Abandoned Newark ‘beer baron’ mansion apparently set ablaze by squatter

A 32-room Victorian mansion in Newark suffered extensive fire damage on Thursday night, leaving the homeless who slept in the abandoned building without a place to stay while city officials determine if the building can be saved.

Janeal Ferguson, who often slept in the mansion at 176 Clinton Ave., told NJ Advance Media someone set the structure ablaze, but declined to say why. She said a tight-knit group of squatters who often slept there to find a reprieve from the streets would use the fireplaces inside.

“That was like a safe haven for us,” said Ferguson. “Even though it was abandoned, it was livable. An idiot decided to set the damn house on fire."

The structure was still smoldering Friday morning after firefighters fought the three-alarm blaze overnight. A firefighter suffered an eye injury while another’s knee was injured, according to the Newark Public Safety Department.

Firefighters say the building suffered a partial collapse after the first-floor ceiling gave way, and at one point they became trapped inside. They were able to find a way out.

Members of the Bloomfield and Elizabeth fire departments also responded to help with the flames, which burned for four hours. The blaze was considered contained just before midnight.

The mansion at 176 Clinton Ave., which was once used by the Pride of Newark Elks Lodge No. 93, was envisioned to help people. Denise Colon bought the building for a dollar about a decade ago and planned to convert it into a home for pregnant girls.

A daycare center and an apprenticeship program also showed interest in the space when Colon bought it around 2009. She told The Star-Ledger at the time that a full restoration would cost more than $1.7 million.

It’s not clear what happened to the property, or the plans. Property records show that a nonprofit registered out of Pennsylvania under Colon and her husband’s names stopped owning the property in 2012, and the city has owned it ever since.

A phone listed for the nonprofit’s address rang indefinitely when NJ Advance Media called.

Although the Elks owned the building for at least three decades, the three-story mansion was formerly owned by the Frelinghuysen family. Frederick Theodore Frelinghuysen was a former U.S. senator and secretary of state under President Chester A. Arthur.

The structure was one of the few remaining “beer baron” mansions in Newark. It was built in 1892 for Franz. J. Kastern, a wealthy owner of a brewery, according to Preservation New Jersey.

“You’re never going to get something back like this,” said one firefighter Friday morning as he looked on while a crew continued to pump water on the structure.

The mansion’s iconic turret survived the blaze, but one resident who lived nearby on Astor Street surmised the building would have to be demolished.

“I lived here on this street for 75 years,” said the man, who declined to give his name. “When I was a child it was an active building and then it fell into disrepair. This area has been neglected for a long time."

Firefighters were still surveying the damage Friday morning and will determine later if the building should be demolished, the public safety department said.

Newark Public Safety Department spokeswoman Catherine Adams said the cause of the blaze is still under investigation.

Ferguson, the woman who was inside the mansion at the time of the fire, said she was unsure where she would sleep Friday night.

“Would you rather us sleep on the corner?” she asked rhetorically, later adding that, “Just because we’re homeless doesn’t make us less human.”

Rebecca Panico may be reached at rpanico@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @BeccaPanico.