Touring Historic Gems of South Orange

The varied housing stock in South Orange was a big draw when we moved here six years ago, and on my block alone you’ll find small, medium and large Victorians, Center Hall Colonials, an Arts and Crafts cottage, an English Tudor, and even a couple of ranches. On my daily walk, I pass all kinds of amazing houses, and wonder, from curbside, what they look like inside.

To satisfy my curiosity, I’ve always taken advantage of the house tours offered by the local neighborhood groups and historical societies. On Saturday’s third biannual house tour sponsored by the South Orange Historical and Preservation Society, I was joined by about 400 inquisitive neighbors to view seven eclectic homes. Some people donned blue booties over their street shoes to cross the thresholds. I just padded barefoot right into their inner sanctums. Some highlights follow.

Italianate/Colonial on Hillside Place

“It’s phenomenal,” said a visitor from Montclair as she exited the Italianate and Colonial blended house. “They mix everyday things in an imaginative way. It’s so artistically done.”

Italianates were the most popular Victorian-styled homes in the U.S. from the mid to late 19th century, taking inspiration from Italian villas. Standing on the porch, I was blown away by my bird’s eye view of the exterior Roman brick, narrower and longer than the red brick I’m familiar with. Stepping back on the front path, I could see the Colonial features—dormer windows and shutters. 

Inside, the architectural blend continued—columns mixed with beaded ceilings, and eclectic design choices including a collection of antique purses decorating a bathroom wall and a church bench sitting in the kitchen. Stained glass panels from the owner’s former brownstone in Park Slope, Brooklyn hung throughout the home, conveying this family’s history.

Colonial on Tillou Road

“The renovation started when we won a silent auction for the Lydia Johnson Dance Company (SOPAC’s resident dance company)—an hour consultation with a South Orange architect, Rebecca Gellman,” recalled Darcy Tierney, standing in the gorgeous open kitchen of her 1920s-era Center Hall Colonial. The entire first floor had been fully renovated, and she and her husband lived in the basement for a year. “I saw a fat mouse run under my feet,” Tierney recalled. Now, the colorful hues of stained glass at the entryway tipped me off to the surprising arts and crafts design flourishes of the interior.

Tudor on Franklin Place

In past tours, I’ve always been fascinated by what people collect and how they display their collections, but I was unprepared for the unique holdings within the cozy looking Tudor Revival cottage with its cross gabled roof and stucco exterior. In the entryway were stacks of the American Organist magazine that dated back more than 20 years. This set the stage for the display of 31 English cathedral prints that lined the den and another 68 prints in the living room; cathedral-themed mugs and plates in the bedroom; and even an old fashioned radio with a cathedral facade. Pastel-hued toy Buicks and Chevys were really whiskey decanters. Red cranberry glass dishes and Wedgewood China filled cupboards in the dining room. Choir boy figurines and candles were bunched together in a living room cabinet.

Other highlights...

My enthusiasm soared as I roamed through the other houses on the tour—from the Queen Anne/Colonial Revival mix with leaded glass windows on Melrose Place to the Georgian Colonial Revival with its entry foyer of painted diagonal squares on Garfield Place. There was also a house on Vista Way with a split personality—Tudor Revival on one side, modern two-story spiral staircase within a 20-foot glass atrium on the other. Magically, the color and similar materials made it all cohere.

“Gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous,” said a woman exiting Quarry Hall, the spectacular house on the crest of First Mountain, my final stop on the tour. Sprawling above the tree line and the former quarry below, the Crest Drive house has Manhattan views from the windows on its far side. This house had the longest lines to get in, and as I ogled the red felt pool table beneath the stained glass chandelier and the charcoal sketch of Keith Richards on the wall to my left, I could almost hear the tinkling of scotch on the rocks.

I didn’t want to leave either.