Morven is a mid-eighteenth-century brick house on Stockton Street — built around 1758 for Richard Stockton, a signer of the Declaration of Independence — that served as the Governor of New Jersey's official residence from 1953 to 1981 before passing to the state as a museum. The house and gardens together cover an entire block.
The galleries focus on New Jersey history, decorative arts, and rotating exhibitions on subjects tied to the state's eighteenth- and nineteenth-century life. The Colonial Revival garden behind the house is a small jewel — open daily, well-kept, and a more pleasant place to sit than anywhere on Nassau Street. Allow an hour for the house, longer if there is a special exhibition.