Princeton is fortunate that its forward-looking residents have provided the town with an unusually extensive collection of parks and playing fields. Two blocks north of Nassau Street lies Barbara Sigmund Park on Hamilton Avenue, across from Westminster Choir College. It is a pocket park for young children. Marquand Park, to the west between Stockton Street and Mercer Road, is a playground for toddlers, a ball field for juniors, and a virtual arboretum for adults.
The University’s many fields provide unofficial space for games, walks, and picnics.
Elsewhere, the town is dotted with an array of very different parks offering a range of outdoor activities. To the west along Mercer Road stretches the spacious, grassy acres of the Princeton Battlefield State Park. Two new parks and playing fields grace Rosedale Road and the Great Road: Greenway Meadows and Farmview Park, respectively. In the northwest corner of the town, is an extensive preserve, the Woodfield Reservation. North of the Western Section stretches the wooded Mountain Lakes Park and adjacent Tusculum Park and Witherspoon Woods Park, providing wooded trails and the pleasure of a woodland pond, called Mountain Lake. To the east are collected Barbara Smoyer Park, Hill Top Park, and Grover Park, each with extensive playing fields. The Herrontown Woods and the Autumn Hill Reservation provide woodland retreats and trails. Finally, to the east sits Shadybrook Park, and along Carnegie Lake and Route 27 (the extension of Nassau Street), is an open area with a boat launch and viewing for university crew races. Princeton’s residents have long enjoyed the great range of activities that its extensive collection of parks, preserves, and open spaces have afforded them.
