 1 and Parsonage Road in Edison, New Jersey. The mall has a gross leasable area of .Middlesex County Park System. It is owned and operated by the county government.

History

On July 5, 1917, the Middlesex County Board of Freeholders authorized the purchase of 208 acres of land in Raritan Township for the construction of a county hospital for tuberculosis patients. According to The Guide to Edison Township, the purchased land was "free of population and free from any kind of buildings. The closest people to it was one farmer and the nearest populated area was downtown Metuchen". On April 7, 1919, NJ Assembly Bill 498, which sought to establish a bond to facilitate the funding of construction of the hospital, died in committee, leaving the prospects for a new hospital in doubt. There was discussion of selling the land purchased for a hospital. On October 10, 1923, the Middlesex County Recreation Association hosted a luncheon/meeting at the Hotel Klein in New Brunswick and received broad support from local agencies and state and local officials to create the county's first park on the lands once designated for the tuberculosis hospital. A fundraising campaign to construct a Kiddie Keep Well camp on part of the grounds of the new county park was conducted 7-14 September 1924.Daily Home News, 14 Aug 1924, page 14 The Middlesex County freeholders established Roosevelt Park with funding from the Emergency Relief Administration in 1933 and subsequent improvements through the

Civilian Conservation Corps The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) was a voluntary government work relief program that ran from 1933 to 1942 in the United States for unemployed, unmarried men ages 18–25 and eventually expanded to ages 17–28. The CCC was a major part of ...

(CCC) and the

Works Progress Administration The Works Progress Administration (WPA; renamed in 1939 as the Work Projects Administration) was an American New Deal agency that employed millions of jobseekers (mostly men who were not formally educated) to carry out public works projects, i ...

(WPA). Hundreds of CCC workers of the Second Corps Area (New York, Connecticut and New Jersey) trained at

Camp Dix Fort Dix, the common name for the Army Support Activity (ASA) located at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, is a United States Army post. It is located south-southeast of Trenton, New Jersey. Fort Dix is under the jurisdiction of the Air Force ...

in the summers of 1934 and 1935 and were positioned at a camp seven miles west of Raritan train station, likely Raritan Arsenal. In particular, Company 1209 was trained by the

US Army The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cla ...

in forestry operations and worked in Raritan Township on CCC Project P-67 beginning August 8, 1935. File:RooseveltParkStonemon1933c.jpg, Roosevelt Park stone monument (front) File:RooseveltParkStonemon1933d.JPG, Roosevelt Park stone monument (side) File:RooseveltParkStonemon1933b.jpg, Roosevelt Park stone monument plaque on front File:RooseveltParkStonemonplaque1933a.jpg, Roosevelt Park stone monument, plaque on back The Middlesex County Board of Chosen Freeholders erected a large stone monument in 1933 dedicated to the park and the men of the county who built it. It is situated at the edge of the park along Route 1 North, just north of the Parsonage Road overpass, near the intersection of Lafayette Avenue and Roosevelt Drive. *The front of the monument facing Route 1 has a plaque that reads: "Dedicated to the men of Middlesex County who donated their labors to develop this park in exchange for the benefits of relief received. - Emergency Relief Administration (ERA),

Lewis Compton Lewis Compton (7 November 1892 – 24 October 1942) was an officer in the United States Navy during World War I. Biography Born in Perth Amboy, New Jersey, Compton enrolled in the United States Naval Reserve 22 March 1917. After active duty in ...

, Director." *The back of the monument has a plaque that reads, "1933; Roosevelt Park; Board of Chosen Freeholders; Middlesex County, NJ; Lewis Compton, Director; Henry C Berg, Anthony J Gebhardt, W Robert Hale, Klemmer Kalteissen, Peter M Kroeger, C Raymond Wicoff; George R Merrill, County Engineer" The county tuberculosis hospital—

Roosevelt Hospital Mount Sinai West, opened in 1871 as Roosevelt Hospital, is affiliated with the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and the Mount Sinai Health System. The 514-bed facility is located in the Midtown West neighborhood of New York City. The fac ...

—was built adjacent to and overlooking the park. The county received $575,000 in federal funding through the

Public Works Administration The Public Works Administration (PWA), part of the New Deal of 1933, was a large-scale public works construction agency in the United States headed by Secretary of the Interior Harold L. Ickes. It was created by the National Industrial Recove ...

and construction began on May 3, 1935. The hospital was dedicated on October 31, 1936, and opened March 8, 1937. The hospital was added to the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

in 2002. With ''Light Dispelling Darkness'', a fountain designed by the sculptor

Waylande Gregory Waylande Desantis Gregory (1905 Baxter Springs, Kansas – 1971, New Jersey) was one of the most innovative and prolific American art-deco ceramics sculptors of the early 20th century. His groundbreaking techniques enabled him to create monument ...

