We try to keep this list of historic house museums for New Jersey current, but it is best to check directly with the museums for their hours and other information. If you know of a historic house museum in New Jersey that should be listed here, please use our submission form to let us know about it.
Cape May
Emlen Physick Estate
Cape May,NJ 08204
Phone: (609)884-5404
Admission Price:Adults $10, Children $5
Hours: See their website
A visit to the Physick Estate today offers a look back at our Victorian past as evidenced by its architecture, decorative arts, customs, and the lives of one particular Cape May family, the Physicks.
Historic Cold Spring Village
Cape May,NJ 08204
Phone: (609)898-2300
Admission Price:Adults $10, Children $8
Hours: See their website
Located in one of the great Victorian destination cities in the U.S., this museum features 20 restored buildings that represent a mid 1800s southern New Jersey village.
Eastampton
Smithville Mansion
Eastampton,NJ 08060
Phone: (609)265-5858
Admission Price:Call for info
Hours: Call for info
Docents tell of the rise and fall of H.B. Smith, inventor and entrepreneur, his extraordinary accomplishments clouded by personal controversy. In H.B. Smith's old schoolhouse Smithville History Exhibit, 20 photo/narrative panels depict major aspects of the mill village and its colorful founder. Tourists visit Smith's "casino" annex, including card room, billiard room and bowling alley, then passes the site of Smith's zoo, through the grape arbors and rose garden courtyards. See the restoration work done to the exterior of the Mansion complex and gardener's cottage.
Elizabeth
Boxwood Hall
Elizabeth,NJ 07201
Phone: (908)282-7617
Admission Price:Call for info
Hours: Call for info
Built about 1750, Boxwood Hall became the residence of Elias Boudinot, president of the Continental Congress that ratified the Peace Treaty with Great Britain. George Washington visited his friend Boudinot in 1789 on his way to New York for his first inauguration.
Farmingdale
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Allaire Village
Farmingdale,NJ 07727
Phone: (732)919-3500
Admission Price:See their website
Hours: See
Within the 3000 acre park is an 1800 village that features several houses.
Flemington
Doric House Museum
Flemington,NJ 08822
Phone: (908)782-1091
Admission Price:Free
Hours: By Apppointment
The Doric House Museum houses the Research Library and offices of the Hunterdon County Historical Society. It was built in the Greek Revival style in 1845 by Mahlon Fisher, a country carpenter of ability and taste, as his private residence. He also erected several other Flemington residences in the same style.
Haledon
American Labor Museum
Haledon,NJ 07508
Phone: (973)595-7953
Admission Price:Call for info
Hours: 1-4pm Wed-Sat
The 1908 Botto House was the home of an Italian immigrant weaver and features period rooms and changing exhibits that illustrate the labor movement in the United States.
Hamilton
Kuser Farm Mansion
Hamilton,NJ 08610
Phone: (609)890-3630
Admission Price:Call for info
Hours: Call for info
The 17 room mansion built in 1892 for Fred Kuser sits on the restored 22 acre estate. The Kuser family was instrumental in forming the Fox Film Co. (later 20th Century Fox) and the house features a private projection and viewing room. Other rooms are furnished with original and period pieces.
Kingston
Rockingham State Historic Site
Kingston,NJ 08528
Phone: (609)683-7132
Admission Price:Free
Hours: 10am-3pm Wed-Sat, 1-3pm Sun
The restored house was Washington's headquarters Aug-Nov 1783 while the Continental Congress was in session. He probably slept here. The house is furnished in period.
Margate
Lucy the Elephant
Margate,NJ 08402
Phone: (609)823-6473
Admission Price:Adults $8, Children $4
Hours: See their website
Undoubtedly one of the most unique Victorian homes in the country, this six story elephant was built in 1881 by real estate developer James Lafferty as a publicity stunt.
Montclair
Charles Shultz House (Evergreens)
Montclair,NJ 07042
Phone: (973)744-1796
Admission Price:Adults $8, Children $5. Members of the Montclair H
Hours: Sunday Tours at 3:30 from March - December
Built in the 1890s by Hoboken Savings Bank president Charles Shultz, this eclectic Victorian was home to the same family for 3 generations. It is noted for its remarkable state of preservation, with collections that reflect the family's love of science, technology, literature, and art.
