Muhlenberg Hospital

Of all the hospitals I've written about for this blog, I've never been more intimidated to tackle a story than I was for this one. Few places had as much of an impact on their community as Plainfield's historic Muhlenberg Hospital. The hospital was founded in 1876 after an incident where a man fell off a coal train and had to have his leg amputated on site. After this incident, locals declared the need for a hospital in the region. Dr. Charles Hart and the Reverend Erskine M. Rodman began making the thought a reality. They decided to name the facility after the Reverend William Agustus Muhlenberg, who had recently passed away. The reverend was best know for being the founder of the famed St Luke's Hospital in New York City. After disputes over the best location, the land for the new hospital in Plainfield was donated by Job Male, the first mayor of the city. After years of fundraising and building the hospital officially opens on December 1st, 1881.

"The Muhlenberg Hospital: Plainfield NJ H. Edwards Fieken and Charles H. Smith (1878)

The original hospital was a small, half timbered single story wooden structure on the western side of the city. The structure had gender segregated wings, offices up front, a kitchen and dining room in the back, and a surgical suite. Local women were credited with working to fundraise for the building. Minor improvements continued to be made over the years, including the introduction of steam heat and electricity in 1884. Members of the hospitals "auxiliary" were responsible for a large portion of the money for the upgrades. They didn't want to draw from the hospitals funds, in case an emergency were to occur. By 1894 a school of nursing formed at the hospital, as was common at the time. It is reported at the time that the staff of nine doctors performed their services without being paid. In 1895 the hospital purchases their first ambulance. Two years later a new wing added to the hospital designed by architect Evarts Tracy. Evarts was a Plainfield resident and employee of McKim, Mead, and White, who were one of the most prestigious American architecture firms of all time. They were responsible for New York City's famed original Penn Station.

Annual Report (1909)

By the turn of the century the hospital had outgrown itself. In 1901 a patch of farmland on Randolph Road was purchased after several local landowners came forward offering a place for the facility. Evarts Tracy and the newly formed Tracey and Swartwout firm designed a cluster of attractive brick and limestone structures at the end of Hillside Avenue which opened in 1903. The new complex included a reception building, kitchen, mens and women's dorms, even a maternity ward. 3/4 of the funds were raised by just 123 Plainfield residents. Evarts Tracy designed and built his home on Hillside within sight of the hospital so he could always admire his work. The hospital was one of the firm's major projects, but the duo would go on to be some of the most esteemed institutional architects of the age.

One of the most valuable parts of this new addition was the Muhlenberg Operating Pavilion. The new space was a breakthrough for the facility, offering a room built specifically to carry out surgical procedures. In fact, the structure was designed facing north, affording the most amount of natural light it could receive in a given day. Funding for this addition was provided largely through a $10,000 donation (~$300,000 in 2020) from a man named  J. Howard Wright. The money was donated on behalf of Wright's two deceased grandsons, who each died of different infectious diseases at the turn of the century.

"Inside of the operating room" Seventy Sixth Annual report (1954)

"Main operating room- Wright Memorial Pavilion" Forty Third Annual Report (1921)

More and more structures were added to the campus over the years, in a mix of different architectural styles. An isolation building was completed in 1908. 

"Contagious disease building" Annual Report (1917)

The next year the Hedgeman memorial power plant and laundry building opens. The building was a donation from Mr. Benjamin A Hegeman, Jr. And W. J. R. Hegeman. Shortly after being constructed it had already been outgrown.

Annual Report (1915)

Mrs. Winnie Edgerton donated $50,000 (~$1.3mil in 2020) to expand the maternity building. The stately Private Room building was added in 1916.

"Private Patients Pavilion" Forty Seventh Annual Report (1924)

The nurses building received an additional level in 1918 to accommodate the demand from the Council of National Defense as a result of WWI. 

Annual Report (1913-1914)

Annual Report (1919)

The new power plant was also completed the same year. Several of the new sections of the hospital added throughout this time are the work of famed New York City hospital architecture firm Crow, Lewis, and Wick. The group has other extant works in New Jersey, including the Orange Memorial Hospital in nearby Essex County. Their style and flair are unmistakable.

Annual Report (1915)

The new Nurses Building opened in 1922, followed by the East Building four years later. By 1927 the new wing of the Private Pavilion opens, as well as the Ward building in 1928. 

