Glencoe/ Coe Mansion

James J. ("J.J.") Dickerson, the leather manufacturer who first owned the brick and brownstone mansion, built outside the core of the city, where new streetcar lines allowed an easy commute. By the turn of the twentieth century, High Street contained homes of some of the town's wealthiest industrialists, merchants and brewers, on a ridge overlooking the Passaic River and the Manhattan skyline. A two-story brick carriage house was built at the rear of the property leading to an alley. When the property was studied for the National Register in 1991, the carriage house featured an apartment on the second floor and a stable and space for a carriage on the ground floor. The Dickerson household in 1880 included New Jersey native J.J. (age 50); his wife, Augusta M. (45); his widowed mother-in-law, Mary J. Sears (66); Eliza B. Winans (55, widowed, possibly his sister); and two female servants.

The Coe family was involved in the steel and heavy hardware industries in Newark; they owned James A. Coe & Company. The Coe family gave the house the name "Glencoe." James A. married Mary L. around 1868; by 1900, James (53) and Mary (48) had six children, all living in the High Street home with them. There were three Coe sons, aged 16 to 24, and three daughters, aged 21 to 26; the eldest daughter, Laura Penner, was a widow. A seventh Coe child was no longer living; all the Coes had been born in New Jersey. Two Black servants also lived at the Glencoe mansion: Howard Bryant (24) and Delilah Arnold (23). The carriage house contained the household of Robert Allen, a 29-year-old Black servant. Robert's wife, Emma (29) also was a servant; there were four Allen children, aged 5 to 10. The Coes enclosed the open two-story rear porch at the southeast corner of the mansion to create a billiard room and additional bedrooms in the early twentieth century. James Coe died in 1933 but his family continued living there until 1947; Benjamin Kulper was the new owner. The house continued to be privately owned, except for twenty years when a social service agency owned the house but did not occupy it.

Cory Booker, a former Mayor of Newark, rented a room in the Coe Mansion once for $400 per month; by the late twentieth century, the neighborhood had become run down. While running for the Democratic nomination for U.S. President in 2019, Booker was interviewed in front of the house by Jake Tapper for Cable News Network (CNN). Booker told Tapper that he had some of his belongings stolen while he and a friend were moving his items inside; when they returned outside to the street, the items were gone. Later, Booker moved to apartments across the street, the former Brick Towers complex, now redeveloped as Ashton Heights.

The site plan for adaptation of the house and reuse as fifteen apartments while respecting the property's historic exterior was created by a firm called 698 MLK Blvd, LLC. The plans were approved in 2019 by Newark's Landmark and Historic Preservation Commission and by the Newark Planning Board. The property was owned in 2019 by FDF 3, LLC, a firm with a Ramsey address that matches other firms that had been buying Newark properties for adaptive reuse.

Cummings, Charles. The 'Modern' Palaces where Innocence Melded with Pretension, Knowing Newark, History and Landscape. August 20th 1998. Accessed January 21st 2021. https://knowingnewark.npl.org/the-modern-palaces-where-innocence-melded-with-pretension/.

Kofsky, Jared. Newark's Vacant Coe Mansion, Once Home to Cory Booker, Could be Converted into Apartments, Jersey Digs. July 15th 2019. Accessed January 16th 2021. https://jerseydigs.com/coe-mansion-residential-conversion-proposed-mlk-boulevard-newark/.

New Jersey Institute of Technology. Glencoe Mansion, Digital Archive of Newark Architecture. January 1st 2019. Accessed January 21st 2021. https://dana.njit.edu/items/show/241.

U.S. Census. Household of J.J. Dickerson at 698 High St., Newark District 31, Dwelling 200, Family 285. Washington, DC. U.S. Government, 1880.

U.S. Census. Household of James A. Coe at 698 High St., Newark Ward 2 District 21, Dwelling 2, Family 2. Washington, DC. U.S. Government, 1900.

U.S. Census. Household of Robert Allen to the rear of 698 High St., Newark Ward 2 District 21, Dwelling 3, Family 3. Washington, DC. U.S. Government, 1900.

Winter, Jesse. "Newark's Abandoned Coe Mansion to be Turned into Apartments." TAP into Newark (Newark, NJ) September 12th 2019. Development sec.

Zakalak, Ulana D. NRHP Nomination of Glencoe. National Register. Washington, DC. National Park Service, 1991.