Warinanco Park (pronounced by locals as War-Rah-NINK-co) is a county park in

Union County, New Jersey Union County is a county in the northern part of the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2020 U.S. census, the county's population was 575,345, making it the seventh-most populous of New Jersey's 21 counties. Its county seat is Elizabeth.

. It is located in Roselle at the border with the neighboring cities of

Elizabeth Elizabeth or Elisabeth may refer to: People * Elizabeth (given name), a female given name (including people with that name) * Elizabeth (biblical figure), mother of John the Baptist Ships * HMS ''Elizabeth'', several ships * ''Elisabeth'' (sch ...

and Linden.

History

In 1921, a group of local citizens alarmed by the rapid industrialization of the area created the Union County Park Commission by referendum vote of the people, to purchase and preserve remaining natural areas. In 1923, the famous landscape design firm, the

Olmsted Brothers The Olmsted Brothers company was a landscape architectural firm in the United States, established in 1898 by brothers John Charles Olmsted (1852–1920) and Frederick Law Olmsted Jr. (1870–1957), sons of the landscape architect Frederick Law ...

(founded by their father

Frederick Law Olmsted Frederick Law Olmsted (April 26, 1822August 28, 1903) was an American landscape architect, journalist, social critic, and public administrator. He is considered to be the father of landscape architecture in the USA. Olmsted was famous for co- ...

who designed New York's

Central Park Central Park is an urban park in New York City located between the Upper West Side, Upper West and Upper East Sides of Manhattan. It is the List of New York City parks, fifth-largest park in the city, covering . It is the most visited urban par ...

) completed its design plans for "Elizabeth Park," now known as "Warinanco."

Lenape namesake

This park, known for its beautiful views of green fields, was named in 1925 for an indigenous

Lenape The Lenape (, , or Lenape , del, Lënapeyok) also called the Leni Lenape, Lenni Lenape and Delaware people, are an indigenous peoples of the Northeastern Woodlands, who live in the United States and Canada. Their historical territory includ ...

tribal leader of the region, whose name was recorded by English colonists as "Warinanco" in 1664. That year, a group called the Elizabethtown Associates bought the

Elizabethtown Tract The Elizabethtown Tract was a property that was purchased on October 28, 1664, by John Baily, Daniel Denton and Luke Watson from the Native Americans that is in the area of (and surrounding) present-day Elizabeth, New Jersey. The Native American ...

including land in today's Union County from Warinanco and another

leader, Mattano. Warinanco's name is recorded elsewhere as "Waerhinnis Couwee," "Warrines" and "Wieronies." It is thought that Warinanco was a minor

sachem Sachems and sagamores are paramount chiefs among the Algonquians or other Native American tribes of northeastern North America, including the Iroquois. The two words are anglicizations of cognate terms (c. 1622) from different Eastern Al ...

, or tribal elder, of the

Hackensack people Hackensack was the exonym given by the Dutch colonists to a band of the Lenape, or ''Lenni-Lenape'' ("original men"), a Native American tribe. The name is a Dutch derivation of the Lenape word for what is now the region of northeastern New Jerse ...

(a band or subgroup among the Lenape).

Features and landmarks

Azalea Garden

The Caxton Brown Memorial Azalea Garden, located just south of the Warinanco Park Administration building. The garden is dedicated to the memory of Caxton Brown of

Summit, New Jersey Summit is a city in Union County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. The city is located on a ridge in northern- central New Jersey, within the Raritan Valley and Rahway Valley regions in the New York metropolitan area. At the 2010 United Sta ...

(1879-1952), who helped create, and was a member of, the Union County Park Commission. It contains hundreds of plants in many dozens of manicured beds.Thomas S. Spencer, John J. Russell. Gardens Across America: East of the Mississippi. Rowman & Littlefield, 2005 - Gardening - 460 pages A boulder and plaque was dedicated in Brown's memory in the azalea garden in 1957.

Chatfield Garden

The Henry S. Chatfield Memorial Garden (also known as the Chatfield Garden). This area originally contained 14,200 tulips imported from Holland and planted in 21 beds but has been transitioned to more diverse blooms beyond tulips to support pollinators throughout the season. It is named for the Union County Park Commission's first president Henry Summers Chatfield (1864-1933), who is memorialized with a stone bench in the tulip garden.

Union County Park Commission Administration Buildings The Union County Park Commission Administration Buildings are located in Warinanco Park in Elizabeth, New Jersey. The Administration Building and the Service Building were built in 1924-1925 in the Tudor Revival style soon after the establishmen ...

These historic buildings are listed on the

state State may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Literature * ''State Magazine'', a monthly magazine published by the U.S. Department of State * ''The State'' (newspaper), a daily newspaper in Columbia, South Carolina, United States * ''Our S ...

and the

federal Federal or foederal (archaic) may refer to: Politics General *Federal monarchy, a federation of monarchies *Federation, or ''Federal state'' (federal system), a type of government characterized by both a central (federal) government and states or ...

registers of historic places in 1985.

Track and field

There is a 400-meter long athletic track as well as a long jump track and a space for shot put. Inside of the athletic track there is an artificial-surface field that can be used for soccer, football, and other sports.

Magnolia Grove

A mature planting of a large number of flowering magnolia trees draws visitors every spring.

Warinanco Lake

A dock offers paddleboating.

Warinanco Park Sports Center

This sports center, including the Warinanco Ice Rink, was expanded and modernized in 2017.