"Ward Building" Fifty First Annual Report, (1928)

"Private Patients' Pavilion" Fifty Second Annual Report (1929)

The hospital was taxed heavily during the Great Depression when a large portion of their patients were unable to pay for care. However they reportedly never turned a patient away during this time, and they didn't cut a single service.

"Fairfield Aerial Services Inc, NYC"

 Fifty Third Annual Report (1930)

Potentially the most recognizable building on the campus was erected in 1939. The new Administration building was constructed right in front of the original Tracy and Swartwout structures. 

Sixty Third Annual Report (1940)

Seventy Sixth Annual Report (1954)

WWII was period of strife for many hospitals, and Muhlenberg was no exception. Nearly half of the medical professionals at the hospital enlisted in the service and were sent overseas. The need for medical care didn't cease though, and the hospital was quickly outgrowing each addition. To remedy this, construction began on the "New Main" building designed by Ferrenz & Taylor in 1952. Ferrenz and Taylor had their own pedigree, both having met while working in the offices of John Russell Pope earlier in their careers.

Seventy Fourth Annual Report (1951)

Seventy Fourth Annual Report (1951)

The new structure rose up on the easternmost side of the complex. This was the largest building on campus, which had a number of new amenities. The top floor was one large surgical center, there were operating rooms on lower floors, and the basement had a huge pathology department with several different laboratories. 

The building had new a new kitchen and cafeteria and hundreds of new patient rooms. There was also an expansive pathology laboratory throughout the basement, The new building fulfilled the hospitals space needs for the time being, It would be nearly two decades before any major expansion would take place at the facility. In 1957, Muhlenberg hired their first black nurse, a young woman named Corliss Henry.

In 1966 the Kenyon House, a new nurses home was built on the corner of Park Ave and Randolph Road, occupying what was once a driveway lined with Elm Trees donated by the city of Plainfield. The next year a portion of the original student nurses home was demolished to make room for parking, while a large t shaped structure called the Continuing Care Facility was built. The new building connected the remaining portion of the student building to the main hospital. The footprint of the complex now stretched nearly to the corner of Moffett and Park Avenue, and east all the way to the Blake tennis center. 

In 1970 another huge construction campaign was launched. It started by expanding existing sections of the hospital but by 1974 a large new structure named the Stevens Building was completed behind the right wing of the New Main building. 

The Stevens building contained a new emergency room entrance, as well as 5 additional stories of patient care space. The maternity ward was moved to the newly constructed wing. 

In 1977 the hospital celebrated its 100th anniversary, and the next year Centennial Hall opened. The building was dedicated to the Women's Auxiliary, who fought tirelessly decade after decade for improvements to the facility. The small auditorium was added to the right wing of the New Main building, right along Randolph Road.

 

In 1979 the Arnold Schwartz Foundation donated $36,000 to help finance a children's center at the hospital. Sevens years later, the facility would go from being know as  "Muhlenberg Hospital" to "Muhlenberg Regional Medical Center", a name more fitting to its actual level of service. 

The last major building project began in 1987. It was dubbed the "Muhlenberg 2000" campaign. The goal was to raise $5 million, but they ended up with nearly $6.5 million. Ground was broken in haste for the Fitch building, named for Dr. Thomas S.P. Fitch who was a longtime resident of the hospital. Part of the East Building was demolished to make way for the new space. An atrium was also added to the New Main building.

The Fitch building opened in the early 1990s. Included in this section was a new emergency room and a massive surgical floor. There were 8 surgical suites, each equipped with all sorts of lighting and other useful apparatus.

"Thomas S. P. Fitch, M.D.," Annual Report (1958)

At this time the hospital reached its peak capacity with 355 patients on 17 acres. Muhlenberg is claimed to be the largest employer in the city at the time, with more than 1000 people keeping the facility running every day.  Just a few years later in 1997 Muhlenberg merges with JFK hospital in Edison forming the Solaris Health Network.

In 2006 the Harold B. and Dorothy A. Synder School building was built on the property, right behind what remained of the original Students Building. Shortly after construction wrapped up, the Students Building and Continuing Care Facility were demolished.