Israel Crane House
Montclair,NJ 07042
Phone: (973)744-1796
Admission Price:Adults, $8; Children $5. Members Free
Hours: Open Sundays from 1 to 3 March-December or by appt
A 1796 Federal home built by prominent Montclair resident Israel Crane with an exterior kitchen and working hearth fireplace. The Nathaniel Crane House, also located at 108 Orange Road, features a 19th century general store, schoolroom, and a small Museum Shop.
Morris Plains
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The Stickley Museum at Craftsman Farms
Morris Plains,NJ 07950
Phone: (973)540-0311
Admission Price:Adults $10; Seniors/Students $7; Children $4
Hours: Open Year Round, Thursday through Sunday, tours at 12:15, 1:15, 2:15 and 3:15 p.m.
This 30-acre National Historic Landmark is the centerpiece of Gustav Stickley’s early 20th century country estate. Stickley was a major figure in the American Arts and Crafts movement who combined the roles of designer, manufacturer, architect, publisher, philosopher, and social critic. His family home, the Log House, is run as a historic house museum, where visitors are welcomed for tours, lectures, special programs, family events, a gift shop, and more.
Morris Township
Frelinghuysen Arboretum
Morris Township,NJ 07962
Phone: (973)326-7601
Admission Price:Free
Hours: 8am-Dusk Daily
The 127 acre preserve features with formal gardens and naturalized plantings. The Colonial Revival mansion serves as the headquarters for the Morris County Park Commission and is open to the public.
Morristown
Fosterfields Living Historical Farm
Morristown,NJ 07960
Phone: ()-
Admission Price:Adults $6, Children $4
Hours: See their website
General Joseph Warren Revere, grandson of Paul Revere, bought the property in the mid-1800s and built the impressive Gothic Revival home, The Willows. Charles Foster purchased the farm in 1881, changing its name to Fosterfields, and it was here that Caroline Foster lived 98 of her 102 years. As she wished, Fosterfields offers an incomparable opportunity to experience our agricultural heritage, providing through its living history programs and tours a fascinating look at life in the late Victorian era.
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Historic Speedwell
Morristown,NJ 07960
Phone: (973)285-6550
Admission Price:Call for info
Hours: See their website
The grounds preserve a portion of the Speedwell Iron Works, including the early 1800 home of Stephen Vail. The site was where Samuel Morse conducted his first public demonstration of the telegraph. There are also several other homes and farm buildings on the grounds.
Macculloch Hall Historical Museum
Morristown,NJ 07960
Phone: (973)538-2404
Admission Price:Adults $8, Seniors $6, Students (over 12) $6, Chil
Hours: Wednesday-Thursday 1-4pm, Sunday 1-4pm
Macculloch Hall, a Federal-style mansion built by George Macculloch in 1810 and transformed into a museum in 1949 by W. Parsons Todd, features Todd’s impressive antiques collection, changing exhibits, and a collection of works by Thomas Nast. An oasis within walking distance of the business district, the museum’s garden has many original plantings and landscape features, and displays seasonal blooms including numerous varieties of heirloom roses. The museum’s three exhibit galleries complement ten period rooms furnished with fine English and American decorative arts. The museum offers a diverse schedule of changing exhibits, educational and public programs attended by thousands of visitors from throughout the United States.
Morristown National Historical Park
Morristown,NJ
Phone: (908)766-8215
Admission Price:See their website
Hours: See their website
The national park consists of four non-contiguous units: Washington's Headquarters with the Ford Mansion and Headquarters Museum, the Fort Nonsense Unit, the Jockey Hollow Unit, and the New Jersey Brigade Area. The Jockey Hollow Unit includes the Wick house (headquarters of General Arthur St. Clair), five reconstructed soldier huts, and approximately 27 miles of walking trails.
