First Presbyterian Church of Newark, founded 1666 · Ballantine brewing family history · Prudential Center arena site
Newark's First Presbyterian Church, founded by the city's original Puritan settlers, maintained a churchyard burial ground that was later relocated as the city grew; the site is now occupied in part by the Prudential Center arena, which opened in 2007 following an archaeological survey of the historic ground. The Ballantine House, an 1885 Victorian mansion built for the Ballantine brewing family, is now part of the Newark Museum of Art.
US Ghost Adventures is a multi-city ghost-walk operator described on its own materials as USMC disabled-combat-veteran-owned. Independent listings for Newark ghost-tour programming, including the operator's own 'Nightmares of Newark Ghost Tour: Nightfall Necromancy,' appear on New Jersey's official tourism site, visitnj.org.
Sources
- https://usghostadventures.com/newark-ghost-tour/
- https://visitnj.org/nightmares-newark-ghost-tour-nightfall-necromancy
Cold spotsShadowy presencesUnexplained presences
At the Ballantine House, the operator recounts the story of Robert Ballantine, who the operator says inherited the family brewing fortune but took his own life after a public scandal involving a mistress; the operator describes reported cold spots and a shadowy presence in the mansion's library. At the Prudential Center, the operator recounts the 2007 discovery of a pair of iron coffins during the arena's construction on the former churchyard grounds. At the First Presbyterian Churchyard, the operator describes reported unexplained presences tied to the site's original 18th-century burials, since relocated.
All of this is the tour operator's own marketing and narrative material, not documented history verified independently for this listing; it is included here as a description of what the tour covers, not as an endorsement of any specific claim.