, was sponsored by the WPA and unveiled in 1938. The theme of enlightenment through knowledge and science was inspired in part by the proximity of Menlo Park, where

Thomas Edison Thomas Alva Edison (February 11, 1847October 18, 1931) was an American inventor and businessman. He developed many devices in fields such as electric power generation, mass communication, sound recording, and motion pictures. These inventio ...

invented the

light bulb An electric light, lamp, or light bulb is an electrical component that produces light. It is the most common form of artificial lighting. Lamps usually have a base made of ceramic, metal, glass, or plastic, which secures the lamp in the soc ...

. The fountain is 15 feet high and 40 feet in diameter, with six symbolic groups representing "War", "Pestilence", "Famine", "Death", "Greed", and "Materialism". The fountain was restored in 2004 after falling into disrepair. File:Waylande-Gregory-WPA-1937.jpg,

at work on ''Light Dispelling Darkness'' (1937) File:Archives of American Art - Waylande Gregory at work on 'Light dispelling darkness' - 6628.jpg, WPA artists working on ''Light Dispelling Darkness'' (1937) File:LightDispelDarkness1.jpg, ''Light Dispelling Darkness'' in 2016 File:LightDispelDarkness3.jpg, ''Light Dispelling Darkness'' (detail)

Sports and recreation

The park provides a wide range of facilities for sports and recreation, including fields for baseball and soccer; picnic areas equipped with tables and bbq grills; miles of trails for bicycling, hiking, walking and jogging; courts for basketball and tennis; fishing at an eight-acre man-made lake; and a rink for ice skating or roller skating, depending on the season. "The Level Playing Fields" provides dedicated sports facilities for people with physical and other special needs, including a fully equipped artificial-turf diamond with backstop, dugouts, and grandstands for spectators). The

East Coast Greenway The East Coast Greenway is a pedestrian and bicycle route between Maine and Florida along the East Coast of the United States. In 2020, the Greenway received over 50 million visits. The nonprofit East Coast Greenway Alliance was created in 1991. ...

, a 3,000 mile long system of trails connecting Maine and Florida, goes through the park.

Arts and education

Chapter 24 of the National Association of Civilian Conservation Corps Alumni and the Middlesex County Board of Chosen Freeholders erected a monument dedicated on 31 March 2003 recognizing the work of the Civilian Conservation Corps (1933-1942). The statue, nicknamed "Iron Mike", is a representation of the typical CCC worker, spade in hand. It is situated on Lafayette Avenue near the corner of US Route 1 North and Grandview Avenue. Two monuments dedicated to

Marie Curie Marie Salomea Skłodowska–Curie ( , , ; born Maria Salomea Skłodowska, ; 7 November 1867 – 4 July 1934) was a Polish and naturalized-French physicist and chemist who conducted pioneering research on radioactivity. She was the first ...

can be found on Elm Drive in the park, one erected in 1938 and the other in 1993. The Middlesex County Veterans Memorial was unveiled on Veterans Day in November 2001. It consists of eight large concrete walls, six representing the various military services and two with dedications and memorials to the county's veterans, and a fountain with sculptures. The Lakeview School and Rehabilitation Center for children with

cerebral palsy Cerebral palsy (CP) is a group of movement disorders that appear in early childhood. Signs and symptoms vary among people and over time, but include poor coordination, stiff muscles, weak muscles, and tremors. There may be problems with sensa ...

is located within Roosevelt Park. The Kiddie Keep Well Camp was established in 1924 to treat children with

tuberculosis Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease usually caused by '' Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can also affect other parts of the body. Most infections show no symptoms, in ...

. In the summer, the county sponsors various outdoor theater festivals, including " Plays in the Park" and "Music in the Park."

References

Sources

*A Guide to Edison Township: Its History and Community Resources, by April Cormaci and Ian Durand (2004: Allegra Print and Imaging, Iselin, NJ), pp 43-48 *Welcome to Edison, by David C Sheehan (1991: Edison Township Historical Society, Edison, NJ), pg 96 *Edison: Images of America Series, by Stacy E Spies (2001:Arcadia Publishing, Charleston, SC), pp 75-84 *A Tuberculosis Directory, Containing a List of Institutions, Associations and Other Agencies Dealing With Tuberculosis in the United States and Canada, National Tuberculosis Association, 1916, pg 329

External links

Roosevelt Park (Middlesex County)Roosevelt Park (YouTube, 2010)Ice Skating ScheduleVintage Picture of Park (1933)Light Dispelling Darkness (Roadside America)Light Dispelling Darkness (Weird NJ)Veterans Memorial Dedication (Graybeards, Jan/Feb 2002, pages 14-15)
* ttp://www.ccclegacy.org/CCC_Camps_New_Jersey.html Civilian Conservation Corps Legacy, New Jersey Campsbr>Civilian Conservation Corps Legacy, Statues List (Statue 19)Iron Mike (Waymarking)
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