I remember the monkey house. I also recall that it was a very pleasant visit as long as you breathed through your mouth. The stench was quite unpleasant. I also recall the “bear pit.” I felt so sorry for that bear whose home was a big hole in the ground with bars on top so visitors could see him. To me that was animal cruelty. Today the “Mansion,” better known as Ellerslie is an incredibly beautiful museum; the bear pit and the monkey bars long gone.
THIS FROM OMAD:
A friend and I attended a luncheon event at the museum a couple of years ago with the food provided by the Culinary group from the state prison. Food was excellent. The docent told us that on some very hot days the old “aroma” from the monkeys still comes up through the floorboards.
HAMILTON - TRENTON - MERCER HISTORY 
A friend and I attended a luncheon event at the museum a couple of years ago with the food provided by the Culinary group from the state prison. Food was excellent. The docent told us that on some very hot days the old "aroma" from the monkeys still comes up through the floorboards.
As an animal lover and State Animal Control officer, I am so disgusted with the conditions of the animal facilities that existed during the 1940's, 1950's and even in the 1960's. I frequently visited the park, primarily the monkey house and that horrible bear pit a lot growing up. I felt compelled, even as a young child, to make every attempt to feed those animals healthy food and not garbage. The place stunk so bad, because it was never properly cleaned, the animals were never properly fed and I honestly doubt that unless they were at death's door, they were ever seen by a Vet. The older I got, the more I realized how horrible the conditions were that those poor animals were forced to endure. I remember taking my children to the park one morning to see the deer, but someone had shot them. Yes, they had been cruely shot and left to die. I also recall a monkey reaching for food, when someone jumped the small fence and slit the money's arm open with a kife. Shelters don't reak of filth, unless there is good reason and you cannot clean with just water and expect the stench to go away. Didn't anyone in authority see how those animals existed? I'm so ashamed of myself now for not making an issue of this a long time ago. It was a wonderful place to go and enjoy quality family time, but looking back, those poor animals were subjected to neglect and cruelty. Under today's laws, it would never be permitted. I can't help but wonder what happened to all the animals kept at the park. This is a great blog, but facts still remain facts.
I loved reading and seeing the historical pictures of Cadwalader Park. I am a native Trentonian, born at Helene Fuld, 1968. The reason I sought out your photos? I had a dream. A lovely dream of the balloon-man at the entrance to the park, feeding the deer, holding my nose at the monkey house, and yes of course, I am reminded of why I am so sensitive to animal rights, the bear, the poor bear at the bottom of a pit. Even when I was a child it was a cruelty, and as an adult, trying to forge through the ever changing muck that is her past, somehow Cadwalader Park came into a dream. I left NJ in 1996 and from what I remember, West Trenton had become nothing but a pit of gangs and drugs. I hope that they were able to somehow preserve this beautiful and historic place and take out the deer, the geese, the ducks, the monkey’s and the dear dear bear. I pray that society has bettered this place of history, somehow, I think not. I told my husband tonight, about my dream, told him that West Trenton is no place to be these days, I told him about the bear, and the monkeys, and the balloon man…and I left the conversation very heavy hearted. We should be able to preserve the good, and do away with the bad, in these places…that hold so much memory of children. I pray that someone would take that iniciative, and make this a place to relive history, a place where we can put a plaque to the memory of the bears and the monkeys, and their sevice to a very cruel society. But I fear that this area of town will fall ever deeper to the woes of this age, and the memory will be lost forever.