The community was delivered a heavy blow when it was announced in 2008 that the beloved hospital center was slated to be shuttered. As always, operating expenses were cited as the reason for the closure. Hundreds of people attended a protest on the day the hospital officially shut its doors. They didn't just turn the key and walk away though; as part of a deal with the state Solaris health agreed to maintain a bare bones list of critical services for 5 years. A small number of patients continued to be seen at the hospital while the majority of the disused building was filled with overflow equipment. Most of Muhlenberg's former patients went on to the other Solaris hospital in Edison, while a number wound up having to go as far as far as Trinitas Hospital in Elizabeth.

An Urban Health Institute report was launched in 2012 to determine whether or not there was an immediate need for inpatient care in the area. The report found that there was not such a need. Moreover, the report found that it wouldn't make financial sense to reopen a hospital in the building, which was deemed "outdated". Despite this, citizens continued to insist that the hospital served a critical place in their community. Two years later the city of Plainfield issues their own study of the hospital property, to determine the long term consequences of not having an inpatient care facility in the city. At the same time the roughly 12,000sf Kenyon house was being heavily renovated to accommodate the existing services being held in the large, mostly empty hospital. By June 2014, all services in the massive building were moved to Kenyon House, and the main hospital was entirely shuttered.

It was right around this time that I first visited the Muhlenberg campus. I arrived to find a hospital that quite frankly still looked like it was being used. The lights were on throughout the complex, and the structures were in great shape with no plywood or other obvious signs if vacancy. I began poking around the building, but couldn't find any obvious way inside. One day while walking along the sidewalk with my camera I was approached by a security guard. He told me I was trespassing even though I was simply standing on the sidewalk on Randolph Road. I was surprised, as I had visited at least a dozen other disused hospitals in the state and none of them had security like that. I watched the place carefully over the next few years, until one day a friend told me she had found an open door to the hospital that we could easily sneak in through. She had taken a look inside and relayed that it definitely led into the main parts of the hospital. Before long we returned with our cameras, completely unaware of what we were about to experience.

The lights were still on inside the hospital, so we didn't have any problems sneaking around in the middle of the night. As we reached the emergency room in the Fitch Building I couldn't believe that was in front of me; a treasure trove of furniture and equipment. Wall to wall all we could see was hospital gear. By this point I had visited more than two dozen shuttered medical institutions in New Jersey, and nearly 100 across 12 states. I had seen tons of cool places, but nothing like this.

The further we wandered the more amazed we were with the place. We visited frequently until we had grown intimately familiar with the complex layout. The entrance that we used to access the hospital remained unknown, so we came and went as we pleased in total secrecy. We never had any issues with security interrupting our documentation, and we kept our photos to ourselves. Unfortunately one day we found out that a local numbskull found the hospital and told everyone he could about it. This included the other local big mouth "ruin tourist" Instagram crowd, who all showed up on the same day to visit the place. Two of these individuals were spotted going into the hospital by a passing security guard, who called the Plainfield police. They went inside and dragged out the trespassers, completely unaware that there were a half dozen or more other fools inside the hospital who all somehow managed to evade the police.

We were upset that this crowd had found the place. Usually that means the place would soon become a  "flavor of the month" for the tourist crowd, which always brings about vandalism, theft, and eventually a heavier police presence. Thankfully they all were under the impression it was the type of place that had great security, and security thought they managed to bust the only people who had managed to get inside. While most  stayed away, we continued to visit the place carefree. 

The shield of obscurity that once protected the hospital had been pierced though, and before long we would begin noticing more and more evidence of vandalism and theft. The hospital was sold in 2018 to a developer who planned to demolish most of the hospital and create a medical mall. One day while we were inside the hospital, we heard footsteps and voices. In all the time we had been visiting the place we never bumped into anyone else. The footsteps got closer and closer, so we made the choice to head to the basement and hustle to our entrance before we found out who was there. We exited the building and came around the corner to see a work truck parked outside the open doors to the emergency room. We knew what was coming. 

As the months passed we would sporadically check up on the hospital. There was a new security guard now, who parked his car right outside the alcove where we used to enter. It didn't matter, as any time we wanted to go inside we would just go around back where he couldn't drive to and take one of the many doors that had been left open by this point. One of our last visits was a birthday party for my girlfriend, where we all gathered to enjoy a cake and take one last journey through the place. 

