Garden State Parkway - Picnic Areas

Picnic Areas

One of the objectives of the Parkway was to become a State Park its entire length and its users would enjoy parklike aesthetics with minimal intrusion of urban scenery. Along the ride, users were permitted to stop and picnic along the roadway to further enjoy the relaxation qualitites the Parkway had to offer. All picnic areas had tall trees that provided shade and visual isolation from the roadway. Grills, benches, running water and restrooms were provided. Over time as the Parkway transformed into a road of commerce, the picnic areas were being closed for a variety of reasons. Their ramp terminals became insufficient to accommodate the high speed mainline traffic and in addition to the decreasing amount of users, the picnic areas were becoming more effective as maintenance yards and were converted as so or closed altogether.

The history of the picnic areas includes an infamous story in the murder of Maria Marshall orchestrated by her husband Robert O. Marshall in the Oyster Creek picnic area on the night of September 7, 1984. The story was made into a novel and television movie on NBC.

The three remaining picnic areas are closed from dusk to dawn. Posted signs within the picnic area prohibit fires and camping.

There were a total of 10 operational picnic areas:

• Tall Oaks (Closed) - Southbound only formerly at milepost 137
• Madison Hill (Closed) - Northbound only formerly at milepost 134.9
• Glenside (Closed) - Southbound only formerly at milepost 130.2
• Telegraph Hill (Open) - exit 116
• Herbertsville (Closed) - Southbound only; converted to a maintenance yard of the same name and heavy vehicle weigh station
• Polhemus Creek (Closed) - Northbound only formerly at milepost 87.2
• Double Trouble (Closed) - Southbound only formerly at milepost 79.0
• Oyster Creek - located in the median in Lacey Township. The facility is not signed from the mainline Parkway, but there are signs located within the picnic area that state the facility is closed from dusk to dawn and that fires and camping are prohibited similar to the signs posted at the other two picnic areas currently open. The official Garden State Parkway website does not list Oyster Creek as a picnic area. It is possible that this picnic area has for all intents and purposes closed since this section of the Parkway is currently experiencing a major widening construction project and access to it is blocked and most likely will not reopen since the land used for widening the mainline was taken from the picnic area.
• Stafford Forge (Closed) - located in the median at milepost 61.1
• John B. Townsend Shoemaker Holly (Open) - located in the median at milepost 22.7. John B. Townsend was a physician from Ocean City who became the New Jersey Highway Authority's second Vice Chairman in 1955. The word Shoemaker comes from the last name of the landowner in the way of the Parkway's alignment during its initial construction. The term Holly comes from the Shoemaker's holly tree that was on his property. The tree is presumed to be 300 years old and one of, if not, the oldest holly tree in the United States.