The Camden Children's Garden, Camden (must see)

The Camden Children’s Garden was created as a family-oriented green space where plants, play, and environmental education came together. Opened in 1999, it grew out of the Camden City Garden Club, a nonprofit founded in 1985 to support community gardening, youth training, and urban greening. Rather than functioning as a formal botanical garden, it was designed around children’s curiosity, with themed areas that made nature feel approachable and interactive.

Its grounds once included storybook-style gardens, a tree house area, a butterfly house, a small train, a carousel, and colourful displays shaped for younger visitors. The garden also had close ties to the Philadelphia Flower Show, with several features rebuilt from past exhibits, including the Philadelphia Eagles Four Seasons Butterfly House. The Camden City Garden Club also used the show to highlight its youth programmes and award-winning displays.

The garden’s later history was shaped not only by the pandemic, but also by a long-running dispute over the land. In 2013, New Jersey officials sought to evict the garden to allow for private economic development and a possible expansion of the neighbouring aquarium. The Garden Club argued that the land belonged to the city, while the state claimed ownership; public support and local activism helped delay the eviction at the time.

Today, the Camden Children’s Garden is best understood as a former family attraction with a layered civic story. Its decline reflects more than a simple closure: it brings together questions of public land, waterfront redevelopment, community gardening, and children’s education. The garden is now permanently closed to the public, and recent accounts describe the site as abandoned and overgrown behind locked gates.