Before long demolition picked up in earnest. The historic 1903 Tracy and Swartwout contributions to the hospital, the 1939 administration building, the Hegeman Memorial Powerplant and surrounding structures were all completely obliterated. This was confusing, since the developer pledged to honor the historic integrity of the complex in the new development. Its rare that a hospital retains all of its historic buildings, so it was a great candidate for preservation. However, once again this turned out to be just another empty promise from a greedy developer. I assumed the story of the hospital was over, but then something.... historic happened....

.....Covid-19.

In May of 2020, the Covid-19 pandemic was ravaging the state of New Jersey. The state was desperate for hospital beds, as medical centers and morgue were overflowing. The Department of Health announced that they were going to be reopening shuttered hospitals and disused wings to try and accommodate the growing crisis. The the Army Corp of Engineers toured what was left of the hospital, but they unfortunately deemed the remaining structures too far gone to try and use. All Souls Hospital in Morristown was the only hospital that reopened. If development had held off for another year, the hospital would certainly have been revived as it was an excellent candidate for reuse. Its truly unfortunate things worked out the way they did.

And so, the long story of Muhlenberg comes to an end. Portions of its shell will go on to serve as a reminder of what once was, but nothing can replace the stories and memories of the thousands of employees and patients who once wandered its halls. The developers should be ashamed of themselves, as well as the city leaders who allowed the building to fall into such greedy hands with no protection in pace for the future. I'd like to say one day we will learn, but a quick look at this blog would suggest it may be too late. 

Bonus: historic photos

The following photos have been taken from various annual reports and other periodicals regarding the hospital. At the time this is being published, none of these photos have been published elsewhere online.

"New private room building, administration building, and Closson Edgerton Maternity Building (on the left)

"The Women's Auxiliary Board gives unlimited support and assistance to the hospital throughout the year."

"The library in the School of Nursing is equipped with books for instructional purposes."

"A class in the school of nursing"

"Nurses training school, class of 1928"

"Senior class (1921) nurse training school"

"7,136 operations were performed at Muhlenberg in 1953"

"During 1953, a total of 8,997 X-Ray examinations were made at Muhlenberg"

"The School of Nursing has a Christmas party"

"The X-Ray Department. The department is equipped with modern apparatus for making X-ray plates. In the photograph, the operator is taking an X-ray picture of a man's hand."0

"During 1954, a total of 98,410 laboratory examinations were done at Muhlenberg."

"An all time record of 3369 babies were born at Muhlenberg during 1954."

"7,262 operations were performed at Muhlenberg in 1954"

"Serving Kitchens in the new hospital are scientifically designed"

"The Administration Building of the Muhlenberg Hospital, as it will appear after the completion of the new obstetrical floor."

"Isolation, Laundry, Heating Plant, Ambulance Garage, East Pavillion, Administration & Operating rooms, West Pavillion, Nurses Residence."

"Student nurses singing Carols through the hospital corridors, Christmas Eve. Mrs. Mildred Searles, conducting."

"Nurses home & training school."

Uncaptioned photo

"Equitment required for a modern operating room represents the investment of many thousands of dollars. In Muhlenberg's four "O.R."s last year there were 7339 operations."

"During 1951, a total of 7,750 X-Ray examinations were made at Muhlenberg"

"Administration Building"

"Mens public ward"

"A corner of the nursery"

"Semi-Private Room -- Maternity"

"The new accident room"

"Where the pupil nurses live"

"Ambulance"

"The history of every case is kept on file"

"General view Muhlenberg Hopsital buildings"

"Craig A. Marsh Pathological Labratory"

"Private room pavilion"

This post is dedicated to my friend Lil who loved the place more than anyone I know. 

Reisman & Knoll/Lycored Corporation

Immediately after passing the Day Street exit on Route 280 westbound, many motorists will recall the small white cupola that once rose over the sunken roadway. The building it crowned was most recently known to be occupied by the Lycored group, but the story goes back further than that.

The building itself dates back to 1939, when it was the home of the H. Reisman and Knoll Pharmaceutical Company. The complex consisted of the main office building and several laboratory and warehouse spaces. By the time I visited the structure remediation work had already begun, and the office was the only building that was still worth visiting.

The facade of the structure was modest, with very plain finishes. The inside was no different. Despite being architecturally insignificant, the building had some interesting spaces. Unfortunately it had been modernized quite a bit over the years.

