Anderson Park is a county park located in Montclair, New Jersey, United States. Anderson Park is part of the Essex County park system.HistoryIn the late 19th century C.W. Anderson, founder of the park, and a prominent Montclair resident, and record-holding commuter, decided that there should be a park from Bellevue Avenue to Watchung Avenue and from the railroad right-of-way to North Mountain Road. The land which he was talking about at the time was a swampy area that many thought to be a health risk.Eventually Montclair started a commission and the Frederick Law Olmsted firm was chosen to design the park, and it was completed on August 4, 1903. This firm is well known for designing much of the National Mall in Washington D.C. and Central Park in New York City. In the end the park plans called for a smaller park that only extended to where Parkside Road is now located.The park has the distinction of being the first park in the Essex County Park Commission system, which was New Jersey's first county-wide network of parks.In the 1960s, due to police complaints, the many large clumps of bushes all around the park were removed.In 2006 fifty garbage cans were installed around the park, and the soccer fields were costily redone as part of a general renovation. The public disapproved of trash cans every 35ft, so many were removed.In August 2007 swastikas and other racist graffiti was found in the park, and promptly removedNameThe park was originally going to be called 'Montclair Park', but the town wanted it to be renamed to Anderson Park in honor of the man who thought up the idea of the park and funded some of it, C.W. Anderson.
