Stites and Lander Stewart Mansion

Stites and Lander Stewart Mansion - 102-104 South Main Street

Lander-Stewart Mansion, the town's only brownstone, was built grandiosely to resemble those of East Side Manhattan at the turn of the last century. Exotic woods, marble, tile, and glass brought back from Stewart's European travels line its interior. The front doors are hand-carved cypress from Lebanon. The first-floor office housed the Phillipsburg Telephone Company in the nineteen thirties.

Using architectural hints from the Stites building located at 104 South Main Street, construction was completed in the late eighteen forties or fifties, in the manner of a Greek Revival townhouse. Records reveal the townhouse was renovated in the eighteen seventies with several Italianate elements, including the octagonal tower and the pressed metal hood molds. John Lander, a founding director of the Warren Foundry, bought the place and later purchased the property next door (102) and had the classic brownstone built. The two buildings functioned as family quarters for Lander, his two daughters, and their husbands, attorney Jacob Stewart and Dr. James Petrie, both of whom had their offices in the buildings. 

The exterior of Lander Stewart Mansion, located at 102 South Main Street, is a wonder to see: The foundation is stone masonry, revealing approximately 3 feet in the front and 8 feet at the rear. The material is red-gray sandstone. The facade combines the customary solidity and rich details of a Neo-Grec brownstone, with unusual detailing in the cornice and the door surround. It's an impressive building that would have held its own on Manhattan's upper east side in the early eighteen-eighties. Both buildings were listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2008.  

The entrance, head molds, and elaborate cornice are characteristic of the NeoGrec style (as that term generally applied to the stone facade of the rowhouses) of the late eighteen sixties to early nineteen hundreds. New York City Neo-Grec style was considered an appropriate solution to fit a tight cubic space in the late eighteen-sixties. It came to dominate rowhouse architecture by the late eighteen seventies. An important feature of the Neo-Grec style was incised ornamental detail—often a stylized flower or vine design—cut into smooth brownstone, which can be seen in the lintel of windows, the entrance, and the area below the window sills. The closely-spaced double-hung sash windows are arranged symmetrically. The string courses exemplify the mannered style, and the substantial window surrounds, referred to as head molds, carry out the motif established in the lintel above the entrance. The elaborate cornice with both modillions and consoles is a feature generally found only on fashionable buildings.