WEST ORANGE, NJ — Work began this October to create a small “pocket park” at Thomas Edison National Historical Park on Main Street. The Orange/West Orange Chapter of UNICO supported this community and park initiative with a grant to the Friends of Thomas Edison NHP, which will manage the project.
Scalora Landscape Services of South Orange is constructing the pocket park, which will provide bench seating along the sidewalk facing the Edison Laboratory complex. Brick retaining walls with a bluestone cap will define the area where new street benches will be located for visitors and residents to rest, view the laboratory complex or wait for the bus. New landscaping will complement the hardscape work.
“We are so grateful and excited to see this project come to fruition as we celebrate the National Park Service’s Centennial year,” Edison NHP Superintendent Tom Ross said in a release. “This is a great example of a public/private partnership working to improve both the visitor experience and the community at a time when so much positive energy and development is happening on Main Street through the work of the Downtown Alliance and Edison Battery Building redevelopment.”
A ribbon-cutting ceremony will be scheduled in late October according to Arthur Gordon, chairman of Friends of Thomas Edison NHP. The Friends of Thomas Edison NHP has partnered with the National Park Service since 1984 to promote and preserve Thomas A. Edison’s legacy in West Orange at the Laboratory and Glenmont, his nearby estate in Llewellyn Park.
Photos Courtesy of John O’Reilly
Friends of Edison begin work on ‘pocket park’ on Main Street added by Editor on
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