Anne Hallowell Mockridge: ‘A Driving Force’ in the Montclair History Center

By Mark S. Porter

Through the years, the Montclair History Center has been enriched by Anne Hallowell Mockridge’s ever-present volunteer activities and her past leadership as president of the center’s Board of Trustees. This past April 15, 2026, Anne passed away peacefully.

Anne had been involved in collecting and preserving the township’s history when the Montclair Historical Society changed its name to the Montclair History Center and refocused itself on the Israel Crane House, the historic former home built in 1796 that had been transported in an epic move from Glenridge Avenue to what is now the MHC’s compound on 108 Orange Road. The Montclair Historical Society was created in 1965 to preserve the house built and lived in by Crane, who was a founder of Montclair.

Anne Mockridge and Executive Director Angelica Diggs at an event in 2016.

In 2014, during Anne’s tenure, the MHC refocused on Crane to note that, along with his other actions, Crane oversaw several enslaved people during his lifetime. For several decades in the 20th century, Crane’s house served as the Black YWCA, created due to the segregation impacting Black women in the early 20th century. It now serves as a museum filled with Montclair history.

“When I first began working with the MHC in 2012, I was always impressed by Anne’s leadership,” noted Executive Director Angelica Diggs. “She showed me kindness and thoughtfulness as I started a new career in the history field. She truly led the organization into a new chapter with telling a full and inclusive story.

“I'm honored to have known her, and call her not just a colleague but a friend I looked up to.”

Anne and St. Luke’s Episcopal Church

Trustee Joan Bradley Mayo and her late husband Harry first knew Anne when they attended St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in the early 1990s.

“We quickly became friends, and along with several others became known as the St. Luke’s Brunch Bunch, doing brunch after church every Sunday,” Joan recalled. “Anne was an excellent hostess, party planner, designer, and decorator. Harry and I were fortunate to be invited to her dinner parties, and St. Luke’s was fortunate to have her design and decorate some of their spaces.”

Board and staff retreat 2023. Anne Mockridge pictured on bottom right.

Through Anne, Joan joined the Montclair History Center as a trustee.

“In fact, Anne was involved in so many Ministries at St. Luke’s, it didn’t surprise me to learn of her and her late husband Oscar’s longstanding work with and dedication to the Montclair History Center. When she sponsored me as a Board of Trustee member, I readily accepted and we continued our friendship in that setting as well,” stated Joan.

The Montclair History Center’s staff accountant and former trustee, Nesta Stephens, also first connected with Anne in St. Luke’s.

“I met Anne Mockridge about six or seven years ago. I had started attending St. Luke’s Episcopal Church off and on. One Sunday Anne walked over to me and introduced herself to me and said, ‘I think that you are someone that I need to get to know.’

“After service she invited me to sit with her during coffee hour. She asked me how I decided to attend St. Luke’s. I told her about my hesitation to attend because my home church, Trinity Episcopal Church, had been closed for several years. Further, family members who attended St. Luke’s in the early 1920s were forced to sit in a segregated section of the church.

“We soon began to meet for lunch at Anne’s favorite places,” Nesta remembered. “Anne gave me an insight into how she and her husband worked to establish equal rights in various activities.

“I told her about my family attending Trinity in the early 1920s and 1930s and that I was the recipient of four scrapbooks containing the history of my previous church, which included news articles and other pertinent information. Anne told me that I must take them to Jane [Eliasof], who was the [then-]executive director of the MHC.”

Bonding Through Archiving Anne’s History

For Erin Benz, who was then the MHC’s collection manager, her friendship with Anne grew as she helped preserve her ancestors’ memorabilia.

“It all began in October of 2020 when MHC’s former Executive Director, Jane Eliasof, told me Anne was interested in organizing and rehousing all her family’s photos and keepsakes, and maybe scanning some of her photos to have digital copies,” Erin stated. “Having rehoused quite a number of family heirlooms and conducted a bit of genealogy research in my time, Jane and Anne thought I would be a perfect fit for the project.

“Initially, the plan was for me to rehouse, organize, and scan all the material by myself at Anne’s home and just consult Anne from time to time when the need arose. I thought, ‘No big deal! I’ve done plenty of projects like this before. This should take a few months, tops.’

“Well, when we began the project, Anne actually wanted to be as hands-on as possible — learning how to scan photos into the computer, being my back-seat passenger while I dove through ancestry.com records, and providing me with important information on her and Oscar’s family that could not be found online. What I thought would be a solo project ended up being a lovely bonding experience.

“Soon our conversations turned from genealogy to chatting about our lives, families, jobs, and plans for the future. Sometimes we talked a liiiittle too off-topic and would have to steer the ship back on course,” quipped Erin. “But we both looked forward to our weekly meetings, whether we wrapped up a loose thread in the family history, or just ended up talking about current events.

“Fast-forward five years to April of 2025 and after countless photographs scanned, records sifted through, narratives meticulously worded (by Anne of course), and one hired genealogist out in

Oregon later, we had completed the project. The result was a set of physical booklets that detailed the lives of Anne’s and Oscar’s ancestors and their children and grandchildren.

