Not Just Any Dead End Street

In my travels around Hillsborough I have been relying on current street maps, as well as Hagstrom's 1945 map of Somerset County. It is interesting to see how some of yesteryear's thoroughfares now end abruptly, or are severed in the middle creating two dead-end streets.

My two month excursion through Hillsborough's park and recreation facilities has brought me to the intersection of Amwell and Pleasantview Roads - one of our dead-ends, and a sign reading "Ann Van Middlesworth Park". If you've lived in Hillsborough for any length of time at all, you've passed that sign hundreds if not thousands of times. Yet it was recently remarked to me that this 1993 New Jersey Recreation and Park Association Design Award winner was an unknown entity to many of Hillsborough's residents.




It's hard to understand why that is. Ann Van Middlesworth Park is Hillsborough's premiere recreation facility - fulfilling the promise of all of the smaller parks I've visited, and adding some unique touches. For instance, google "ann van middlesworth" and count how many hits you get related to skate parks!


It was just about a year ago that the Somerset County Freeholders and the Hillsborough Township Committee finalized plans to purchase and arrange for the cleanup of the adjacent Belle Mead General Services Depot. This property will allow for the future expansion of the park, and provide a link to the Sourland Mountain Preserve, and by way of the railroad right-of-way that once connected the depot to the railroad lines at Flagtown, a connection to the Raritan Valley Greenway. [Good article in today's Courier News]



Unlike some of the other mainly deserted parks that I visited this summer, there was a lot of activity today at AVM. The Faith in Action Church of Manville was having their annual church picnic in the park, making use of the basketball courts and baseball fields. This is a great place to have an outing - lots of tables under the covered pavilion and in the picnic grove, along with park grills and restroom facilities. Reservations to use the park for group outings can be made easily by calling the Parks and Recreation office.



There were kids on the playground, people strolling through the Sensory Garden, a man fishing and geese and ducks swimming in the pond, kids with bikes and skateboards at the skate park, deer in the field near the old water tower, and one eight year old girl on her bike while her 43 year old dad tried to keep up while taking photos and making notes:

1. Residents need to know about this place.
   
   
2. Facilities - 2 lighted baseball fields, 2 full size lighted basketball courts, skate park, covered pavilion, picnic grove with park grills and horseshoes, restrooms, playground climber and swings, sensory garden, fishing pond with fountains and ice-skating in winter, ample parking.



3. Anyone who wants to know why Willow Road homeowners don't want lights at the Little League Complex should take a look at the lights over here.



4. It will be great when all of these dead-end paths at the edges of the park actually lead somewhere.



5. I hope they leave the water tower in place when they clean up the depot.

Now you know what's at the end of Pleasantview Road. It's not just some dead end street, but rather a road to Hillsborough's recreational future!