Garret D. Wall Park, located in the heart of Belvidere across from the Warren County Courthouse, will see the benefits of a long-awaited improvement project including new sidewalks and streetlamps.

The new sidewalks will be compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act and the streetlamps will match the Victorian-era neighborhood while enhancing safety.

The park was the first—and for many years, only—county park.

The land for the courthouse and a four-acre “town square” in front of it was donated by Garret D. Wall, a wealthy landowner, attorney, judge and general who later served as a U.S. Senator from New Jersey. He stated the park was “always to be kept and continued open as a public square, walk, promenade for the free common and uninterrupted use of the county of Warren forever.”

An 1824 act of the New Jersey Legislature allowed Warren to separate from Sussex County, and Belvidere was chosen as the county seat in 1825, in a large part due to Wall’s donation of the land for the courthouse and park.

Engineer Paul Sterbenz of Maser Consulting P.A. presented plans for the project to the Warren County Board of County Commissioners recently. The Belvidere Historic Preservation Commission and New Jersey’s Historic Preservation Office have already approved the plans.

“Garret Wall Park is the heart of our county seat. Many groups use it as a gathering place for county-wide events including our veterans and law enforcement groups. It is the face that people see when they visit our county seat. Making the park as beautiful as we can benefits all of Warren County,” said Commissioner Jason J. Sarnoski.

County Administrator Alex Lazorisak said funding will come from the county’s Municipal and Charitable Conservancy Trust Fund, a dedicated tax collected to finance farmland and historic preservation and recreation projects. He went on to say that it should be completed by this fall, with a goal of wrapping up before Belvidere’s annual Victorian Days celebration.

In addition to the sidewalks and streetlamps, the county Public Works Department will reconstruct the park’s interior paths and add more picnic tables and seating.