Brookdale Park is a 121.41-acre Essex County park spanning Bloomfield and Montclair, designed by the Olmsted Brothers with open lawns and athletic grounds to the east and a more wooded western half crossed by paths. Its land was first used by the Lenape, later called the Delaware, as a planting and gathering ground, then taken over by Dutch settlers in the late 17th century as Stonehouse Plains farmland. Essex County assembled the tract between 1928 and 1931, and although most design work was finished by 1930, the Great Depression delayed completion until 1937. The park has remained a major regional recreation space while also carrying traces of older local uses and tragedies.