About the parks

Carol Pager Sports Complex and Exchange Field

89 Green Street

The renovated Exchange Field park, with its expanded facilities and playground, was named in Carol Pager's honor in June 2004.

Carol Pager was one of the longest serving members of the Recreation Commission, beginning in January 1978. She served more than 25 years but did not complete a final term due to her terminal illness. She was president of the Somerville Little League Association and a strong advocate of youth sports, especially for girls. As president of Somerville Baseball for nearly 30 years, she was known as “the woman behind the plate," running the organization in various leadership roles down to the concessions. She founded the Somerville Girls Softball program and was an outstanding coach of women’s volleyball and softball leagues.

Arthur R. Chambres Park

131 Southside Ave

This park was dedicated in memory of Arthur R. Chambres, by proclamation of the Somerville Borough Council on May 13, 1971.

Chambres Park, located in Bridgewater, has been leased by Somerville since the 1940s and was initially known as Southside Park. Arthur R was a popular young member of the Immaculata Conception School basketball team who played regularly at the Southside Park court. He grew up on S. Bridge Street in the house at the corner of S. Bridge and Southside. He died of accidental carbon monoxide poisoning during a fall overnight Boy Scout camping trip. HIs parents Arthur R. Chambres, Sr. and wife Charlotte (Moor family of Somerville), were respected members of the Southside neighborhood community. Chambres was a war veteran who requested that the park be named for his son.

John E. Long Park

85 Mercer Street

This park was dedicated to John Long for his lifetime commitment to parks, recreation, and the Borough of Somerville, by proclamation of the Somerville Recreation Commission in 1997.

John Long served on the Recreation Commission as liaison or commissioner for 30 years and was for a time its President. During his tenure on the Commission, he was responsible for negotiating with the Good Shepherd Lutheran Congregation for the development of a community playground on the periphery of their property. Mr. Long also served a term on the Borough Council (1959-1961). A business owner, former J&J manager, he used his contacts to do fundraising for the Commission’s Trust fund. He died in September 1987.

Children’s Park Marker - ABC Blocks

129 Davenport Street

The ABC sculpture was built by the children of Somerville as a memorial to remember four children who perished in a house fire on this site in 1977.

Fred Pop Kugler Playground

99 Mercer Street

This playground was dedicated to Frederick William Kugler, Jr. for meritorious service to the community, by the Somerville Borough Council in May 1961.

This was one of Somerville’s original playgrounds. An ice-skating pond and tennis courts were located here through the 1970s. Frederick William Kugler, Jr. was born on June 4,1900 and died on Oct. 24, 1991. He tapped into New Jersey’s long history of bicycle racing. He operated a bicycle shop in town with disruptions only during WWII and the COVID19 epidemic and in 1940 founded the Tour of Somerville, which became a major annual event. The major men’s open competition is the Kugler -Anderson Memorial Race, named for Kugler’s son and another local man, both early race winners who subsequently died in WWII.

Webster Basketball Court

The basketball court at Kugler Playground was dedicated to Councilwoman Pastor Patricia S. Webster in memory of her dedication to providing opportunities for the community and the example of her life commitment to serving the public through her civic and charitable work. The basketball court was dedicated in 2013 by the Borough of Somerville.

Reverend Webster served on the Somerville Borough Council from 2004 until February 2011, when she resigned due to health issues. A life-long resident of the Borough, she was a retired J&J manager. During her terms on Council, she served on the Board of Health, the Human Relations Committee, and was liaison to the Personnel and Police Department. Until her death in October 2011, “Pastor Pat’ and her husband “Pastor Sid” were the faithful shepherds of Shiloh Pentecostal Church which underwent major expansion under their leadership.

Walck Park

Walnut Street

This park was dedicated in memory of Claude W. Walck, our late mayor, councilman and first director of the Recreation Committee. It was officially dedicated by proclamation of the Somerville Borough Council in July,1962

The park was first designed and laid out in 1959 from land provided by the developer of East Spring Street residences and named following the sudden death of Somerville’s recently elected mayor. "Duke" Claude Walck served as mayor from January 1962 to March 3 1962, was an avid supporter of recreation and was the Borough’s first full-time recreation director (1947-1951). Prior to that, he had been a teacher and coach at Flemington and Somerville High Schools, Director of Employee Relations at John’s Manville, and a Borough Councilman (1955-1960). He was an advocate and supporter of sports for all ages throughout his life. Together with fellow Councilman Richard Lothian, he established Somerville's Little League.

