Herrontown Woods Arboretum is an arboretum located on Snowden Lane near the junction with Herrontown Road, in Princeton, New Jersey. It is open to the publicevery day at no cost. There are walking trails, but trail bicycles are prohibited.
Description
This land is preserved in its natural state. It contains a pine forest, wetlands, frogs and salamanders, over 30 species of trees, shrubs, and flowers, rare birds, rocks containing magnetite, and several miles of walking trails.
History
Herrontown Woods
The first of the arboretum were donated to the Mercer County Park Commission in 1957 by internationally renowned mathematician Prof. Oswald Veblen of the Institute for Advanced Study. The gift was valued at $154,000 and was the town of Princeton's first nature preserve. In 1966 the Park Commission approved a expansion of the Woods. When Elizabeth Veblen died in 1974, the Veblens' remaining were added to the park, including a cottage and house, giving the park its current size.
Autumn Hill Reservation
In 1967 Princeton Township and Princeton Borough jointly purchased of former hardscrabble farms returned to woodland, north of Herrontown Road, across the street from the arboretum, for preservation as the Autumn Hill Reservation. This stretch of land is sometimes referred to as the Herrontown Woods extension. The reservation has only a rudimentary trail loop, the work of an Eagle Scout service project by Boy Scout Troop 43. A small parking lot on Herrontown, west of its junction with Snowden, provides access.
Trail Access
The woods can be accessed from a parking lot off of Snowden Lane on the east side of the arboretum. In 2010, an adjoining tract of land owned by All Saints Episcopal Church was purchased for preservation by the D&R Greenway Land Trust. This enabled trails to be added reaching to the south, accessing both the church and the former Church & Dwight headquarters on Bunn Drive. In October, 2014, trail access was added from Stone Hill Church, on the west side of the woods, off Bunn Drive, through the joint effort of the and the church youth group. Visitors are free to park at the church, apart from Sunday mornings, to access the trails.
