Last chance this year to get an inside view of the Great House

By SHEILA BARTH

Essex County Newspapers

IPSWICH _ Although closed for the season, visitors will get another chance to tour the Great House at Castle Hill _ one day only _ Monday, Oct. 8, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Plumbing fixtures industrialist Richard T. Crane Jr. of Chicago constructed the 59-room Great House as his summer home early in the 1920s. The house, seated his 165-acre estate, was designed in the popular Italianate style of the day.

However, when Florence Crane lived there a little later, she razed the original house and had it redesigned and rebuilt by famous architect David Adler in 1920, who used three English country houses circa 1610 and 1705 as his model.

The 165-acre estate is nestled between beach marshes and Crane's Beach, atop rolling hills to give the best view of the ocean. Its grounds were designed by landscape architects Arthur Shurcliff and the Olmsted Brothers.

Besides visiting the first and second floors of the Great House with guides pointing out details of the house as it appeared during its heyday, the tour also includes the mansion's landscaping.

Grounds include the Grand Allee, a rolling, verdant strip located between the house and the ocean where several functions are still held, the Tower gardens, including the Italian and rose gardens, and other outside features.

Inside, visitors will see the grand ballroom, formal living rooms, the dining room, kitchen, two-story butler's pantry, the hallway and the library, with its 17th century carvings by Grinling Gibbons, and bathrooms designed with rich Italian marble and sterling silver fixtures Crane manufactured special for his summer home.

On the second floor, tourists walk through the family's private bedroom suites, grand bathrooms and guest bedrooms and living spaces.

Castle Hill spokeswoman Jennifer Kyte says entire rooms were shipped, piece by piece, from England.

There is a barn on the property that is still used for concerts and parties, an inn that was recently renovated but formerly was the smaller guest house, a swimming pool no longer used, and a center courtyard.

Castle Hill is located at 290 Argilla Road, is managed by the Trustees of Reservations and is a national historic landmark.

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