In the Ballroom of the Kingsland Manor are a mahogany sofa and two mahogany chairs that were given to the Trust by the estate of Edmund Guthrie in 1975. The chairs date to around the 1850s–1870s. Because the Manor had been recently purchased by the town and was not quite ready to open to the public, the set of chairs was temporarily upholstered in white muslin and stuffed with horse hair by Mr. A. Pfefferle. They were later reupholstered in green velvet.

Edmund Guthrie’s General store was located at 296 Highfield Lane. Founded by his parents, Patrick, and Anna, in 1883 in a Passaic Avenue location, the store/home was moved in 1894. The Guthrie’s store was closed in 1951, and the front entrance and windows of the store were boarded up. The sofa and chairs were part of Edmund’s personal furniture.

Guthrie’s store was a meeting place for the community because it was the only place in town that served ice cream. Samuel Clemens—better known as “Mark Twain”—was a regular summer visitor who enjoyed the lemon-flavored ice cream. Other well-known visitors to the store were “Puck” magazine editor Henry Cuyler Bunner and painter Albert Sterner. It was also the only place in town that had a working telephone, installed in 1887 by Patrick Guthrie. The telephone booth is now displayed in the Nutley Historical Society on Church Street.

The large gentleman’s armchair measures 33-1/2 high and 21-1/2 inches deep. The late Victorian-style sofa measures 66-1/2 inches long, 41 inches high, and 28 inches deep. The ladies side chair measures 28 inches high and 17-1/2 inches deep. Women wearing bustles needed their chair to be lower to the ground and not have arms that would interfere with their Victorian dress.