Grover Cleveland Birthplace
church building in New Jersey, United States of America
The Grover Cleveland Birthplace is a historic site located at 207 Bloomfield Avenue in Caldwell, Essex County, New Jersey, United States. It is the only house museum dedicated to U.S. President Grover Cleveland.
History
Stephen Grover Cleveland was born in this home on March 18, 1837, the son of Rev. Richard Falley Cleveland and Ann Neal. The building, also known as the Caldwell Presbyterian Church Manse, was built in 1832 and served as a Presbyterian church parsonage for the Cleveland family while Grover's father served as a pastor of the First Presbyterian Church. The elder Cleveland had served in that role only three years before his son's birth but was only the second pastor in its establishment in 1787. The boy's first name was given in honor of the previous pastor, but he did not use the name Stephen in his adult life. Richard Cleveland found it was difficult to support his family of 11 on the $600 a year he earned in his role in Caldwell. The family moved to Buffalo, New York in 1841.
The Grover Cleveland Birthplace Memorial Association purchased the house in 1913 for use as a museum.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Grover Cleveland Birthplace” as church building in New Jersey, United States of America. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
Why this record matters
The subject matters to the places & architecture register because the source frames it as church building in New Jersey, United States of America. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
Maps, plans, fabric surveys and administrative records can establish how the site’s name, extent and function changed over time. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 14, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q5611524. Authority coordinates are 40.837, -74.272. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1837, 1832, 1787 and 1841.
A single description cannot reconcile every naming convention, rebuilding phase or administrative transfer associated with a place. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Treat names, boundaries and functions as historically changeable. Maps, plans, inventories and administrative records can clarify what the place meant at different dates.
- Historic place names
- Jurisdictional context
- Routes into maps and plans
Contemporary maps, plans, listed-building records, estate papers and the responsible local or national archive.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Grover Cleveland Birthplace”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Grover Cleveland Birthplace primary sources, Grover Cleveland Birthplace archive and Grover research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Grover Cleveland Birthplace”?
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- Which authority defined the place, boundary or structure at the relevant date?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Grover Cleveland Birthplace” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.