Branch Brook Park opened in 1895 as the nation's first county park for public use under the newly formed Essex County Park Commission. Its layout is based on plans conceived in a report from the firm of Olmsted, Vaux and Company in 1867 (document included here). The park was subsequently designed by Bogart & Barrett in 1895, and refined by Olmsted Brothers in 1898.
Branch Brook Park has been expanded and several new structures have been built since its inception in 1895. Originally 60 acres were transferred to the Essex County Park Commission from the City of Newark. Over the years through various acquisitions and donations of land, the park grew to more than double its original size. Structures later added include an entrance gateway, gazebo, greenhouse and administrative building.
Kolva, Jeanne. Olmsted Parks in New Jersey. Atglen, PA: Schiffer Publishing, c2011.
Olmsted, Frederick L, and Charles C. MacLaughlin. Papers / Supplementary Series: 1. Baltimore [u.a.: Johns Hopkins Univ. Press, 1997.
Galop, Kathleen P, and Catharine Longendyck. Branch Brook Park. Charleston, SC: Arcadia Pub., 2007.
Olmsted, Frederick L, Charles C. McLaughlin, and Charles E. Beveridge. The Papers of Frederick Law Olmsted. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1977.
Kelsey, Frederick W. The First County Park System: A Complete History of the Inception and Development of the Essex County Parks of New Jersey. Washington: McGrath Pub. Co. & National Recreation and Park Association, 1974.
Richman, Steven M. The Bridges of New Jersey: Portraits of Garden State Crossings. New Brunswick, N.J: Rutgers University Press, 2005.
Rhodeside & Harwell, Incorporated Landscape Architecture & Planning, et al. Cultural Landscape Report, Treatment, and Management Plan for Branch Brook Park Newark, New Jersey, Volume 2: History of the Park and Critical Periods of Development. Alexandria, Virginia : Rhodeside & Harwell, Incorporated Landscape Architecture & Planning. 2002.
Olmsted, Vaux & Co. Landscape Architects. "Report on a Site for a Park at Newark." Reprints: National Association for Olmsted Parks 5.1 (2003). Electronic.
National Register of Historic Places, Branch Brook Park, Newark, Essex County, New Jersey, National Register #81000392.
"Reviving Newark's Branch Brook Park." Preservation Perspective NJ 9.3 (1990): 4-5. Print.