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Crane House Museum |
108 Orange Road • Montclair • NJ 07042 • Phone 973.744.1796
| As a means to fulfill its mission, the Society preserves, restores and furnishes the Crane House Museum, as well as other buildings at its Orange Road complex. The Crane House serves as the house museum, exhibition center and meeting space. Next door, the Clark House houses the Terhune Library as well as historic skills classrooms and administrative offices. Two smaller buildings to the rear of the property, the Crafts Building and Historic Country Store and Museum Shop, offer space for exhibition and educational purposes. |
Crane House |
This fine Federal-style mansion was home to three generations of the Crane family, descended from one of Montclair's founders. Israel Crane, a successful merchant who constructed the turnpike that opened New Jersey's heartland to earty trade, built the house when he was only 22. Dating from 1796 and remodeled circa 1840 with Greek -Revival details. This landmark house was considered grand for its period. Now restored, the home displays an outstanding collection of period furnishings and decorative arts.
The Crane House is situated on traditionally planted grounds with a country store, craft building, kitchen garden, and picturesque gazebo. The Historical Society offices, education center, and Terhune Library are located in the adjacent Clark House, a late - 19th-century residence.
History of the Crane House Museum
Twenty years after the Declaration of Independence, an enterprising young man named Israel Crane built a large and distinguished home on eighty-six acres in the small farming community of Cranetown, which is now Montclair, New Jersey. Always considered "grand" for its locale, the house built in 1796 was a contrast to the one-and-a-half story frame and brownstone houses which surrounded it. The Crane House Museum stands today as one Montclair's most important landmarks and a symbol of the area's distinctive heritage.
Israel Crane, a direct descendant of Cranetown's founding family, prospered through income from the general store beside his home and his cider mill and cotton and woolen mills on a nearby stream. In 1801 he and a partner leased a site in Paterson for one of the first mills to use power from the Passaic River. In 1806 he organized a group to construct a direct route between Newark and outlying areas. Israel Crane became the sole owner and operator of this toll road known as the Newark-Pompton Turnpike. Today's Bloomfield Avenue is part of this turnpike. Brownstone quarries in Newark became a major interest later in his life. Israel Crane's extensive success in business and his influence in the community's civic and religious life earned him the nickname "King" Crane.
James Crane was given the house in 1840 and proceeded to make several alterations in the Greek-revival style. The third floor became a full story surmounted by a classical cornice with iron grilles at the windows. An entrance with Ionic columns replaced the original and a curved staircase was built into the wide hall. These changes are part of the house today. The YWCA bought the house from James'descendants in 1920. For 45 years the house was used for offices, dormitories, and as a social center for African American women and girls.
In 1965 the house in which Israel Crane and his wife had
raised their five children was to be demolished. A few citizens
banded together to save the only entire building left in Montclair
which was associated with the founding Crane family. The Israel
Crane House was moved from its original site on the Old Road
to 110 Orange Road. The importance of the house was verified
by its inclusion in the 1935 national Historic American Buildings
Survey, by citation in the New Jersey Historic Sites Evaluation
in 1961 as a "rare and important example of northern
New Jersey Federal mansion", and listing on both the
New Jersey and Federal Register of Historic Places 1972 and
1973.
The Crane House Museum is one of the few remaining northern
New Jersey Federal mansions. Its ten rooms contain a remarkable
collection of 18th and 19th century furniture, paintings,
and decorative arts, among them ceramics, glassware, silverware,
rugs, quilts, samplers, toys and dolls, tools, and household
items. Highlight include a painted bedroom furniture set owned
by Paul Revere IV, dated 1816; a Roxbury "Tall"
Clock; an 1827 harp made by Sebastian Erard; Argand lamps;
a 1740 William and Mary highboy; a rare 18th century Aubusson
carpet; an early 19th-century schoolroom; a reconstructed
antique kitchen with its continuing demonstrations of open
hearth cooking and bee hive oven baking; and murals of early
Essex County painted by Arthur Watkins Crisp.
108 Orange Road • Montclair • NJ 07042 • Phone 973.744.1796