parks closed scaled
The entrance to the tow path near Eno Terra Tuesday night. Photo by Gabriella Milley.

All state parks have been closed by the governor of New Jersey to support social distancing. This includes the 70-mile D&R Canal State Park. In Mercer County, this also includes the Princeton Battlefield State Park and Washington Crossing State Park. In Hunterdon County, this includes the Bull’s Island Recreation Area, the Round Valley Recreation Area, the Spruce Run Recreation Area, and Voorhees State Park. Washington Rock State Park is Somerset County is closed.

All county parks across the state are closed. This includes Mercer County Park and Mercer Meadows.

The Watershed Institute’s center and all trails on the Watershed Reserve are closed.

Municipalities are allowed to decide whether to keep local municipal parks open or to close them. The following are municipalities in our area where officials have made announcements about whether local parks will remain open or closed.

Princeton – In Princeton, municipal parks are still open. In a message on Planet Princeton’s Facebook page, Councilwoman Eve Niedergang wrote, “Princeton has no inclination at this point to close all the parks; if PPD (Princeton Police) and PHD (Princeton Health Department) think that there is a problem in a particular park, that park will be closed.” Community garden plots in Princeton are closed until at least May 1. All municipal basketball, tennis, and platform tennis courts are closed. All municipal playgrounds and sandboxes are closed, and the use of municipal fields and facilities by all sports organizations is suspended through April 30. Men’s and women’s platform tennis is canceled for the rest of the season.

Municipal parks: The Autumn Hill Reservation, Barbara Smoyer Memorial Park, the Charles H. Rogers Wildlife Refuge, Community Park North, Community Park South, Farmview Fields, Greenway Meadows, Grover Park, Harrison Street Park, Herrontown Woods, Hilltop Park, Marquand Park, Mary Moss Park, Mountain Lakes Nature Preserve, Quarry Park, Barbara Smoyer Boggs Sigmund Park, Van-Dyke-Wright Park, Witherspoon Woods, and the Woodfield Reservation.

Potts Park, Pine Street Park, Maggie’s Playground, and Turning Basin are closed.

The Institute Woods and the Institute for Advanced Study are closed.

Hopewell Borough – The Hopewell park playground, and the playgrounds/basketball court at the railroad station are closed. Parks remain open for walking, hiking, jogging and other passive uses.

Lawrence – All municipal parks are open. Officials are concerned about people from other towns whose parks are closed visiting Lawrence parks, so they will be monitoring the situation.

Montgomery – All parks are closed.

Franklin Township – All parks are closed.

South Brunswick – All municipal parks remain open.

Hamilton – All municipal parks closed.

If you have information we should add to this list, please let us know in comments or via email. Thank you.

4 Comments

  1. Is it possible to get a list of the municipal parks in Princeton still open? Went online and could not easily find anything. The princetonnj.gov website info on parks is “under construction” (& unhelpfully refers to another parks recreation site that only lists sports league news).

  2. How about rosedale park? I live near it, see a flashing sign that says closed But everyday, I see cars and walkers there. Not sure if the sign was put up to keep non locals out. Thank you!

    1. Rosedale seems to be now part of Mercer Meadows(?) and the County closed that. Thought that Rosedale belonged to Hopewell, but…. ?

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