127 Bath

The lovely home at 127 Bath dated back to either the late 1800s or early 1900s. 

The property originally extended all the way back to Lowden Court, and east to the old New York and Long Branch Railroad right of way. 

Throughout the 1950s and 60's the lot was chopped up and everything except the mansion was demolished. Garden apartments were constructed all around the main home.

Before the pandemic hit the mansion housed an adult daycare known as "Our House" they vacated rhe building around 2021 when the building and adjacent Ronald Mcdonald House were donated by Monmouth Medical Center to tbe city of Long Branch.

The city announced a bold plan in 2024 to build a new Health and Wellness retreat on the former estate. The residents of the Ronald Mcdonald house were blindsided by the news. The city claimed there weren't any families living there at the time, which was disputed by the families reporters found when they went to check. 

I didnt even know the mansion existed until I was driving by one summer morning. I drove down from Essex to visit a vacant building on the campus of Monmouth Medical Center. I got in and left with plenty of time to get myself to work, until the mansion caught by eye. After finding a place to park I ran through the building taking photos. It ended up being so much cooler than the medical building I had come for. 

Despite the bad press the city moved forward with their plans in 2025. The mansion and several apartments were demolished in order to make way for the new park and wellness center. 

The architect has pledged to pay tribute to "Gilded Age" long branch in the design, but whether that happens or not remains to be seen. 

Kastner Mansion

The brewing of beer has long been ingrained in the history of Newark. The city was home to a number of breweries in the late 1800s, all of whom had wealthy owners who were trying to stand out on High Street. The Kastner mansion was once such home that stood out amongst the rest. 

The land on which the mansion was built was purchased in 1890 from the Frelinghuysen family, one of the most prolific early settlers of New Jersey. The home took two years to complete.

The home was designed by Henry Schultz for Franz Kastner, one of the city's legendary brewers. The name Henry Schulz should ring a bell to regular readers of this blog, as he designed Newarks most iconic residence, the Krueger-Scott Mansion. The homes actually shared several architectural flourishes, including the staircase ballisturs. 

In 1957 the home was purchased and used by a casket manufacturer for a short period of time. It was then sold to the Pride of Newark Elks Lodge No. 93. The Elks added a large meeting hall on the backside of the mansion, and appropriately enough they also added a bar on the first floor. Other than that they kept the interior more or less original.

Unfortunately the large home was quite expensive to maintain and had begun to fall into disrepair. Local resident Denise Colon stepped up and purchased the building from the Elks in 2007. Colon had a hopeful vision for the property, with dreams of restoring the mansion to its original glory and operating it as a community center. Such an undertaking required a massive financial investment, which Colon was up for. Unfortunately the projrct soon became unsustainable. Colon made several attempts to get a Tax Abatement to help ease the cost of the conversion. In the mean time she used the building as the headquarters of her income tax prep service.

Colon never ended up getting any help from the city. Five years and a few hundred thousand dollars later, the city ended up regaining possesion of the building. They threw up some plywood and never looked back. It wasn't long before some of the local unhoused population took up residence in the mansion.

A large fire severely damaged the building in October of 2019. The folks who were living inside the mansion when it burned ended up moving on to the nearby B'nai Jeshurun Synagague during that buildings brief period of disuse. We actually ran into them while we were documenting the synagague. The one gentleman explained to us they were using the vacant mansion as something of a boarding house. They all agreed to certain rules and made an effort to keep the digs as nice as possible. Unfortunately they ended up having to kick someone out of the squat, and that person returned later when nobody was around to burn the place down. 

After several more years sitting vacant with no roof, a second large fire tore through the building one October night in 2023. This one was far more destructive than the last fire, leaving the mansion nothing more than a shell. It was also too dangerous to leave the facade standing, so the city came in and tore down what was left of the building. 

The Kastner mansion is just one of thousands of historic, significant Newark buildings lost to neglect and arson. Hopefully this trend comes to an end soon; I shudder to think which building could be next.

Lauriston Mansion

Source: Save the Lauriston Facebook Page

One of the first things many people in New Jersey associate with the town of Rumson is wealth. Not necessarily the nouveau-riche types with their gaudy beach homes and large power boats. Rumson has always held sort of an "Old Money" charm. It posesses quiet streets and large pieces of property, with homes hidden behind tall fences or thoughtfully manicured shrubbery. The relatively isolated peninsula sits between the Navesink River and Shrewsbury Bay. Plenty of homes here date back over a century, and many have found themselves places on the National Register of Historic Places. However the first home ever to land on the register happens to be one of the most beautiful homes Rumson ever saw. 

This beautiful colonial revival mansion was built in 1913 at 91 Rumson Road. While the ten thousand square foot dwelling boasts all the grandeur one would expect from a primary residence, it was actually designed as a summer home for a man named Harry A. Cesar and his second wife Laura. The mansion was named Lauriston in her honor.

Famed Monmouth County architect Leon Cubberly was chosen to design the home. The name may sound familiar, as Cubberly was the principal architect chosen to design the old Paramount Theater in nearby Long Branch.

The home was an architectural masterpiece, boasting marble walls and fireplaces, hardwood trim, plaster ceilings, just about everything you would expect to find in an extravagant home from the time period. A large sweeping staircase welcomed all who walked through the front doors. 

Laura survived her husband, but she too passed away in 1942. After many wonderful summers the family decided to sell the house to a man named J. Howard Smith.

The building changed hands several times and underwent a number of renovations over the next few decades. The 39 acre property was split up into several different parcels which were each sold and built upon. Six acres were maintained around the mansion, including the main driveway and the gardens that Laura Cubberley had dedicated so much time to. 

Lautiston was sold again in 1981 for $390,000, and the new owners made a few  Each time a room in the mansion was updated, the stewards took decent care to make sure the style of the home was cohesive and stylish. By 2002 the then-owners of Lauriston had taken such a liking to the home that they decided to have the property listed on the National Register of Historic Places. This was the strongest possible move they could have taken to ensure the landmark building and gardens would be able to be enjoyed by onlookers in perpetuity.

Unfortunately as time went on, things went south for the property. It was listed for sale several times between 2014 and 2017. Real estate listings praised the home for its many opulent features. That didn't stop it from falling into the hands of developer Roger Mumford, who bought the property for $3.7 million . Mumford sued Red Bank on behalf of the 2020 NJ Affordable Housing Mandates for a variance that would allow him to massively overdevelop the piece of property. The town quietly settled with him, to the chagrin of hundreds of town citizens.

While residents continued to speak out against the sneaky and unethical way the redevelopment was approved, Mumford took petty vengeance by doing nothing whatsoever to secure the historic building. 

Before long the mansion was the site of several outrageous parties, with the local brats going full Project X on the unattended property.

They destroyed the main staircase, trashed the entire house, spray painted the walls, and punched holes in walls. Within a matter of months the building was entirely in shambles.

This is a classic tactic discussed several times on this blog. A developer buys a property, does absolutely nothing to secure or maintain it, and then claims things are "too far gone" to be saved. Despite being a shady and entirely unethical thing to do, developers across the country continue to do it all time.

Lauriston continued to languish well into 2023. Unfortunately on March 27th, 2024 demolition crews turned up and tore the home down. I can't say much else could have been done with the mansion by then. Once again, demolition by neglect has won.