Skillman Park is an area of open space in the Skillman section of Montgomery Township which is owned by Somerset County and maintained by the Somerset County Parks Department.
This 256 acre parcel, one of the largest parcels in the area, is located in the Skillman section of Montgomery Township, in the center of western Montgomery. It is north of Rt. 518, south of Skillman Road, east of Rt. 601, and west of Burnt Hill Road. Much of the property is field or woodland type open space. Rock Brook, its tributaries, and the former Sylvan Lake are surface water features of the property. The parcel is surrounded on two sides by the Selody Sod Farm and Hunter Farms. At the property’s center is the Village Elementary School, a public school on 12 acres. In addition, the Township has acquired from the State, and is upgrading for further use, an adjacent wastewater treatment facility on 7 acres located off Burnt Hill Road behind the State-owned Skillman Dairy Farm.
The property originally consisted of three large farms. These lands were purchased by the State of New Jersey for the establishment in 1898 of the “New Jersey State Village for Epileptics” at Skillman, during a time when there was no known treatment for epilepsy. The village lay-out was designed by noted Landscape Architect/Engineer Charles W. Leavitt in 1901. For many years it operated as a self-contained “town” that consisted of hospitals, housing, farms, maintenance areas, schools, a theater, a power plant, a wastewater treatment facility, cemeteries, and an on-site landfill. It was one of the first such facilities in the United States
In the mid-twentieth century, with the discovery of medicines for treatment of epilepsy, the facility’s focus shifted and it became the New Jersey Neuropsychiatric Institute. Most recently, and until 1998, the property was known as “North Princeton Developmental Center” or NPDC, a New Jersey Department of Human Services’ residential psychiatric care facility.
In 2007 the Township of Montgomery purchased the now inactive facility/property and the adjoining wastewater treatment facility from the State of New Jersey. In acknowledgement of its unique early history, Montgomery Twp. referred to the property as “Skillman Village”, and took on all necessary remediation issues, while plans for mixed-use redevelopment were being formulated.
Until 2007 there remained over 100 State buildings on the property, mostly in substandard, unsafe, unsanitary, dilapidated and/or obsolescent condition. The property was essentially a brownsfield, from an environmental perspective. Ninety-two of these buildings were abated and demolished in the summer of 2007 by the Township of Montgomery. The few remaining buildings were boarded up while being considered for potential reuse. At the same time, efforts were undertaken to remediate environmental conditions at the site, restore Sylvan Lake, and repair its dam. All asbestos wrapped steampipes throughout the property, part of the original facilities’ heating system, were removed by fall 2008. While most of the environmental clean-up work was completed, some groundwater monitoring continues. The property must be thoroughly remediated and brought into compliance with applicable laws and regulations, ultimately resulting in issuance of a letter of “No Further Action” by the NJDEP.
The Township invited proposals from developers for ambitious redevelopment plans in 2009. Due to the economic downturn, none of the handful of short-listed developers were able to take on the project at that time. Township leadership determined that they should consider other uses for the property.
The Township and Somerset County worked on developing terms for the transfer of ownership of the property and plans for its reuse as a passive recreation use county park throughout 2010 and arrived at a final agreement in 2011. The remaining derelict buildings from the property’s days as North Princeton Developmental Center were remediated and removed in Summer 2011. The actual property closing transaction between Montgomery Township and Somerset County occurred on October 25, 2011. The purchase was for approximately $15.9 Million. This did not include the 7 acre wastewater treatment plant property or another 7 acres of subdivided parcels including the Pine Knolls and Maplewood houses, which remained. Unfortunately a fire destroyed Maplewood, the last remaining of the three farm houses, in the fall of 2011. Unsalvageable remnants were raized by the Township’s contractor in the summer of 2012. The Board of Education raized the last remaining NPDC brick building, the “Kay Building” on their property around the same time.
A Planning Committee began meeting in spring 2012 to work out the park development details for Skillman Park. This Committee includes three Montgomery residents and three County representatives. The Skillman Park Planning Committee, tasked with developing a comprehensive public access plan to the 247-acre park, includes Montgomery Township residents Lysa Wilson and Emad AbouSabé, Township Open Space Committee member Clem Fiori, Somerset County Freeholder Director Director Caliguire, and County Administrator Michael J. Amorosa. The County made much needed improvements to upkeep the trees and grounds on-site. Parking, kiosks, and a 2.2 acre loop trails are now complete, with overlooks and other passive recreation amenities planned. Main Boulevard, which is a public road that transects the park, has been repaved. An official park grand opening was held in April, 2015.
(As taken from the Montgomery Township web site)