Trail advocates, public officials, and community members gathered Saturday morning to cut the ribbon on a new segment of the Lawrence Hopewell Trail (LHT): a raised boardwalk weaving through the wetlands of Maidenhead Meadows and offering a safer, more scenic route for walkers and cyclists.
The 0.4-mile stretch—funded through a $1.2 million grant from the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission—connects the historic Brearley House to Foxcroft Drive while bypassing busy Princeton Pike. It also crosses Shipetaukin Creek and traverses part of Maidenhead Meadows Park, a 345-acre preserved property created in 2015 and now Mercer County’s largest municipally owned park.
“This new trail will allow users to travel safely and enjoyably from the Brearley House to the Foxcroft crossing, all while avoiding hazards of heavily trafficked roads,” said Lawrence Township Mayor Patricia Hendricks Farmer. “This trail is more than just a path through the park. It’s a gateway to our communities. It reflects who we are—a township that values nature, invests in the future, and opens its arms to everyone who seeks a better quality of life.”
Farmer credited township engineers James Parvesse and Brenda Kramer for identifying and securing the grant that made the project possible. The boardwalk was designed by Remington & Vernick Engineers and built by Capela Construction.
Saturday’s ribbon cutting, followed by a community walk through the new section, marked one of the final phases of the LHT’s 20-mile loop, which is now 93% complete. Additional connections are expected later this year, including a key link in Hopewell Township.
David Sandahl, chair of the LHT Board of Trustees, opened the ceremony by honoring supporters and local leaders, as well as the late Mercer County Executive Brian Hughes, who died earlier this week and was one of the trail’s earliest backers.
“Brian was one of the first to believe in the LHT and to support us, not just with words but with resources,” Sandahl said, leading attendees in a moment of silence.
He also credited the visionaries behind the trail’s creation: Becky Taylor and Eleanor Horne.
“From the earliest planning meetings to today’s expanding network, Eleanor and Becky literally blazed the trail,” Sandahl said. “They guided, inspired, and championed this project—not just as a physical path, but as a bridge connecting communities.”
Taylor, then an executive at Bristol-Myers Squibb, first envisioned the trail in the early 2000s after her husband was run off the road while biking on Route 518. Seeking a safer alternative, she turned to Horne, then vice president of Educational Testing Service’s social investment fund and pitched the idea of a trail linking corporate campuses with county parkland.
“The idea of having something permanent really appealed to me,” Horne told MercerMe in 2023.
Despite early skepticism about the trail’s feasibility, Taylor and Horne built a broad coalition of support from corporations, municipalities, and local advocates. In 2023, after more than two decades of service, they formally stepped back from their leadership roles with the nonprofit Lawrence Hopewell Trail Corporation.
During a farewell event that year, Hughes called them two of the most impactful figures in Mercer County’s recent history.
Their legacy continues not only in policy but also in people—like Anne and Mike Kruimer, longtime volunteers and accessibility advocates who have supported the trail since its earliest days. Anne, who uses a wheelchair, said the new boardwalk segment is a meaningful step forward for equitable access to nature.
She described how many trails, including one she visited just last weekend in Middlesex County, often become inaccessible as they enter wooded areas. “It bothers me a little bit that you can’t go see nature,” she said.
The Kruimers’ involvement with the LHT grew out of their work with the East Coast Greenway, a long-distance trail that intersects the LHT behind the Brearley House. The couple became active in the 1990s after Anne was left using a wheelchair following a bike accident. They began tandem biking and soon turned their focus toward advocating for accessible bike paths across New Jersey. Mike later chaired the New Jersey section of the Greenway project.
During the community walk following the ribbon cutting, the couple walked the new boardwalk with Eleanor Horne. “Did you ever think it was going to get done?” Horne asked with a smile.
“I knew it’d get done,” Mike replied. “Just not in the one or two years you thought it was going to take.”
Hopewell Township Mayor Courtney Peters-Manning said the project’s scope has grown well beyond its corporate-campus origins.
“This trail isn’t just a path through the woods or along the fields. It’s a connection—between neighborhoods, people and nature, the history we honor and the future we’re building,” she said. “It brings us together, cyclists, runners, families, and explorers of all ages.”
Patrick Starr, chair of the Circuit Trails Coalition, said the LHT now serves as a model within the region’s growing trail network, which spans more than 850 miles across Pennsylvania and New Jersey.
“All trails are local, but the super sauce is connectivity,” Starr said. “What you’ve done here inspires us all.”
With four projects remaining, the LHT Corporation hopes to complete the final links by July 4, 2026, marking the nation’s 250th birthday with a fully connected 20-mile loop through Lawrence and Hopewell. Future plans include a redesigned route through the new Pike Town neighborhood and additional spurs that tie into regional trails and town centers.
For more information on the Lawrence Hopewell Trail, visit www.lhtrail.org.
