Celebrating 60: Huber Woods Park

By the middle of the 18th century, settlers had established farms on the north bank of the Navesink River. Typically houses were built along the river and the upland was farmed. Some built docks for bringing supplies in and shipping produce out to New York. A farm owner named Brown built a dock in front of his farm, and the adjacent road became known as Brown's Dock Road. Members of the Brown family farmed the land for more than 150 years when descendants sold 30 acres in 1915 to Joseph Huber.

Joseph Huber had arrived in New York in 1883 to sell dry color ink pigments his family manufactured in Munich, Germany. He established the J.M. Huber Corporation in New York in 1887 to manufacture and sell pigments, and soon after married Ann Gundlach, the daughter of German immigrants. Arriving by steamboat from Manhattan, Joseph and Anna rented Brown's peach farm on the Navesink in 1904 as a summer residence for their young family, even bringing along his delivery wagon horses so they could graze the pastures.

It was in 1915 that the Hubers bought the Brown farm through the J.M. Huber Corporation and built an Alpine-style house on the river. They acquired additional land up Brown's Dock Road, and their oldest son Hans and his wife Catherine Goss Huber built a larger Alpine-style house on the hill in 1927. They spent their summers there with their six children, farming the land with hay and corn for the horses, cows, chickens and pigs, and producing milk, butter and eggs for themselves and neighbors.

Huber's son and daughter-in-law, Hans and Catherine Huber, wanted to see 119 acres of woodland on the north end of their farm preserved in perpetuity as a nature sanctuary, and when donated to the county in 1974, they specified that roads, playgrounds, recreational facilities, and powered recreational vehicles should be excluded from the property. It was also requested that Brown's Dock Road be maintained as a dirt road and not widened. That same year, the Park System expanded the new park with the acquisition of 29 adjacent acres, and a year later an additional three acres were donated by Steven and Bonnie Wood. With the assistance of the N.J. Conservation Foundation and a Green Acres matching grant, another 52 acres were added across from the park in 1979.

It was in 1985 that the Huber family donated the core of their farm estate on Brown's Dock Road which consisted of 48 acres of land that included the Hans and Catherine Huber House, a barn and stable complex, and agricultural fields and woods. Members of the Huber family had first considered the development of the land, but decided they'd rather see the farm preserved for light agricultural use and nature study.

The Huber Farm stables were put to good use when the Special People United to Ride (SPUR) program moved there in 1987 from Thompson Park. The Huber House was turned into an Environmental Center with hands-on exhibits, and an accessible Discovery Path trail meandering through the adjacent woods. Park System carpenters erected an Activity Building made of logs in 1994 for educational programs and meetings, and a garage was converted into the Reptile House as a home for the Park System's reptile collection. Park System Naturalists have been conducting several programs over the years at Huber Woods, including the ever popular Creatures of the Night in October and the Native American Longhouse program utilized by school and private groups.

In 2006, the 99-acre Timolat Farm was added with the help of the Monmouth Conservation Foundation. James G. Timolat, who was originally from Staten Island and was President of the Oakland Chemical Company, had purchased the property in 1909 and developed it into a country estate named "Riverside." This large acquisition consisted of the farm portion of the estate which included a farmhouse, barns, and manmade ponds surrounded by meadow and forest.

Today, Huber Woods Park has grown to 381 acres of preserved open space. The older woods on the ridges resemble those of Hartshorne Woods Park, with mixed oak and chestnut. Tulip poplar forests have grown up on long-abandoned pastures, while eastern red cedar woodlands are found on more recently abandoned fields. Norway spruce groves planted by the Huber and Timolat families thrive near the Environmental Center and further west on the former Timolat Farm. The park is a great place for birders who may find pileated woodpeckers and scarlet tanagers in the wooded areas, Carolina chickadees and American goldfinch at the feeders near the Environmental Center, and Wilson's snipe and hooded mergansers in the ponds on the former Timolat Farm property. There are a total of 8.5 miles of the trails, from easy loops to challenging runs, there are a variety to choose from whether you're a walker, hiker, runner, bicyclist, or equestrian. And the Environmental Center is a perfect attraction for those interested in learning about Native Americans and local wildlife. (Please Note: Due to the current coronavirus pandemic, as of the publishing of this blog, parks are open to visitors, but buildings are currently closed.)

For more information about Huber Woods Park, including a brochure with trail map, visit us online.

Historic details for this post were collected from The Monmouth County Park System: The First Fifty Years.