As a girl, Louise Scott-Rountree always saw a gaggle of people congregating in her mother's famous home on High Street, now known as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard in Newark.

Rountree would stand by the second-floor circular brass banister as she looked down at the crush of activity that her mother, Louise Scott, brought to Krueger-Scott Mansion. The opulent Victorian-era house, built in 1888 by German beer baron Gottfried Krueger and purchased by Scott in 1958, served the community in a number of ways.

Students attended classes to be cosmetologists at the Scott College of Beauty Culture on the first floor of the home. Others went to Scott's charm school. There was a dentist office, a restaurant, an ice cream parlor and a salon in the basement. Faith leaders rented space for church and Islamic services in the auditorium, where Scott founded Good Neighbor Cathedral and held fashion shows.

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Some people would come simply to visit with Scott, believed to be Newark's first African-American millionaire, a businesswoman and civic leader who owned a chain of beauty supply stores and the 50-room Scott's Hotel two blocks away on High Street.

"She gave a lot to the community,'' said Scott-Rountree, who is now a reverend and manager of the city's office of clergy affairs. "She kept it (the mansion) busy.''

It hasn't been that way since Scott's death in 1983, but things are about to change at the long-vacant mansion, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Newark, which owns the blighted Central Ward property, has partnered with developer Avi Telyas of Seaview Development Corp., in New York, to restore the mansion and build an entrepreneurial village to help revitalize the neighborhood along Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard.

Carmelo G. Garcia, executive vice president and chief real estate officer of the Newark Community Economic Development Corp., said there will be 86 units of market-rate and affordable housing, with workspace for residents in a seven-story building. It will be behind the mansion, on a campus setting planned to include a plaza, an institute of entrepreneurship and an urban farm, which already is in operation and is managed by the Greater Newark Conservancy. The $29 million project, to be completed in 18 to 24 months, also has commercial spaces for 16 "makerhood'' workshops for entrepreneurs to create businesses.

"This project is truly an anchor to that corridor," Garcia said. "We're ready to rock.''

It may be 35 years late, but it looks like this hybrid project will happen under this administration.

When the city took possession of the home through foreclosure in the 1980s, the historic mansion was neglected and vandalized. Thieves meticulously cut out eight fireplaces; chandeliers, banisters, ornate wood and mantels were removed. Attempts by the city to turn the mansion into a cultural center failed. The project became a $7 million money pit for taxpayers, and the only thing restored was the brick exterior, six chimneys and the roof.

The 10,000-square-foot home remains boarded up, sitting behind a barbed wire fence and tall weeds. Scott-Rountree is organizing a community meeting for next Friday, and the planning board will meet on June 4 for another presentation.

Scott-Rountree is pleased there's movement on plans to revitalize the home where she lived for 23 years. But it's been painful, she said, to drive past the house and remember what once was a glorious time in her life.

"I cry every time. I wished I could have done more to save my mother's house.''

Wiping tears from her eyes, Scott-Rountree chooses to remember the good years. She was "Baby Louise" and her mother was "Big Louise," the doting parent who instilled the value of hard work. At 5-years-old, Scott-Rountree said, she knew how to answer the switchboard and direct calls at her mother's hotel.

Growing up in the mansion, Scott-Rountree, an only child, enjoyed a grand lifestyle. She had a huge bedroom with a bathroom, ceiling-to-floor closets. Scott-Rountree knew the house was special, but she didn't understand its significance or her mother's stature until later in life.

"It was just home and she was Mom,'' Scott-Rountree said.

During the Christmas holiday, Scott-Rountree said, her mother showered neighborhood kids with gifts. Fruit, candy and toys would be laid out on a large covering in the mansion.

"The kids could take as much as they wanted," Scott-Rountree said.

"Your mother was a beacon of hope," Roscoe Williams, a childhood friend, told Scott-Rountree on Thursday. "We didn't want for nothing with Mrs. Scott."

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Saturdays, Scott-Rountree played with the kids whose mothers came to get their hair done. They'd run around the big house, playing hide and seek. While her mother worked, employees looked after Scott-Rountree, the little girl who wore cute dresses, white socks and patent leather shoes. The cosmetology instructors were her babysitters. The accountant taught her to count the coins from soda machines in her mother's businesses.

Every fourth birthday, Scott-Rountree said, her mother threw her a party and invited the neighborhood. The yellow homemade cake trimmed with turquoise frosting is still one of her favorite memories. So is the recollection of a long corridor where family dinners were held.

Scott-Rountree said her mother cooked just about everything and could whip up a meal in an hour after church; her father, Malachi Rountree, was a pastor.

There was no fast food in her kitchen. Only love from a mother who kept Scott-Rountree close by, teaching her to never believe she was better than anyone.

"I had the greatest childhood," Scott-Rountree said.

Not everyone gets to live in a castle on a hill overlooking Newark.

As the project moves forward, Scott-Rountree said, the mansion is poised to be a community servant like her mother was for so many years.

"I'm happy to know the house will have life once again," she said. "It's going to represent the spirit of my mom and those who were there before."

Barry Carter: (973) 836-4925 or bcarter@starledger.com or

nj.com/carter or follow him on Twitter @BarryCarterSL