2013-08-26 12 12 43 View from a picnic area through some trees toward Mercer Lake near the marina in Mercer County Park

The Richard J. Coffee Mercer County Park is a recreational park located in Mercer County,

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 ...

– mostly within West Windsor Township, but also with small western sections extending into Hamilton and

Lawrence Lawrence may refer to: Education Colleges and universities * Lawrence Technological University, a university in Southfield, Michigan, United States * Lawrence University, a liberal arts university in Appleton, Wisconsin, United States Preparator ...

Townships. Originally and still more commonly known as simply Mercer County Park, it was renamed for New Jersey State Senator

Richard J. Coffee Richard J. Coffee (February 14, 1925 – February 19, 2017) was an American Democratic Party politician from New Jersey who served in the New Jersey Senate and as chairman of the New Jersey Democratic State Committee. Biography Coffee was born in ...

on October 15, 2009. The park encompasses over covering much of southern West Windsor, with portions extending into adjacent Hamilton and

. Mercer Lake, located within the park, is the home for the US Olympic Rowing Team's training center. The National Softball Association honored the Mercer County Park Commission with its "Outstanding Parks Award" for the softball fields and facilities in Mercer County Park. It has served as the home field for the New Jersey Pride of the

Major League Lacrosse Major League Lacrosse (MLL) was a men's field lacrosse league in the United States. The league's inaugural season was in 2001. Teams played anywhere from ten to 16 games in a summertime regular season. This was followed by a four-team playoff ...

for one game in 2004, 2005 and 2006. It has also hosted semi-professional

Minor League Cricket Minor League Cricket (branded as the Toyota Minor League Cricket Championship presented by Sling TV for sponsorship reasons, and sometimes shortened to MiLC) is an American Twenty20 cricket developmental league for Major League Cricket which com ...

matches.

History

The land was acquired between the late 1960s and the early 1970s. It consists of 50-plus pieces of property, which included many farms. Ground was broken for the park in June 1971. Because of the construction of Routes

I-95 Interstate 95 (I-95) is the main north–south Interstate Highway on the East Coast of the United States, running from US Route 1 (US 1) in Miami, Florida, to the Houlton–Woodstock Border Crossing between Maine and the Canadia ...

and

I-295 Interstate 295 is the designation for several Interstate Highways in the United States: *Interstate 295 (Delaware–Pennsylvania), a bypass of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania * Interstate 295 (Florida), a beltway around central Jacksonville * Interstate ...

, the lake basin was excavated and paid for by selling gravel to the highway contractors, which in turn helped excavate the basin now known as Lake Mercer.

Facilities

*36 holes of

golf Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standardized playing area, and coping ...

(Mercer Oaks East and West) * Seventeen athletic fields used for soccer, football, and

lacrosse Lacrosse is a team sport played with a lacrosse stick and a lacrosse ball. It is the oldest organized sport in North America, with its origins with the indigenous people of North America as early as the 12th century. The game was extensiv ...

Ice skating Ice skating is the self-propulsion and gliding of a person across an ice surface, using metal-bladed ice skates. People skate for various reasons, including recreation (fun), exercise, competitive sports, and commuting. Ice skating may be per ...

center (home to the Mercer Bulldogs special hockey tea

*

Tennis Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent ( singles) or between two teams of two players each ( doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball ...

center (24 total courts - six of which are covered and are lit) * Cross country course * Mountain biking area * Boat house/marina * Finn Caspersen Rowing Center *

Crew A crew is a body or a class of people who work at a common activity, generally in a structured or hierarchical organization. A location in which a crew works is called a crewyard or a workyard. The word has nautical resonances: the tasks involved ...

course * Nature trail * Fishing * Hiking and jogging area Mercer County Park Mountain Bike Trail

* 3-mile paved trail * Picnic areas * Dog parks * Frisbee golf course * Three sand

volleyball Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules. It has been a part of the official program of the Sum ...

courts * Two cricket pitches * Seven

basketball court In basketball, the basketball court is the playing surface, consisting of a rectangular floor, with baskets at each end. Indoor basketball courts are almost always made of polished wood, usually maple, with -high rims on each basket. Outdoor sur ...

s * Ten

softball Softball is a game similar to baseball played with a larger ball on a smaller field. Softball is played competitively at club levels, the college level, and the professional level. The game was first created in 1887 in Chicago by George Hanc ...

fields * Veterans Memorial Park * Parking facilities * Seven

washroom A bathroom or washroom is a room, typically in a home or other residential building, that contains either a bathtub or a shower (or both). The inclusion of a wash basin is common. In some parts of the world e.g. India, a toilet is typically ...

s * 9/11 Memorial - A steel beam weighing one ton and ten feet long was given to the county by the

Port Authority of New York and New Jersey The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, PANYNJ; stylized, in logo since 2020, as Port Authority NY NJ, is a joint venture between the U.S. states of New York and New Jersey, established in 1921 through an interstate compact authorize ...

in March 2011 and is now displayed at Mercer County Park to commemorate the deceased Mercer County victims that died during the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in Lower Manhattan

References

External links

Mercer Bulldogs Official Website
Mercer County, New Jersey {{commons cat County parks in New Jersey Park Dog parks in the United States West Windsor, New Jersey Former Major League Lacrosse venues