History
Garden State Park opened on July 7, 1942 after delays caused by raw material rationing at the United States' entry into World War II. Due to the seizure of 30,000 tons of structural steel by war authorities, developer Eugene Mori mostly constructed Garden State Park's ornate Georgian-style grandstand of wood. Limited amounts of steel came from the demolition of New York City's elevated railways. Despite this inauspicious start, 'the Garden,' as it was known, was officially 'out of the gate.'
In 1959, Philadelphia Phillies owner Bob Carpenter proposed building a new ballpark for the Phillies on 72 acres (290,000 m2) adjacent to the race track. Connie Mack Stadium was 50-years old, did not have sufficient parking, and the sale of alcohol was banned at sports venues in Pennsylvania. Beer sales were legal in New Jersey.
The Phillies would eventually move to the South Philadelphia Sports Complex in 1971.
In its heyday, it would host some of the finest thoroughbred racehorses in the nation at the signature Jersey Derby. Its Garden State Stakes and the Gardenia Stakes offered one of the largest purses available to for two-year-olds. Horses raced at Garden State Park included Whirlaway, Citation, and Secretariat on a cold, rainy Saturday afternoon in early 1972 in the Garden State Futurity.
Garden State Park's success sparked a wave of entertainment-oriented growth and development in the formerly rural community of Delaware Township, New Jersey (now Cherry Hill Township). Mori followed his achievement at the racetrack with the construction of the Cherry Hill Inn on the site of Abraham Browning's Cherry Hill Farm (at Route 38 and Haddonfield Road); and in 1967 the Cherry Hill Lodge, also on Route 38 to the east of the Cherry Hill Mall. Soon to follow in 1961 was the Cherry Hill Shopping Center (today's Cherry Hill Mall, the first enclosed shopping mall on the East Coast) and the super-luxurious Rickshaw Inn with its gold-plated roof, which was situated on Route 70 opposite Garden State Park.
Diagonally across Route 70 on the map in then-Delaware Township was the Latin Casino, adjacent to the Rickshaw and the Garden. This dinner nightclub hosted acts like Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Liberace, Cherry Hill Estates neighbors Al Martino & Frankie Avalon and more; before closing due to competition from casinos in Atlantic City, New Jersey.
Followed later by Atlantic City Race Course and Monmouth Park Racetrack (1946), Garden State Park became a crucial part of what was called the "Golden Triangle" of New Jersey racing.
Read more about this topic: Garden State Park Racetrack
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