Lycored Corporation took over the property after Reisman and Knoll vacated it. They continued to use the site until around 2018 when it was announced that the property was going to be completely demolished to make way for a 208 unit housing development. The property sat stagnant for a few years before being completely leveled in 2020.

Mercer Generating Station

Most coal fired generating stations are retired because they're outdated in one way or another. Many more are shuttered each year as a result of protests from environmental groups. Neither is the case for Mercer Generating Station, which was constructed on Duck Island in 1960.

Gottscho, Samuel H. Mercer Generating Station. 1962. Photograph. Library of Congress. Washington, D.C.

The new coal plant joined the Hudson Generating Station as the most modern workhorses in PSEG's New Jersey fleet. The new facility had an output of 632 megawatts, coming from two huge 3600/3600-rpm cross compound, six flow reheat steam turbine generators. Each unit consisted of two turbines. Steam would enter into a high pressure chamber first, then through medium and low pressure chambers before actuating the generator. The condensation in each chamber is collected and returned to the boilers. Steam that has cooled during the process goes into a reheater, after which it is forced into the high pressure section of the secondary turbine. The steam then leaves the high pressure chamber of the secondary unit, after which it is split between the medium pressure chambers of both units. The generating equipment was comically large, and overwhelmed anyone standing inside the turbine hall.

Despite being one of the most modern power plants in the state, the facility was upgraded with pollution controls a number of times, at tremendous expense to PSEG. The first of which were precipitators added to the plant in 1995. The purpose of this equipment was to reduce the amount of soot expelled from the plant. This was just the beginning.

Between 2004 and 2011 the company spent hundreds of millions of dollars trying to reduce pollution at the facility. A selective catalytic reduction unit set them back $100 million. Three years later, ten million was spent to swap out equipment that utilized mercury with simple carbon. Finally, $500 million was spent in 2010 to build state of the art baggers and scrubbers which further reduced toxic emissions. They spent the same amount at Hudson, the sister station in Jersey City, bringing the total bill to one billion dollars for pollution control in 2010 alone.

So much money and manpower was spent on pollution control that very little attention was directed to the generating equipment. Coal power plants were shutting down all across the nation as the cost of natural gas stayed low. Several coal powered facilities were being converted to burn natural gas but Mercer and Hudson wouldn't be so lucky. PSEG announced that both stations would be shuttered in 2017.

Mercer had already been on standby for nearly a year and a half before the closure. As a result the property was very quiet as we walked the fence line during our visit to the plant. Very few people had visited the facility since it closed, so we were on edge as we dashed across the still lot to the behemoth structure. We spent hours inside, taking photos and admiring the fascinating machinery few ever get so close to. After another year or so the plant became a favorite destination for the urban tourists of Instagram, and by 2019 the property was sold to Hillco Redeveloplent. They also purchased Hudson. Demolition work ramped up after the smokestacks were demolished in February of 2020. Only time will tell how long it will take for the Mercer Generating Station to fade from the collective memory of the state.

Westmont Theater

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The Westmont Theater opened in 1927 with 1,600 seats. The building was designed by architect William Wrifford, whose firm is credited with designing a few other south Jersey structures.

The theater showed silent films alongside what some say was the largest organ in New Jersey at the time. A short 14 years later, the Warner Brothers corporation bought out the theater and closed it. 

It wasn't until 1948 that the theater was renovated into a 1200 seat movie house. Prominant Philadelphia area architect William Harold Lee was tasked with modernizing the theater. Lee designed and remodeled over 100 theaters over the years, many of which were in southern New Jersey. 

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Four years later, Steven Speilburg would attend "the Greatest Show On Earth" at the theater. Spielberg himself has cited that movie as part of what inspired him to become a director. 

The building was twinned  in 1978, and lasted until 1986 before closing once again. A group moved into the theater in 1990, performing live shows for almost a decade until the town bought the theater in 1999 and closed it. 

I stopped to take some photos of the long abandoned theater building back in 2014. I had just picked up some food nearby and I didn't have my proper camera with me. I walked along the side of the building and found one of the large fire doors slightly ajar. With only my cell phone for light and photos, I popped inside and took a quick walk around. 

A few years passed and I happened upon a news article about the theater. Work had begun in 2016 to convert the theater into a Planet Fitness location. The entire structure was gutted including the sloped auditorium flooring. Despite that, the beautiful facade of the theater was painstakingly restored. Even the marquis was tenderly revived, glowing 24 hours a day since the gym rarely closes. 