Flora and fauna

Warinanco is known for its brightly colored springtime displays of cherry blossom, dogwood, redbud, and azalea blooms. The impressive display of Japanese cherry blossoms surrounding Warinanco Lake dates back to 1931, where Caxton Brown and his brother donated them to the park.The Courier News Location:Bridgewater, New Jersey Issue Date:Thursday, May 2, 1974 Page 53 Trees include: *

Betula populifolia ''Betula populifolia'' (gray or grey birch) is a deciduous tree native to eastern North America. Range It ranges from southeastern Ontario east to Nova Scotia, and south to Pennsylvania and New Jersey, with disjunct populations in Indiana, Vi ...

(gray birch) *

Fagus grandifolia ''Fagus grandifolia'', the American beech or North American beech, is a species of beech tree native to the eastern United States and extreme southeast of Canada. Description ''Fagus grandifolia'' is a large deciduous tree growing to tall, w ...

(American beech) *

Juniperus virginiana ''Juniperus virginiana'', also known as red cedar, eastern red cedar, Virginian juniper, eastern juniper, red juniper, and other local names, is a species of juniper native to eastern North America from southeastern Canada to the Gulf of Mexico a ...

(red cedar) *

Liquidambar styraciflua American sweetgum (''Liquidambar styraciflua''), also known as American storax, hazel pine, bilsted, redgum, satin-walnut, star-leaved gum, alligatorwood, or simply sweetgum, is a deciduous tree in the genus ''Liquidambar'' native to warm temper ...

(sweetgum) *

Magnolia ''Magnolia'' is a large genus of about 210 to 340The number of species in the genus ''Magnolia'' depends on the taxonomic view that one takes up. Recent molecular and morphological research shows that former genera ''Talauma'', ''Dugandiodendro ...

spp. (magnolia) planted *

Picea abies ''Picea abies'', the Norway spruce or European spruce, is a species of spruce native to Northern Europe, Northern, Central Europe, Central and Eastern Europe. It has branchlets that typically hang downwards, and the largest cones of any spruce, ...

(Norway spruce) *

Pinus A pine is any conifer tree or shrub in the genus ''Pinus'' () of the family Pinaceae. ''Pinus'' is the sole genus in the subfamily Pinoideae. The World Flora Online created by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and Missouri Botanical Garden accep ...

sp. (pine) *

Pinus strobus ''Pinus strobus'', commonly called the eastern white pine, northern white pine, white pine, Weymouth pine (British), and soft pine is a large pine native to eastern North America. It occurs from Newfoundland, Canada west through the Great Lake ...

(white pine) *

Platanus occidentalis ''Platanus occidentalis'', also known as American sycamore, American planetree, western plane, occidental plane, buttonwood, and water beech, is a species of ''Platanus'' native to the eastern and central United States, the mountains of northeas ...

(American sycamore) *

Prunus ''Prunus'' is a genus of trees and shrubs, which includes (among many others) the fruits plums, cherries, peaches, nectarines, apricots, and almonds. Native to the North American temperate regions, the neotropics of South America, and the p ...

spp. (cherry) *

Quercus alba An oak is a tree or shrub in the genus ''Quercus'' (; Latin "oak tree") of the beech family, Fagaceae. There are approximately 500 extant species of oaks. The common name "oak" also appears in the names of species in related genera, notably '' ...

(white oak) *

Quercus palustris ''Quercus palustris'', the pin oak or swamp Spanish oak, is a tree in the red oak section (''Quercus'' sect. ''Lobatae'') of the genus ''Quercus''. Pin oak is one of the most commonly used landscaping oaks in its native range due to its ease of ...

(pin oak) *

Quercus rubra ''Quercus rubra'', the northern red oak, is an oak tree in the red oak group (''Quercus'' section ''Lobatae''). It is a native of North America, in the eastern and central United States and southeast and south-central Canada. It has been introdu ...

(red oak) *

Tsuga canadensis ''Tsuga canadensis'', also known as eastern hemlock, eastern hemlock-spruce, or Canadian hemlock, and in the French-speaking regions of Canada as ''pruche du Canada'', is a coniferous tree native to eastern North America. It is the state tree o ...

(eastern hemlock) *

Cercis canadensis ''Cercis canadensis'', the eastern redbud, is a large deciduous shrub or small tree, native to eastern North America from southern Michigan south to central Mexico, east to New Jersey. Species thrive as far west as California and as far north as ...

(eastern redbud) Shrubs include: * Pieris sp. (andromeda) planted *

Rhododendron ''Rhododendron'' (; from Ancient Greek ''rhódon'' "rose" and ''déndron'' "tree") is a very large genus of about 1,024 species of woody plants in the heath family (Ericaceae). They can be either evergreen or deciduous. Most species are nati ...

maximum (rosebay rhododendron) planted *

spp. (azalea) *

Taxus ''Taxus'' is a genus of coniferous trees or shrubs known as yews in the family Taxaceae. They are relatively slow-growing and can be very long-lived, and reach heights of , with trunk girth averaging . They have reddish bark, lanceolate, flat, ...

sp. (yew) Herbs and flowers include: * Artemisia vulgaris (common mugwort) *

Tulip Tulips (''Tulipa'') are a genus of spring-blooming perennial herbaceous bulbiferous geophytes (having bulbs as storage organs). The flowers are usually large, showy and brightly coloured, generally red, pink, yellow, or white (usually in warm ...

(tulips) planted

References

{{Union County Parks, New Jersey Protected areas of Union County, New Jersey Nature reserves in New Jersey Geography of Elizabeth, New Jersey Roselle, New Jersey County parks in New Jersey Parks in Union County, New Jersey Landscape design history of the United States Urban forests in the United States Urban public parks