The Krueger-Scott Mansion is located in

Newark Newark most commonly refers to: * Newark, New Jersey, city in the United States * Newark Liberty International Airport, New Jersey; a major air hub in the New York metropolitan area Newark may also refer to: Places Canada * Niagara-on-the ...

, Essex County,

New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...

, United States. The mansion was built on the corner of Court and High Street (now Martin Luther King Boulevard) in 1888 and was added to the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

on November 9, 1972.

History

The 40 room mansion was built in 1888 by Gottfried Krueger (1837–1926), founder of Newark's

Gottfried Krueger Brewing Company The Gottfried Krueger Brewing Company was a brewery in Newark, New Jersey founded by Gottfried Krueger and John Laible (Gottfried's Uncle) in 1858. The company produced Krueger's Special Beer, the first beer to be sold in cans, in November, 193 ...

and owner of several other

breweries A brewery or brewing company is a business that makes and sells beer. The place at which beer is commercially made is either called a brewery or a beerhouse, where distinct sets of brewing equipment are called plant. The commercial brewing of bee ...

. The construction cost at the time was $250,000. The mansion was sold to the Valley of Newark

Scottish Rite The Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry (the Northern Masonic Jurisdiction in the United States often omits the ''and'', while the English Constitution in the United Kingdom omits the ''Scottish''), commonly known as simply the Sco ...

Freemasons Freemasonry or Masonry refers to fraternal organisations that trace their origins to the local guilds of stonemasons that, from the end of the 13th century, regulated the qualifications of stonemasons and their interaction with authorities ...

in 1926 for $100,000. A 700-seat auditorium was added to the mansion to accommodate for various meetings. The mansion was purchased in 1958 by Louise Scott for $85,000. Scott operated a beauty school out of the first floor of the mansion while keeping the upper levels as her private residence. The mansion was added to the

New Jersey Register of Historic Places The New Jersey Register of Historic Places is the official list of historic resources of local, state, and national interest in the U.S. state of New Jersey. The program is administered by the New Jersey's state historic preservation office within ...

and the National Register of Historic places in 1972. Scott died in 1982 and ownership of the mansion passed to the city of Newark. In 1991, the

New Jersey Historic Trust The New Jersey Historic Trust was created by the State of New Jersey in 1967 to preserve New Jersey's historic resources. The Historic Trust's executive director is Dorothy P. Guzzo. Funding programs available through the New Jersey Historic Tru ...

funded a bond for $625,812 to stabilize the exterior of the building. The city of Newark matched that amount, and over the years devoted more than $4 million to turning the home into a center focusing on the black contribution to Newark's development. The federal government contributed an additional $1.5 million., but after a decade of work, plans to turn the house into an African-American cultural center were frozen by the city's Municipal Council, which refused to allocate any more money for the project.

Construction

The mansion is a three-and-a-half-story,

Late Victorian Victorian architecture is a series of architectural revival styles in the mid-to-late 19th century. ''Victorian'' refers to the reign of Queen Victoria (1837–1901), called the Victorian era, during which period the styles known as Victorian we ...

style building with a five-story circular tower. A wrap around porch, steeply pitched roof, asymmetrical facade and arched front entryway are characteristic of the Queen Anne Style. The building is a

balloon frame A balloon is a flexible bag that can be inflated with a gas, such as helium, hydrogen, nitrous oxide, oxygen, and air. For special tasks, balloons can be filled with smoke, liquid water, granular media (e.g. sand, flour or rice), or light so ...

structure with a brick facade. The interior consists of

lath and plaster Lath and plaster is a building process used to finish mainly interior dividing walls and ceilings. It consists of narrow strips of wood ( laths) which are nailed horizontally across the wall studs or ceiling joists and then coated in plaster. The ...

walls with

wallpaper Wallpaper is a material used in interior decoration to decorate the interior walls of domestic and public buildings. It is usually sold in rolls and is applied onto a wall using wallpaper paste. Wallpapers can come plain as "lining paper" (so t ...

covering and wood molding. The flooring is made of

hardwood Hardwood is wood from dicot trees. These are usually found in broad-leaved temperate and tropical forests. In temperate and boreal latitudes they are mostly deciduous, but in tropics and subtropics mostly evergreen. Hardwood (which comes from ...

set into patterns. The pedimented windows are an Italianate influence here.

Conversion to artisan housing and workspaces

In late 2020, the city and the company Makerhoods broke ground on refurbishing the mansion into live/work spaces for local experienced "makers" in the food, beauty, craft and other small-scale artisan industries for $1800 a month by application only.

Gallery

File:Krueger_Scott_Mansion.jpg, Corner of Court Street and Dr. MLK Jr. Boulevard. File:Krueger_Scott_Mansion2.jpg, Dr. MLK Jr. Boulevard side. File:Krueger_Scott_Mansion3.jpg, Court Street side. File:Krueger_Scott_Mansion4.jpg, Front Facade of Dr. MLK Jr. Boulevard side. File:Exterior_5.jpg, Front porch.

In popular culture

*The design of the mansion is featured in the animated series

The Venture Bros. ''The Venture Bros.'' is an American adult animation, adult animated action comedy TV series created by Chris McCulloch (also known as "Jackson Publick") for Cartoon Network's late night programming block Adult Swim. Following a pilot episode on ...

, as the Fitzcarraldo Mansion.

References

External links

Short video documentary on the history of the Krueger Mansion part 1

Short video documentary on the history of the Krueger Mansion part 2
* created by Newark journalist

Guy Sterling Guy Sterling (born September 23, 1948) is an American journalist, author and historian. He spent most of his 35-year newspaper career as a reporter with ''The Star-Ledger'' in Newark, New Jersey, primarily covering the courts and criminal justice ...

View of Krueger Mansion
via

Google Street View Google Street View is a technology featured in Google Maps and Google Earth that provides interactive panoramas from positions along many streets in the world. It was launched in 2007 in several cities in the United States, and has since expa ...

{{National Register of Historic Places Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in New Jersey Houses completed in 1888 Houses in Essex County, New Jersey Buildings and structures in Newark, New Jersey Victorian architecture in New Jersey National Register of Historic Places in Newark, New Jersey New Jersey Register of Historic Places Gilded Age mansions