Town, county and state officials pose for a photo at the future site of Mountain View Park. Photo courtesy Somerset County Park Commission.

It’s been a year since Somerset County and Hillsborough, New Jersey formally dedicated the future site of the new athletic complex at Mountain View Park, site of the old General Services Administration Belle Mead Depot. The first phase of construction, already underway, will result in seven new, lighted, baseball fields. Phase two consists of plans to build an additional six baseball fields, and has yet to move beyond the planning stage. Public interest in the process has been limited in the past few years, partly because every press release announcing these plans describes the site the same way, just as I’ve done- “the site of the old GSA Belle Mead Depot.” Many Somerset County residents have spent their entire lives just a few miles away from the depot, and yet most have no idea what that actually means.

It wasn’t always that way, though. A big part of the problem with Mountain View Park is how thoroughly it erases what could easily be one of Hillsborough’s proudest historical moments. Beginning in the 1940s, the Belle Mead Depot was one of eleven World War II “filler bases” where weapons and equipment were stored before being shipped to the front. On any given day, the warehouses stocked 1.2 billion dollars (over 16 billion in 2015 dollars) worth of nails, bolts, trucks, munitions, and anything else that might possibly be needed overseas. If it was needed on the front, it often went through Belle Mead Depot to get there. When a shortage of labor arose, hundreds of students from Princeton University were bussed in to sort the warehouses’ stock. For a while, it even housed Italian prisoners of war. Yet, the athletic facilities planned for the site make no reference to this past.

Change isn’t always a bad thing, and both the county and the township understand that residents’ needs have changed in the past seventy years. However, according to Hillsborough Parks and Recreation, the town already has more than fifteen public baseball fields. When the park was first proposed, residents overwhelmingly supported using the depot for walking trails and bike paths, and adapting the site for such a purpose opens up a new world of opportunities for recreation as well as a chance to explore the site’s history.

Residents should ask the Somerset County Improvement Authority to reconsider their plans for the second phase of Mountain View Park. This is an opportunity for Hillsborough to embrace its history. The recreational facilities at Ann Van Middlesworth park and Woodfield Park, each less than half a mile away, could undeniably use some upgrades- perhaps instead of building more baseball fields, the town could update those facilities to the standards proposed at Mountain View.  By doing this, we could provide residents with the state-of-the-art athletic fields the county has envisioned, as well as retain part of the GSA depot for less structured recreational use, perhaps with much-needed historical information about the site. This kind of use would augment the nearby Sourland Mountain Preserve, and give residents the opportunity to get outdoors while learning about local history. The Delaware Raritan Canal State Park is one nearby example of the merging of historic information with valuable recreation space, and it could potentially serve as inspiration for a new kind of park at the Belle Mead site- one that uses recreation to complement history, rather than obscuring it. At the D&R Canal, the towpath that once guided mules pulling barges is now used for biking, walking, fishing, and birdwatching, with historic markers that explain what the various locks and bridges were used for. At this point, it’s unlikely an extensive project would be possible for the Belle Meade Depot, but even a rudimentary marker could be fascinating to residents looking to connect with local history.

It’s often difficult for New Jersey residents to connect with their state’s military past. Unlike Boston, with its freedom trail and historic monuments, it’s incredibly easy to grow up in this state and have no idea what’s happened here. By reconsidering what the Belle Mead GSA property could be, we have an opportunity to maintain open space, and educate residents about the history of this town. Somerset County and the town of Hillsborough have a unique opportunity to tell a story that’s been almost completely forgotten. They should take it.