Public Tours
The Crane House & Historic YWCA
The Crane House & Historic YWCA museum is a historic house museum that explores the history of our country from its early years as an independent nation to a country embroiled in the civil rights struggle. Built back 1796, the house was the Crane family home for over 100 years. In 1920, African American women in the community purchased the home as headquarters for a YWCA, a segregated space. It was a significant part of the African American community for four decades. By 1965, the YWCA desperately needed a new building. Local preservationists moved the house to its present location and turned it into a historic house museum. Today, we tell the stories of the three generations of Cranes, the people (both enslaved and immigrants) who worked for them, the women and girls of the YWCA, and the early preservationists who fought to save this piece of Montclair's history.
Depending on the day, the house is open for drop-in tours or scheduled private tours. Please see more information on each below.
Location: 110 Orange Road, Montclair, NJ 07042. All tours begin at the little red Nathaniel Crane House & Visitor Center located at the back of the parking lot.
Questions? Call 973-744-1796 or email mail@montclairhistory.org.
When: The Crane House & Historic YWCA will only be open the third Sunday of the month for public, drop-in tours. If you would like to tour the museum during the week or weekends when the house is not open to the public, schedule a private tour here.
Weekend TOUR DATES
Click here to see our public event dates this year.
THE CRANE HOUSE & HISTORIC YWCA WILL BE CLOSED THE FOLLOWING DATES:
July and August (private tours still available)
December 23rd 2022-January 2nd 2023