Newark
Newark Museum
Newark,NJ 07102
Phone: (973)596-6550
Admission Price:Adults $10, Children $6
Hours: 12-5pm Wed-Sun
Built in 1885 for Jeannette and John Holme Ballantine of the celebrated Newark beer-brewing family, this brick and limestone mansion originally had 27 rooms, including eight bedrooms and three bathrooms. Part of The Newark Museum since 1937, the house was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1985.
Ocean
Township of Ocean Historical Museum
703 Deal Road
Ocean,NJ 07712
Phone: (732)531-2136
Admission Price:Free. Donations greatfully accepted.
Hours: Tues., Wed., and Thurs. 1:00 pm to 4:00pm; Thur. 7:00 pm to 9:00 pm; 1st and 2nd Sun of month 1 to 4
In 2001, the Mayor and the Township Council moved to save the historic Eden Woolley House on the comer of Deal Road and Route 35. The developer of the Route 35 property agreed to move the Woolley House to the Haupt/Terner tract that is the site of the Public Library on Deal Road. The Council asked the Museum to make its new headquarters in the Woolley house adjacent to the Library, to be used as a new, larger facility for the organization to expand its programs, projects, exhibits and services. Volunteers from the Museum began the historical restoration of the House, named after Eden Woolley; Ocean Township's first elected committeeman, gentleman farmer, surveyor, and moneylender. Museum personnel used qualified contractors for the restoration while some of the work was completed by very competent volunteers. Grants, donations, fundraisers, Business Partnerships and the 2008 Society helped the Museum to reach its goal of opening the Eden Woolley house on July 5, 2009! The contributions of many business and individual volunteers helped immeasurably in the completion of this project. The Historically restored structure was first opened to the public in December 2008. The historical restoration was completed in April of 2009 and after moving the contents of the Museum from the Old Oakhurst School to the Eden Woolley House, The Museum was permanently opened to the public on July 5th, 2009.
Princeton
Bainbridge House
Princeton,NJ 08542
Phone: (609)921-6748
Admission Price:$4
Hours: 12-4pm Wed-Sun
Built in 1766 by Job Stockton, a prosperous tanner and cousin of Richard Stockton, signer of the Declaration of Independence, Bainbridge House is one of the oldest surviving buildings in Princeton and one of the area's best preserved examples of mid-Georgian architecture.
Drumthwacket
Princeton,NJ 08540
Phone: (609)683-0057
Admission Price:$5 suggested
Hours: Tours on Wed., Closed in August
Drumthwacket is the stately home that is today the official residence of the Governor of New Jersey.
The Thomas Clarke House
Princeton,NJ 08540
Phone: (609)921-0074
Admission Price:Free
Hours: Daily sunrise to sunset
The Georgian style home was built about 1770 by Thomas Clarke, a Quaker farmer.
Ringwood
The Forges and Manor of Ringwood
Ringwood,NJ 07456
Phone: (973)962-2240
Admission Price:See their website
Hours: See their website
Martin J. Ryerson purchased the historic ironworks and began building the present Manor House in 1807 while still operating the iron mines and forges on the property. New York's Peter Cooper, a remarkable inventor and industrialist and his young son-in-law, Abram S. Hewitt, purchased Ringwood in 1854. The properties were purchased for the rich local iron deposits but Mr. and Mrs. Hewitt set about making the old Ringwood estate their summer home. Hewitt enlarged the Manor in the 1860s and 70s. The completed house contains 51 rooms built in a wide range of styles, that characterize the Victorian Period. This impressive house is 226.5 feet long and features 24 fireplaces, 13 bathrooms, 28 bedrooms and more than 250 windows. The forges, mills, village and farms that serviced the iron industry gradually turned into the Victorian summer estate of the Hewitts, one of the wealthiest and most influential families of 19th-century America.
River Edge
Historic New Bridge Landing
River Edge,NJ 07661
Phone: (201)487-1739
Admission Price:Call for info
Hours: Call for info
New Bridge served as a battleground, fort, encampment ground, military headquarters, and intelligence-gathering post in every year of the American Revolution. The Steuben House is the only extant building from the 1776 Retreat through Bergen County. For 2 weeks in 1780, the Steuben House was Washington's HQ and it has been the Bergen County Historical Society's HQ since 1939. New Jersey gifted him the Steuben House in appreciation for his contributions to the American Cause. Major-General Baron von Steuben "thoroughly rebuilt" the war-damaged stone house on Main Street, River Edge, that now bears his name, forever marking his association with one of New Jersey's most beloved landmarks. This is largely the house you see today and is the only extant house he owned.