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This is a perfect example of what can be done with a blighted historic building , even in an advanced state of decay. The interior of the building was a complete loss, it would have been very easy for the developers to claim hardship and have the building demolished. Instead the building can continue to serve the community for years to come.

The Port Reading McMyler Coal Dumper

Port Reading is a small unincorporated community in Middlesex County. Though technically part of Woodbridge, Port Reading was given the name as it was founded expressly for the needs of the the Reading Railroad. The port was tied to the main Reading artery by a line called the Port Reading Railroad which opened in 1892. Several unique historical features distinguish the region from the rest of Woodbridge. One such piece of history is the McMyler Coal Dumper, one of the most impressive industrial advances of the time.

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The McMyler Coal Dumper was invented in 1917 by the McMyler Interstate Company of Bedford, Ohio. The system relied on a combination of gravity, heavy machinery, and manpower. Full coal cars would ride up the track and come to a full stop. A "pig block" would catch the car underneath and bring it up a ramp.The McMyler would use a system of cables and platforms to lift and turn the car on its side to dump the contents into an metal arm which extended over a barge in the water below. Men on the barge would then work to distribute the coal evenly to prevent the water vessel from flipping. When the car was empty it was turned back over, where if successful it would leave the Dumper, ascend a steep grade, switch tracks, and leave on an exit track. With everything running smoothly the dumper could unload a full car every two and a half minutes. This complicated system can be seen in this video, filmed by a rail fan who built his own model McMyler.

One such dumper was erected in Port Reading the same year, making it one of the first put into service. The region had a huge demand for coal, as that was the most widely used fuel for generating stations and industrial facilities throughout the northeast. McMyler dumpers popped up in South Amboy, Perth Amboy, and Jersey City, shuffling tons of Appalachian coal from train to barge for decades.

In 1951 a large fire damaged the Port Reading McMyler. The machinery was pulled from the water, and rebuilt using the salvaged remains of one of the many other dumpers in the region. The newly rebuilt Port Reading McMyler continued to churn out coal until 1982. Coal had been falling out of favor due to its inefficiency and the toll it took on the environment. As power generation got more advanced, the massive old coal dumpers were rendered useless.

The site was listed by Preservation New Jersey as one of the top ten endangered historic sites in the state in 2004. Despite this the property was still abandoned, and nothing was done to stabilize the dumper. When hurricane Irene hit in 2011 she caused significant further damage. The cables holding the coal chute failed, and the entire arm fell into the river. A few years later the property was sold to a redevelopment company. They built a parking lot over the former dumpers spur, forever bisecting the McMyler from the rest of the Port Reading line, now owned by Conrail. The company that bought the land has kept an open mind towards the preservation of this crumbling piece of history. Unfortunately, given the condition it's in, its only a matter of time before it ones again sinks into the river again as it did in 1951. The next time it happens there will certainly be no rebuilding it. The Port Reading McMyler is the last of its kind anywhere in the region, and one of only a handful left anywhere in the world. If you want to go take a look, the time to visit is now.

MIller Street School

The city of Newark was booming at the turn of the century. The population increased 40% in the first decade of the 1900s. With this came a need for more public school buildings. The buildings that the city had been using in the late 1800's were small brick structures, and their floor plans were poorly designed. Instead of throwing up cheap utilitarian structures to replace these aging buildings, the city invested heavily in their new schools. Miller Street School originally opened in 1881, with additions made in 1887 and 1900. The old building was a prime candidate for replacement

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The firm of Guilbert & Betelle were the architects contracted to annex the old Miller Street School. The name should ring a bell, as Ernest Guilbert was responsible for designing the Morton Street School I wrote about recently. The new Miller Street School opened in 1912.

The structure was just over 43,500 square feet, and stood right next to the old brick school house. The main draw of the new building was a large auditorium that had a balcony level and beautiful plaster accents.

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In 1961 an additional 35651 square feet was added onto the structure. Included in this space was a new entrance at Frelinghuysen Avenue & Vanderpool Street. Right behind the doors was the entrance to the cafeteria. The old schoolhouse was demolished in the 1980's, leaving an empty lot between the remaining school buildings and the neighboring houses.

