Goodnow Park
Goodnow Park is a town-owned park at the head of the common in Princeton center. In the 2020 Open Space and Recreation Plan, a task was added to work on improving the area for passive recreation. Trails were cleared and this area is now open for hiking and picnicking. There is also some interest in building a disc golf course,but this is waiting for Parks and Recreation action.
The main trailhead is in back of the Annex at the town hall location. The trails also connect to Mountain Road and Hubbardston Road (Route 62). The blue loop trail goes around the perimeter of the park, and is 0.4 miles in length and will take 15-20 minutes to walk. It can be walked either clockwise or counter-clockwise. Trails are steep in places, descending 1000 feet east to west. There are several crossing trails, and a lovely pine grove in the back of the property that is a nice place for a picnic.
Bench on the upper slope of Goodnow Park
Historical Notes:
Goodnow Park is named for the donor of this land, Edward Augustus Goodnow (1810-1906), a successful businessman who started his career as a storekeeper and shoe manufacturer in Princeton and later became president of the First National Bank of Worcester. A generous philanthropist in later life, Edward Goodnow made three major gifts to the Town of Princeton: the Goodnow Memorial Building (1882) and Bagg Hall (1884), both in memory of his deceased wives; and Goodnow Park just north of the Town Hall complex (1893). His first wife was Harriet, daughter of Doctor Henry Bagg of Princeton, and subsequent to her death Mr. Goodnow married her sister, Mary Augusta. Of this marriage one son, Henry Bagg Goodnow, was born, but did not survive Infancy.
Edward Augustus Goodnow was the third generation of his name to live in Princeton. The family homestead, built 1786, still stands on Goodnow Road; in 1956 it was donated to the Massachusetts Audubon Society as part of the Wachusett Meadows wildlife sanctuary.
Mr. Goodnow donated 4.5 acres to be owned by the town as public-park on the west side of Mountain Road, north of the 11-acre town hall complex, right behind the Town Hall Annex and Police/Fire Station. The gift was accepted by the town on Dec. 24, 1892. The park is bounded by Mountain Road on the east, by Hubbardston Road on the west, and by dry-laid stone walls along its north and south boundaries. The landscape is rocky and heavily wooded; the uneven terrain slopes down steeply from east to west. The 1898 map of Princeton shows Goodnow Park with a winding pathway leading from Mountain Road near the northeast corner of the park to its southern edge, behind Bagg Hall.