You have probably seen it many times not far from the West Windsor Arts Center on Scott Avenue, or the Windsor Plaza Shopping Center on Alexander Road and haven’t known what it was, besides a bunch of trees surrounded by houses.
Actually, this wooded area has been part of West Windsor’s officially preserved open space territory since 1983. It lies within the bounds of what was once referred to as Berrien City, one of the first concentrations of residential housing to be built here. In this case, of course, a main attraction and convenience was the presence of the main line of the Pennsylvania Railroad.
The original Berrien City, which was built during the 1920s, consisted of houses built on the property in the area that was divided up into 114 lots, each with 50-foot frontage.
Today’s Berrien Avenue, Scott Avenue, and Harris Road are what remain from the original Berrien City. Other roads in that general area came much later. These include what are now known as Alexander Road, Benford Drive, Borosko Place, Lillie Street and Wallace Road, which provides access to the railroad station on the east side of the tracks.
But the wooded area between Scott Avenue and Harris Road is what is now known as the Crawford Woods. They extend from Montgomery Street on the south to Alexander Road on the north. The area of the Crawford Woods is 8.66 acres. But because the whole area of the woods is surrounded by the houses on three of these four roads, public access is limited to about 290 feet along the south side of Alexander Road.
The other sides of the woods border on lots that contain private houses. It is well known that parking on Alexander Road to gain access to the Crawford Woods is dangerous, so the best way to take a “walk in these woods” is to know someone who lives in an adjacent house, on either Scott, Harris or Montgomery. And that is how the West Windsor Arts Council was able to arrange a summer camp activity for kids this past summer.
Since the Arts Council occupies the old Princeton Junction fire house at the corner of Scott Avenue and Alexander Road, it was an attractive idea to arrange for access to the Crawford Woods so the campers could spend time in the woods and see what was there. The activity was organized and led by Corinna Bisgaier, director of education of the West Windsor Arts Council.
The camp was conducted for eight weeks this past summer. There were about 30 participants each day, with about half the day being spent in the woods. Access to the woods was provided by a resident of Scott Avenue who lived across the street from the Arts Center, and for whose help the Arts Council is extremely grateful.
When the Crawford Woods was originally designated as part of West Windsor’s open space inventory, there was one unoccupied house within its boundaries.
That house was demolished at some time within the last two decades, although it is likely that some of its remains turned up during the recent camper explorations.
To complete the Crawford part of the story, it should be pointed out that part of Crawford family still resides in the area nearby on the north side of Alexander Road.
So what did the campers find during their daily explorations? Well, as might be expected there was an odd mix of many things, man-made and natural.
The man-made objects included what we would properly call trash: parts of discarded machines and household appliances, wires, bricks, hoses and almost anything else you might find lying around the house or garage. There was even part of a sign for the nearby Brother’s Pizza.
As many know, part of the area has a long history of commercial development potential. This involves what was once referred to as the “Acme Woods.” Before the development of what is now known as Windsor Plaza, the main commercial focus of the area was the Acme supermarket.
It was located approximately where the Mrs Green’s store is now. This was before the McCaffrey’s market opened a few miles down Hightstown Road.
There were a number of other stores in the shopping center near the Acme, including a pharmacy and a toy store. But the several eateries we now have did not exist.
But because most people focused their attention in the area on the Acme, it became known as the “Acme shopping center.” And, naturally, the wooded area between the Acme store itself and the nearby residential areas on Borosko Place and the north side of Alexander road became known as the “Acme Woods.”
In fact, much of the area between the Acme and the parking lots of the Schlumberger company on Wallace road was in a natural state. Much of it still is today.
When the Acme went away there was much speculation and fear that the Acme woods would soon be developed commercially and paved over with black-top. But it has been over a decade now, and the township now believes that the owner realizes there are substantial difficulties in using the area in any way but the present one. At any rate, in this part of West Windsor, a natural wooded area can be preferable to a paved parking lot almost anywhere.
