Cedar Brook Park

Cedar Brook Park is a 78 acre county park situated mostly in Plainfield in Union County, within the U.S. state of New Jersey, with a smaller portion of the park extending into South Plainfield in adjacent Middlesex County. Featuring the Shakespeare Garden, it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on June 25, 2007, for its significance in landscape architecture. The park was designed by the Olmsted Brothers of Brookline, Massachusetts from 1924 to 1930.

History and description
In 1921, the Union County Park Commission was established and hired the Olmsted Brothers, formed by the sons of landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted, to design a county park system. The firm developed a preliminary plan for Cedar Brook Park in 1924, with work on the land and gardens completed by 1930. It is the third Olmsted Brothers designed park out of the 26 within the Union County Park System. The Shakespeare Garden is a formally designed area that originally contained plantings specifically named in Shakespeare’s works. It is maintained by the Plainfield Garden Club, with support from the New Jersey Historic Trust. A walking path connects the various features of the park, including the garden and the man-made lake on the Cedar Brook.

Tëmike Park Playground controversy
In 2022, controversy erupted over negative comments made about the opening of Tëmike Park, an LGBTQ-inclusive playground, in the park.