The Feigenspan Mansion, Newark

The Feigenspan Mansion dates back to 1905 and was built for Christian Feigenspan, owner of one of the largest breweries in the United States. This fine four-story house, designed by architect Warrington G. Lawrence, is an exquisite example of the Second Renaissance Revival style and stands as one of the few buildings of its type. Today, the Feigenspan Mansion serves as the home of the Community Agencies Corporation.

Christian Feigenspan was a prominent figure in Newark's brewing industry, renowned for his "Pride of Newark" beer, which gained international acclaim by winning a silver medal at the 1891 Paris Exhibition. The mansion was notably designed to accommodate Feigenspan's wife, Marie, who used a wheelchair, making it one of the prime examples of accessible design in high-end residential living. The house includes a centrally-located elevator that provided access to the most important areas, and a bathroom shower stall designed to enable sitting. This thoughtful inclusion underscores the mansion's early adoption of universal (barrier-free) design principles.

The thirty-seven-room mansion features a three-story structure with three bays on the front facade and five bays on the side elevations. The exterior materials consist of Roman brick and sandstone trims used for the quoining, watertable, and moldings. The central bay on the front facade boasts an entrance arch framed by free-standing Tuscan columns, topped by a balustrated parapet around a baroque window with a broken pediment and side scrolls. The first-floor side windows also have balustrated balconies capped with cornice caps, while a glazed-in area at the back serves as a palm room.