Trenton's Largest Park Celebrates 115 Years With Special Exhibit
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Trenton's largest park is marking its 115th anniversary with a special exhibit. It was designed by Frederick Law Olmsted, regarded as the father of American landscape architecture, the co-designer of Central Park.
Trenton Museum Society trustee Karl Flesch says Frederick Law Olmsted was hired to design Cadwalader Park during the city's industrial heyday.
"The park was known as Trenton's Pleasure Ground," Flesch said. "It was considered to be a resort."
There were picnics, concerts, even a zoo. In fact, the Victorian Ellarslie mansion at its center served for a time as a monkey house.
"We also had a lion in the past," Flesch said. "But lions, being very nocturnal, they would roar during the night, keeping the area residents awake."
Its dignity long since restored, the mansion houses the Trenton City Museum, where an exhibit exploring and celebrating the park's history is on view through September 17.