The former summer home of Mr. and Mrs. Richard T. Crane, Jr., the estate includes a historic mansion, 21 outbuildings, and designed landscapes overlooking Ipswich Bay.
Crane hired the Olmsted Brothers (sons of Frederick Law Olmsted creator of New York’s Central Park, Brooklyn’s Prospect Park and Boston’s Emerald Necklace), to design the landscaping. By 1912, they had fashioned a series of ornate terraced gardens, with a magnificent grass mall, 160 feet (49 m) wide and lined with evergreens cascading from the top of the hill straight down to the water nearly half a mile away.
Classical-styles statuary flank this “Grande Allée” at regular intervals. An opulent “casino” was built at its midpoint, replete with saltwater swimming pool, bathhouse, guest cabanas and a sizable indoor ballroom. Two main gardens, the “Italian Garden” and the “Rose Garden”.
Atop Castle Hill, Crane built an Italian Renaissance style villa, with stucco walls and red tiled roof. The designed was Boston firm called Shepley, Rutan and Coolidge, the estate was set upon the highest promontory overlooking the Atlantic Ocean. His wife Florence, felt that the mansion was cold and drafty, and made her displeasure known. Crane countered by promising that if she would give it ten years, he would replace it if she still insisted.