Ellsworth Van Fleet Memorial Gardens

195 William Street

Van Fleet was the Borough’s first engineer. This park was always designated as a natural area by the Recreation Commission and it was officially named and dedicated in his memory by the Borough Council in December,1975.

Commissioner Dymock (1940s RC) began planting the southeast corner area with native shrubs and plants, especially dogwoods. It was later referred to as the Civic League Tract, presumably because the Civic League was involved in its care. Borough Engineer Fleet Van Ellsworth laid out the design originally and planted the peonies. The Recreation Commission added the gazebo and stairs in the late 1970s. Recent restoration of the gazebo and the additions of memorial benches and bronze plaque were contributed by the Civic League and Recreation Committee. The Somerville Civic League continues to maintain the gardens.

Henry P Vander Veer Memorial Park

122 Veterans Memorial Drive

This park includes what is commonly called ‘Firehouse Field" the new Jay Scott Community Garden, pickle ball, tennis courts, and picnic areas. A new sign was erected in 2022 to commemorate the memorial nature of the park and the Borough Council corrected a longstanding oversight with regard to the gift of this land to the Borough.

In late 1920, Mrs. Minnie Kenyon Vander Veer, sister of Somerville’s first mayor, donated a large parcel of land along Peter’s Brook to the Borough. The section of the tract closest to Peter’s Brook, from East Main Street to the CNJ Railroad, was specifically to become parkland and named in honor of her late husband, Henry P. Vander Veer. The land was transferred to the Borough in November 1920 with this stipulation, and the gift was announced at a Council meeting the following April. The entire tract along Peter’s Brook on both sides of East Main Street was labeled Vanderveer Parkway on old Borough maps and was listed this way on the ROSI (Recreation and Open Space Inventory) form in the late 1970s. The Borough, however, never officially named this specific parcel until 2022. It is now part of the Peters Brook Greenway and is the site of Engine Company #1 Firehouse, a soccer field, tennis court, and three pickleball courts. The Kenneth Cornell Skate Park was previously located in the park.

Jay Scott Community Garden

This community garden was dedicated in June 2022 in memory of Jay Scott who dedicated his life to the growth of the community and others around him. It opened for public use in Spring 2023.

John “Jay” Scott was a certified Master Gardner and Chairman of the Recreation Committee from 2013-2015 and served as a member from 2009-2017. He initiated several garden projects during his tenure on the commission, including the Rain Gardens at Exchange Field and Walck Park Pool. Established with matching funding from PSEG Foundation’s Sustainable New Jersey Community Grant Program, the raised vegetable and flower plots are located behind the Engine Co. #1 Firehouse at the intersection of East Main and Veterans Memorial Drive within Vander Veer Memorial Park. Regarding the community garden itself, it's envisioned to be zero-waste and sustainably operated for the Somerville community by the Somerville community. It's currently managed by the Environmental Commission's Green Team. There are 12 raised garden beds, including some that are handicap and wheelchair accessible, along with a water source, rain barrel, compost bin and tools. The project is a joint venture of the Recreation Committee, the Green Team, and Environmental Commission.

Learn more about the community garden.

Flockhart Park

Mercer and Green Streets corner

This park was dedicated in 1977 to the memory of Thomas A. Flockhart, whose foresight and effort established the Somerville park system along the Peter’s Brook.

Thomas A. Flockhart was an Ohio native who relocated to Somerville with the Cott-a-Lapp Company (later Calco/Cyanamid) and subsequently owned and operated a roto-engraving company in Bound Brook. He was Somerville's third mayor and served from January 1920 to December 1929. He was instrumental in obtaining municipal title to land parcels along Peter's Brook, mostly through donations. He was ahead of his time in understanding that wetlands should be preserved as natural areas.

Clark’s Woods

265 US 202/206

This land is owned by the Borough, but located in the town of Bridgewater. It consists of three parcels that were deeded to the Borough for recreational use by the Cornell family, Flockhart, and Alvah A. Clark, a Somerset County Jurist, who owned the largest tract. It was used primarily for baseball in the 1950s, circuses, carnivals, and other 1-day events sponsored by various service clubs and Somerville organizations in the 1970s and 1980s. Today it is used primarily for soccer.  It is also part of the Peters Brook Greenway.