Somerville
The Old Dutch Parsonage & Wallace House
Somerville,NJ 08876
Phone: (908)725-1015
Admission Price:Call for info
Hours: Call for info
The parsonage was built in 1751 and first occupied by Reverend John Frelinghuysen, who came from Amsterdam to serve three congregations of the Dutch Reform church in the upper Raritan Valley. The second occupant of the Parsonage, the Reverend Jacob Hardenbergh, founded Queens College in 1766 while residing in the house. While living at the Dutch Parsonage, the Reverend Mr. Jacob Hardenbergh sold 95 acres of land and a small farmhouse to John Wallace, a Philadelphia fabric importer and merchant. Between 1775 and 1776, Wallace purchased an additional 12 acres of land and built an eight-room Georgian style mansion adjoining part of the existing farmhouse. It was the largest house built in New Jersey during the Revolutionary War. Naming his estate "Hope Farm," Wallace intended the property to be his country seat and place of retirement.
Trenton
1719 William Trent House Museum
Trenton,NJ 08611
Phone: (609)989-3027
Admission Price:Adults $5, Seniors and Children $4
Hours: 12:30 - 4pm Daily
William Trent built his country estate north of Philadelphia, in New Jersey, at the Falls of the Delaware River about 1719. It was a large, imposing brick structure, built in the newest fashion. An "allee" of English cherry trees led from the entrance down to the ferry landing. Nearby, there were numerous outbuildings as well as grist, saw and fulling mills along the Assunpink Creek. In 1720 Trent laid out a settlement, which he incorporated and named "Trenton."
Union
Liberty Hall Museum
Union,NJ 07083
Phone: (908)527-8915
Admission Price:Adults $10, Seniors, Students $6
Hours: 10am-4pm Mon-Sat
Liberty Hall Museum at Kean University chronicles more than 200 years of American history. Built in 1772 by New Jersey’s first elected governor and signer of the Constitution, William Livingston, the Victorian-style mansion houses extensive collections of antique furniture, ceramics, textiles, toys and tools owned by seven generations of the Livingston/Kean families. The Firehouse is the latest addition to the Museum’s complex housing two antique fire engines and a collection of fire memorabilia.
Wayne
Dey Mansion
Wayne,NJ 07470
Phone: (973)696-1776
Admission Price:10 years or older $1
Hours: 8:30am-4:30pm Wed-Sun
Constructed between 1740-1750 by Dirck Dey, a Dutch-born planter, the mansion is an amalgam of Dutch and English influences, a rich and dramatic composition of country and urban elements that had few mid-18th century counterparts west of the Hudson River. Dey, in all probability, left the completion of the mansion to his son, Theunis. During the Revolution, Theunis commanded the Bergen County Militia. Colonel Dey offered the easterly side of the house to General Washington when the commander-in-chief used it for his headquarters in July, October and November of 1780.
West Orange
Edison National Historic Site
West Orange,NJ
Phone: (973)736-5050
Admission Price:See their website
Hours: See
The site preserves the laboratory of the inventor and his home Glenmont. The 23 room Queen Anne mansion sits on a 15.5 acre estate and contains its original furnishings.
Westfield
Miller-Cory House Museum
Westfield,NJ 07090
Phone: (908)232-1776
Admission Price:Tours $3 adults; $2 children; Sunday programs vary
Hours: Weekday mornings/Sundays 2-4 pm. Sept-June
The Miller-Cory House Museum, named after the first two families that inhabited it,operates as a early American living history museum. It is fully furnished and includes gardens and several outbuildings such as an outhouse and a cookhouse, the Frazee Building, in which open hearth cooking demonstrations are given.Group tours are offered during the week and programs about colonial life occur on most Sundays. Special programs also available on site for schools and other groups.