The basketball courts off Clifton Avenue in Branch Brook Park are ready for play again. Essex County announced on November 10 that it has finished modernizing the two courts and the restroom building beside them, the first full upgrade of the complex since 2014.

What changed

Both courts got new playing surfaces, fencing, lighting, backboards and scoreboards. The comfort station next to them was rebuilt inside and out, with a new roof, windows, doors and restroom fixtures, and a new brick facade on the outside. The county said the courts needed the work because of ordinary wear and tear from heavy use: they are busy all year and host a full schedule of summer games that draws some of the area's strongest players.

Construction cost about $1.04 million, with design by Architecture Work Office of New York and construction by Cynna Enterprises of Clifton. The county paid for it with grants from New Jersey's Green Acres program and the Essex County Recreation and Open Space Trust Fund.

The rest of the park's recent makeover

Branch Brook Park opened in 1895, and the courts are the latest in a long run of projects there, most done with the Branch Brook Park Alliance, the nonprofit partner that also cares for the park's cherry tree collection and runs an urban farm. The county's list of recent work includes:

  • The Patricia Chambers Grove, established in 2025.
  • New synthetic infields and natural turf outfields on the three ballfields in the Northern Division, finished in 2024.
  • The Cherry Blossom Welcome Center, opened in 2023.
  • The restored Ballantine Gates off Lake Avenue, completed in 2021.
  • The Branch Brook Dog Park and a new surface on the Roberto Clemente Baseball Field, both in 2019.
  • A cherry blossom themed playground at the welcome center, opened in 2015, and a two-mile synthetic walking track completed in 2014.

The Althea Gibson tennis complex, with 20 courts and a bronze statue of the tennis champion, was renovated in 2012, along with its field house. Earlier projects restored the reservoir walls in the Southern Division and upgraded the lakefront there, and the Prudential Concert Grove holds bronze busts of Frederick Law Olmsted, dedicated in 2018, and of Mendelssohn, restored and rededicated in 2017.

The courts are one of several county park projects announced this month: on November 2 the county said it had finished softball field upgrades in Irvington Park and announced plans to refresh the rose garden in Brookdale Park.

Getting there

The courts sit off Clifton Avenue in Newark. The Newark Light Rail stops at Branch Brook Park station and at Park Avenue, both along the park. The county parks department's main office is at 115 Clifton Avenue, and its phone is 973-268-3500.

Sources