Citing a number of reasons, the Newark Public Schools commission shut down a dozen different schools between 2011 and 2015. The Miller Street School was among those closed in 2012. A structural evaluation report the following year deemed the school building to be in fair condition, but recommended for demolition due to its location and age.

The structure sat vacant for five years but was eventually sold to the Claremont Properties Group and renovated into apartments. Work began in 2019 and by the following year the school had been reborn. It's nice to be able to wrap up one of my posts with a happy ending for a change.

Krueger-Scott Mansion

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I remember when I first rode past the old Krueger Scott mansion as a young passenger in my father's car. I was fascinated by the long abandoned structure that had all the classic "haunted house" features. I was fascinated by the mansion, and I hadn't even yet discovered the long and interesting story of how it got there.

Constructed wrapped up on the gorgeous dwelling on 1889. The home was designed in a Queen Anne Victorian style by Henry Schultz, who was also designing the Kastner mansion at the same time. The new mansion at the corner of Court and High street was built for Gottfried Krueger, a German immigrant and beer magnate. Krueger came to America at the age of 15 and got to work at his uncles brewery. After familiarizing himself with the trade Krueger started his own brewery which would catapult him to success. His company is most notable for being the first to market beer inside cans.

Krueger's mansion was the largest home in Newark at the time it was completed. In addition, its location on High street was regarded as the most desirable residential area in the city. Despite the large, castle like abode Krueger was regarded as a generous man and philanthropist, a theme that would be common with the occupants of the mansion. In 1926 the Kruegers left Newark, and sold the mansion to the local Scottish Rite chapter of the Freemasons. Three years later city architects Guilbert & Betelle were called in to design a new 700 seat auditorium on the vacant land between the mansion and the old stables out back. Guilbert & Betelle should be familiar names to readers of this blog as they designed the cities greatest schools, each of which also boasted gorgeous auditoriums. One such example is the Morton Street School right down Court Street.

The mansion was once again sold in 1959, this time to one of of the most influential women in the history of the city. Louise Scott spent $85000 on the deed to the property. Rumor has it the sum was paid on the spot in cash. Ms. Scott moved to newark from South Carolina in 1938. She worked as a domestic during the day while going to beauty school at night. A tireless entrepreneur, it wasn't long before Scott owned an entire chain of beauty salons in the city. It is said that Louise Scott was Newarks first female millionaire. After purchasing the property she turned the mansion into the Scott College of Beauty Culture, where she tought young women the trade that made her wealthy.

Over the years the mansion became the Scott Cultural and Civic Center. The mansion was being used for a number of things, including a dentists office and daycare center, while still containing a beauty salon run by graduates of the Scott College of Beauty Culture. Even as Newark experienced a severe economic downturn the mansion was still a beacon of culture and success in the community. The late 1960s brought a lot of change to the area around the mansion. A tall apartment building was erected on the next block over, dwarfing the beautiful Victorian treasure and casting a shadow over it. Ms. Scott saw that the mansions future was uncertain, so she got the home listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1972. This was a critical move in assuring the mansion would stick around, even after she passed.

Louise Scott passed away in 1982, and the city of Newark assumed ownership of the mansion. As is often the case with historic properties under the stewardship of the city it was promptly abandoned. Looters worked their way inside and stripped out everything they could, leaving the Majestic home a barren shell. A handful of people banded together to try and save what remained. In 1991 the New Jersey Historic Trust spent more than $625,000 to stabilize the exterior of the mansion, which was matched by the city. Over the next few years Newark went on to spend $4 million to convert the home into a community center focused on the contribution of black citizens to the growth of the city. The federal government kicked in $1.5 million as well. However after 7 years of work the funding ran out, and the house was once again left to ruin. Very little has changed since then, aside from the auditorium and stables being demolished in the early 2000's. The mansion did manage to make it's way into pop culture though, appearing as a main location for the animated adult swim series "Venture Bros".

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In 2011 the site was listed by Preservation NJ on their annual list of endangered historic structures. A large barbed wire fence was put up around the property, which by this point was overgrown and covered in debris.

In 2017 plans to develop property with residential and commercial space were announced. The new development, dubbed "makerhoods", is planning full restoration of mansion. Tax breaks were approved for the project in 2019, and since then some minor work has been done.

No specific plans have been announced for the mansion yet, as far as what it will be used for. My hope is that the original plan to turn it into a community center comes through. Only time will tell.