Weequahic Park

Weequahic Park is a park located in the south ward of Newark, New Jersey. Designed by the Olmsted Brothers firm, (who also designed Newark's Branch Brook Park). Weequahic Park has the largest lake in Essex County. The park is 311.33 acres including an 80-acre lake.[2]

Weequahic Park Historic District
Weequahic Lake
LocationRoughly bounded by Meeker Avenue, Dayton Street, Elizabeth Avenue, Union County border,
Coordinates40.702°N 74.203°W / 40.702; -74.203
NRHP reference No.03000013[1]
NJRHP No.1342[1]
Significant dates
Added to NRHPFebruary 12, 2003
Designated NJRHPDecember 12, 2002

The East Coast Greenway runs through the park.[3] West of Weequahic Park is Weequahic, a middle-class residential neighborhood. East of Weequahic Park is Dayton and Newark Airport.

History

The park opened on what had been the Waverly Fairgrounds. The word "Weequahic" is from the Lenni-Lenape Native American term for "head of the cove." Tradition holds that the lake in the park (once a cove) stood as the boundary between the Raritan and Hackensack bands of Lenape Indians.[4]

In 1923 the park hosted the First American Track & Field championships for women.

Divident Hill pavilion

One of the impressive features of Weequahic Park, along with the Weequahic Golf Course, is the miniature Roman-style stone temple serving as the park's gazebo and pavilion on Divident Hill.[5]

The gazebo was placed to mark the local hill where, on May 20, 1668, Robert Treat and other commissioners of the town of Newark met with the commissioners of Elizabeth-town to fix the boundaries between the settlements.[6] "Divident Hill" is not a typographical error; rather, "divident" is simply an old-fashioned term for "divided." The hill is also called "Bound-Hill." [7]

On that date and on that hill, the founders of Newark and Elizabeth entered "a religious covenant ... to protect their generation and 1,000 generations to come." [8]

The gazebo was designed by famed Beaux Arts design firm Carrère and Hastings for Newark's 250th anniversary in 1916.

Advocates from The Weequahic Park Sports Authority, a non-profit conservancy group, along with the Newark Environmental Commission and local spiritual leaders, began advocating for the pavilion's restoration to its former glory in 2018.[9]

gollark: Is the ND AR thing up?
gollark: Maybe AR-only ones turn out better? Who knows.
gollark: That would explain the lack of UVs.
gollark: Exciting, is it not?
gollark: Preparing to automatically AR autorefresh here.

References
  1. "New Jersey and National Registers of Historic Places - Essex County". New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection - Historic Preservation Office. Retrieved 2019-06-12.
  2. https://www.pps.org/places/weequahic-park
  3. East Coast Greenway New Jersey Committee
  4. County of Essex: Weequahic Park, accessed September 21, 2006
  5. Praying for a Newark treasure | Di Ionno http://s.nj.com/IwkRKrf
  6. https://archive.org/stream/historyofcityofn02urqu/historyofcityofn02urqu_djvu.txt
  7. http://www.newarkhistory.com/weequahicpark.html
  8. Praying for a Newark treasure | Di Ionno http://s.nj.com/IwkRKrf
  9. Praying for a Newark treasure | Di Ionno http://s.nj.com/IwkRKrf



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