About Kramer Manor
Kramer Manor is a neighborhood of about one hundred households straddling the suburban communities of Scotch Plains and Fanwood, New Jersey. Today it is a thriving and desirable multicultural community of single-family homes and green spaces. For most of its almost one hundred years, Kramer Manor was an all-Black enclave founded on the visions and aspirations of people determined to build homes and nurture and sustain community against the odds.
Kramer Manor was established in 1924 on fifty-one acres of land purchased by New York City-based Kramer Realties, Inc. from the estate of William A. Woodruff. From the early days, Kramer Realties’ owners Harry and Hyman Kramer actively marketed it as a destination for Black families looking to build homes in an “ideal colored development.” Plots were sold but home ownership and the provision of services such as paved roads and indoor plumbing presented huge obstacles for the buyers and the developers of Kramer Manor into the 1960’s.
Persevering against all odds, neighbors worked together to build their homes and houses of worship, and Harry Kramer of Kramer Realties doggedly pursued Federal backing and support on the behest of plot owners wishing to build homes on the land they purchased. In the 1960’s community members joined with the Jerseyland community of Scotch Plains to successfully resist urban renewal plans designed to displace them, and to receive municipal services long denied. The neighborhood grew and prospered into the 21st century.
Today, Kramer Manor is home to a mix of longstanding residents and newer arrivals. As we look to the second century of Kramer Manor’s existence in 2024, let us not forget the vision of the entrepreneurial Kramer brothers and the energy and stubborn determination of the descendants of enslaved Africans who together made this historical neighborhood possible.
Read more history in our ad journal: PDF Flipbook
Watch our film
Kramer Manor Block Party September 2021 Photo by John Mooney TAPInto Scotch Plains-Fanwood
Site plan for Kramer Manor, 1924
The Legacy of Kramer Manor
A Citizens’ History Project Takes Root – and Chronicles a Treasure
In 2020, a few Scotch Plains/Fanwood residents found themselves exchanging intriguing anecdotes about the rich but relatively unknown history of the Kramer Manor neighborhood. Its roots went back almost 100 years as a Black community straddling both towns. The conversation participants included current and former Kramer Manor residents as well as members of Social Justice Matters, Inc. (SJM) and the Joint Committee for Truth, Racial Healing & Transformation (TRHT). They all saw the importance of bringing to light, sharing and preserving the legacy of Kramer Manor.
A history research team was formed, with its six members looking at the project from a wide range of vantage points.
Soon, the Union County Board of Commissioners awarded a HEART (History, Education, Arts Reaching Thousands) Grant to SJM, which provided additional funding for the project.
During the next year and a half, the team underwent training on how to take oral histories and then interviewed 15 current and former residents. At the same time, librarians, historians, real estate professionals and others combed through census records, newspapers, property records, books, and interviews to piece together Kramer Manor’s beginning in 1924 and its growth through the century. Scholars and other consultants also provided valuable direction.
In September 2021, with the interviews completed and a written history produced, the team held a block party in Kramer Manor to commemorate the project. The neighborhood’s newest residents as well as those who left decades ago proudly celebrated their common ground. It was a joyful moment to reinforce long-lasting bonds and new ones that formed in tracing the legacy of Kramer Manor.
Watch our presentation to the JCC Metrowest, Feb. 23, 2022.
From left to right: The Hadley Family members and home on Trenton Ave.; Bill Lee, Harry and Bertha Kramer
Harry d. Kramer, Letter to President Franklin D. Roosevelt, July 14, 1941; Thurgood Marshall, Letter to Mrs. M.R. Young, FHA, September 29, 1941. RG 31 A1 12 Commissioner’s Correspondence and Subject File, 1938-1958. Boxes 6 and 7, located at: 130/903/3/04. Document: Kramer to FDR, July 14, 1941, “Racial Restrictive Covenants, 1938-1948. National Archives.
The Interviews — Links to recordings and transcripts
Remembering THE EARLY YEARS
Elwood Green
Corrine Green
Ann Jones-Townsend-Hendricks
William (Bill) Lee and Robert (Bobby) Lee
HOMEOWNERS 1960’S - 1990’S
Arnold Eldridge
Theodore (Ted) Moore
Kathleen Battle Thomas
Janet Terry
Douglas Layne
growing up in Kramer manor, 1960’s - 1990’s
Juan Velazquez
Marlon O’Brien
Therio Davis
Kyle Jackson
Jill Jackson-Jones
Contact Us About The Kramer Manor Project: fjjones@verizon.net
Read more about the successful fight against federal urban renewal in the 1960’s in Kramer Manor Urban Renewal Project, written by former Kramer Manor residents. Available to purchase for $29.95 on lulu.com, Amazon and Barnes & Noble websites, and to read or borrow at Scotch Plains and Fanwood public libraries.
Kramer Manor Urban Renewal Project