Our Neighborhood

     Branch Brook’s historic namesake park is located a short four blocks from our facility. Branch Brook Park is noted for the largest collection of cherry blossom trees in the United States, having over 5,000 in more than eighteen different varieties collectively. The famous cherry trees were the result of a 1927 gift from Caroline Bamberger Fuld, sister of department store magnate Louis Bamberger and widow of the store's vice president. Each year, the stunning blossoms are on display at the Annual Cherry Blossom Festival attracting approximately 10,000 visitors each April. 

     Branch Brook Park Manor is located on the border of Newark’s historic and beautiful Forest Hill Neighborhood. Forest Hill is filled with tree lined streets and stately homes in a variety of styles such as Beaux-Arts, Victorian, Colonial Revival, Gothic Revival, and Spanish Revival, which date back nearly a century or longer. According to The New York Times, Forest Hills “offer[s] one of the first suburban-style refuges in the middle of an urban environment,” and included land owned by some of Newark’s wealthiest families, including the owners of the P. Ballantine and Sons Brewing Company and developer Elias Heller.

    The Forest Hill community is proud of its heritage and is exemplified by organizations such as the Forest Hill Literary Society, a neighborhood group founded in 1896, remains in operation. Community members  and organizations promote a neighborhood atmosphere by hosting events such as the Newark Literary Festival and Literature Speaks. The Forest Hill Community Association also serves neighborhood residents, and hosts historic house tours, Porches & Patios, and other activities.

     Several bedrooms at Branch Brook Park Manor offer breathtaking, unobstructed views of the Cathedral Basilica of the Sacred Heart.  The fifth-largest cathedral in North America, The Cathedral is the seat of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Newark. A magnificent French Gothic cathedral, its towers soar 323 feet high and the cathedral covers some 45,000 square feet, comparable to Westminster Abbey. The Cathedral Basilica holds concerts open to the public throughout the year and hosts several concerts featuring the largest pipe organ ever built by the Schantz Organ Co. 

     Since its completion, the New Jersey Historical Society named the Cathedral Basilica of the Sacred Heart an historic landmark in 1974, and it was also designated a National Historic Site in December 1976.  In 1995, the Cathedral was visited by Pope John Paul II at which time Cathedral of the Sacred Heart was elevated to a basilica to become the Cathedral Basilica of the Sacred Heart.