The Ballantine House

The John Ballantine House is a historic house museum in Newark, New Jersey, built in 1884 to designs by George Edward Harney. The three-story building, made of salmon-colored pressed brick with sandstone trim and an asymmetrical facade, was once the residence of Jeannette Boyd and John Holme Ballantine, son of the founder of the well-known Ballantine Brewery. A designated National Historic Landmark, the house preserves its original architecture and the complete documentation of its construction history. Today it is owned by the Newark Museum of Art, which took it over in 1937 and most recently carried out an extensive restoration between 2021 and 2023. On guided tours, you can see the elegant interiors, which were furnished with ornate furniture and wall coverings by the New York firm D. S. Hess Company. Since its reopening in November 2023, the museum also offers new galleries exploring the city's craft traditions in the 19th century, while the facade faces Washington Park.