Visitors to Historic Smithville Park were offered horse and buggy tours during the annual May Faire festival.
The Burlington County Commissioners commemorated the 50th anniversary of Historic Smithville Park’s preservation during the annual May Faire festival, where officials announced plans for additional restoration work and a new trail connection.
The county is preparing plans for additional work at the park to stabilize and repair some of its remaining structures. That includes restoration work at the Pike Farmhouse, first built in 1750 and the oldest property in Smithville. There will also be restoration work at the former Smithville warehouse and repairs to the wall surrounding the Smithville mansion.
The county’s Department of Resource Conservation plans to seek grant funding from the New Jersey Historic Trust to help pay for the work. It is also seeking a New Jersey Department of Transportation grant to cover the estimated $1.5 million construction cost for a new 1.25-mile walking and biking trail from Smithville Park to the intersection of Woodcrest and Powell roads in Eastampton.
The proposed trail, called the Smithville Park Spur Connector, would be fully accessible and provide a link between Smithville and the Rancocas Valley Regional High School athletics complex off Millcreek Road. It would also connect to an Eastampton bike path. The project has been pre-screened by both the transportation department and the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission.
The county is also pursuing state funding for the design and construction of a separate 4-mile trail between Smithville Park and Pemberton Township that would connect with the existing Pemberton Rail Trail in the Birmingham section of Pemberton Township. It would have a pedestrian and bicycle-safe crossing on Route 206 and would eventually become part of the larger Rancocas Creek Greenway Trail envisioned to travel the entire 30 miles of the Rancocas Creek.
