The society was founded in 1845 at Trenton by intellectual and business leaders of New Jersey including Joseph C. Hornblower, Robert Gibbon Johnson, Peter D. Vroom and William Whitehead.

In 1931 it left Downtown Newark for a large colonial-style building partially paid for by Louis Bamberger at 230 Broadway, east of Branch Brook Park.

The new home is a Georgian style building vacated by the Essex Club that was designed by Guilbert & Betelle.

The building was built in 1926 and had been added to the National Register of Historic Places on February 22, 1991.

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