Cadwalader Park is an outstanding example of a park designed by Frederick Law Olmsted, Sr., whose classic urban park landscapes used wide lawns, carefully placed trees, and thoughtfully constructed walks and drives to create a tranquil setting within yet apart from the city. In Trenton, businessman and politician Edmund C. Hill founded the city’s park system and, as a member of Common Council, pushed for the purchase of the 82-acre estate that became Cadwalader Park in 1888, later serving as chairman of the Parks Committee. Before Olmsted assisted with the design, Hill’s committee added a bandstand, prairie dog farm, bear pit, benches, and picnic tables. Hill, who had turned away from his family’s bakery and catering business toward real estate and civic affairs, died at age 80 believing his life had been a failure. The park plan included a crushed-stone circuit drive intended to reveal changing views of lawns, groves, meadows, ponds, and streams, with a more formal landscape centered on Ellarslie mansion, where visitors were expected to enjoy refreshments and nearby music. Olmsted planned buffers of dense trees around the park, glimpses of the Delaware River and Pennsylvania vistas from higher ground, wooded ravines with cool streams and pools along the east and west sides, and recreational areas such as a field for baseball, cricket, and football placed so they would not intrude on the central scenery. Olmsted believed parks belonged to all people, should foster community, and should enrich both body and soul by calming the strains of crowded late-1800s urban life through natural scenery and carefully guided movement. After taking his nephew and stepson John Charles Olmsted as a partner in 1884, their partnership drew up the plans for Cadwalader Park. Cadwalader is the oldest Olmsted park in New Jersey and the only one designed with the participation of Olmsted, Sr., who retired in 1895 after planning more than 600 projects, including the U.S. Capitol grounds in Washington, D.C.
