Well, not a photo actually but an old map -- 1872, to be exact. This detail shows western Newark from about Central Avenue to the Belleville line. This was even before Branch Brook Park had been built! You can get your bearings by locating the reservoir (that round thing), which would later become the skating rink.

(The full map can be found through a link at old.newark.com -- http://www.oldnewark.com/imagepages/maps/index.htm> -- click on 1872.)

John,
Now it makes sense. You posted a map a while back that showed Park Ave as "Fifth Ave" back then. Duhhhh... there wasn't a park yet.

I always thought that Branch Brook was sectioned off as undeveloped land when Newark grew. Wow, they actually tore up streets and carved the park out of an existing chunk of the city-- and what did they do, redirected canal water? to create the lake?

Interesting that a community back then tore down development to create green space... seems to only be the opposite in NJ today.

Bobby, there was water all over the place. There was Boiling Springs at Second Avenue and 13th Street, the Second River, the canal of course, but also something called Branch Brook! I would guess they dammed it up and made a lake, then renamed one of those streets Lake Street.

Speaking of the Morris Canal, that pic that Joe found is pretty interesting. I'll stick it in below. The park was pretty well laid out by then. You can see the canal on the left, and on the right, up on the bluff and mostly obscured by trees is that hexagonal gazebo or whatever it's called. I would guess the photo was taken from near the Erie-Lackawanna tracks, which at that time ran at grade, parallel to Orange Street. Good find, Joe.

Wow, look at how new the Part Ave bridge was in the background. Was the Sacred Heart cathedral built by this point? Maybe it's just out of the picture.

Great picture.
Looks like it was shot from just left of the old boat house.

If I'm looking at this old Newark map correctly, it looks as though Humboldt Street used to be Rose St. Wonder when the name was changed...

Glad to be of assistance, John. I always keep my eye out for neat old photos. My daughter, who is a history graduate student, works part time at the NJ State Archives and I will have her see if there are any other good Newark photos in their files. When I get a chance I will check out the New Jersey Special Collections at Rutgers Library.

As for the speculation that the park was created out of already settled city streets, I would think it probably was not, although at first glance it appears that way. The streets might have been laid out on the city map, but I don't think (could be wrong) that there were any houses on them. Remember, a few years before the 1872 map that whole area was a Civil War induction and training center (1862-1865)known as Camp Frelinghuysen.

Let me correct an error -- I should know better.

Actually Camp Frelinghuysen extended from the Morris Canal to Roseville Avenue, and was not on the present site of BB Park.

This is an interesting map, John. I used to speculate that Lake St had once extended across Park Ave into the present-day park. The house numbers on Lake St start in the mid-100's; seems odd they don't start closer to 1. Your map shows Lake St (shown here as Aqueduct St) continuing southward, all the way to Orange St. That would explain the house numbers.

Also note that Park Ave (here called Fifth Ave) ended at Stone St instead of its present-day intersection with Bloomfield Ave (aka Newark-Pompton Turnpike).

Barbara O'Brien Dedman asked about the naming of Humboldt St. There's a map at Oldnewark.com from 1895 showing Humboldt St with its modern name. There's another street in the Central Ward named Rose St (as Humboldt St was previously known). Its off of Bergen St in the area of Woodland Cemetery. I don't know exactly when the change was made but it sounds like a postman's nightmare.

Food for thought: who was Humboldt? Must have been a guy of some local importance. He had only a one-block street named for him, but our phone # was HUmboldt2-2731, a designation that ran throughout Roseville. Anybody have an answer?