“The booklets included photos of family members and keepsakes from Anne’s personal collection; documents such as censuses, draft cards, letters, and more; and narratives crafted by Anne and myself of each descendant going back four generations (sometimes more!).

“The project took so long to finish that Anne would occasionally joke about not being around for the end of the project,” Erin recalled. “But in typical Anne fashion, through health issues and moves, she stubbornly kept at it and got to see the story of her family completed.

“I’m so glad I had the opportunity to not just help Anne with this project, but become her friend, and she mine,” stated Erin. “We miss you, Anne, but I know we all will love and remember you always.”

Anne Emphasized the Black YWCA

Jane credits Anne as one of the key trustees who emphasized the decades in which the historic Crane House served as the Black YWCA, enabling single Black women to find rooms, meals and networks as they sought jobs, and later offering educational, social and recreational activities for the Black communities in and near Montclair.

“Anne was the president of the Board when I became the executive director in 2010,” Jane stated. “Guided by her innate sense of social justice, she recognized the importance of telling the history of the Black YWCA years in the Crane House and was a driving force in making that story come alive.

“Before museums were routinely telling ‘untold stories’ of underrepresented communities, under her presidency our little museum did just that,” observed Jane. “Now, 12 years after the film ‘A Place to Become’ premiered and the first floor of the Crane House was permanently reinterpreted to include the YWCA story, the ‘Crane House and Historic YWCA’ has been recognized as part of the NJ’s Black Heritage History Trail.

“I knew she would have been beaming at the recent unveiling of the marker.”

Becoming an MHC Trustee Through Friendship

Anne Mockridge (second from left) pictured with Board Members and donors at MHC’s 2015 50th Anniversary Jubilee.

Nesta cited Anne’s amity as impelling her to become an MHC trustee.

“During the early years of our friendship, I became the treasurer of St. Luke’s and Toni’s Kitchen. I soon found that Anne was well known by everyone at church and always offered her expertise wherever needed. She suggested that I should interview with the MHC board to fill the position of treasurer.

“I was rather surprised,” Nesta exclaimed. “However, Anne had done her homework to check on how I was handling my position as treasurer at St. Luke’s, lol. She told me that they [the MHC] needed someone like me to fill the open position of treasurer. I later stepped down as treasurer to assume the position of staff accountant. This was during a pivotal time of growth at the History Center.”

Anne’s “Brilliant Idea”

One key area of MHC’s growth has been the location of Montclair Community Gardens on its Orange Road property.

“Several years back we were trying to find uses for the Shultz House,” stated MHC Trustee Christina Mayer, referring to the large house, also known as Evergreens, located on the corner of Claremont and North Mountain avenues that had been bequeathed in 1997 to the history center and later sold.

“The founder of the Miller Street Community Farm was looking to expand and contacted MHC. The Shultz House Committee decided to offer the backyard there for additional garden space,” Christina noted. “Anne and I met with him at the Shultz House so he could evaluate the space. He decided it wasn’t suitable (lack of sunlight, too many tree roots, etc.). All of us were very disappointed.”

“Then Anne had a brilliant idea!” enthusiastically recalled Christina. “As two board members, we made an executive decision. Drove him over to the Crane House, showed him the acreage and he accepted on the spot. So began our long and very successful alliance with Montclair Community Farms!”

Anne and Oscar

Born on January 27, 1940, in Oregon, Anne grew up in Chestnut Hill, Mass.

She married the Rev. Oscar A. Mockridge III in 1963, and together they shared 53 years of marriage until his passing in 2017.

Anne earned her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Social Work from Rutgers University. She devoted several decades to her career as a clinical social worker, with a special focus on geriatrics.

In the early 1970s, Anne and Oscar moved to Montclair.

Anne had a deep love of history and was particularly passionate about the Montclair History Center. She served for many years on the MHC Board of Trustees, including as its president.

“When Anne could no longer attend church or the History Center Board meetings, she attended both via Zoom,” Joan stated, “and along with another parishioner and former History Center Board member I would visit her at her home after church. The last time I saw Anne, we had brunch at her Assisted Living Facility. Full circle.”

“Anne used to send me thank-you notes for my work at St. Luke’s and at the Montclair History Center,” Nesta stated. “She always made me feel that I was contributing to an important cause.

“Her Transition has left a major void in the lives of many of us.

“As my Jamaican ancestors would say, “Anne, walk good!

Anne is survived by her children: son Oscar A. Mockridge IV and his wife Caroline Mockridge, and daughter Kendall M. Annable and her husband Stephen Annable.

Her five grandsons were a constant source of pride and joy: Henry, Brewster, and Chase Mockridge, and Spencer and Drew Annable.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Montclair History Center, 108 Orange Rd., Montclair, NJ 07042.

A funeral service has been held in St. Luke’s Episcopal Church, 73 South Fullerton Ave., and Anne has been interred in Mount Pleasant Cemetery, Newark.

Mark S. Porter is a trustee of the Montclair History Center.