The Trustees: Castle Hill on the Crane Estate, Part 1

Back in September 2025, I took the comprehensive, 2.5-hour “Grand Stairs to Back Stairs” tour of Castle Hill on the Crane Estate in Ipswich, MA, which is managed by The Trustees of Reservations. Due to the length and breadth of the tour, this will be a three-part series, with one post released per day over the next three days. The property comprises of 165 acres and has been on the National Register of Historic Places since 1977 and elevated to a National Historic Landmark in 1998. This section will focus on the building of the estate, the early history of the Crane family, and the first few stops on the tour.

Before Crane Estate, there was Castle Hill Farm, even though no castle had been constructed there. One owner was John Burnham Brown, also known as J.B., a wealthy man who liked to play farmer. He had made his money as the president of the Chicago and Indiana Railroad, a company which no longer exists. He decided to turn the regular-sized farmhouse into a shingle-style “cottage”, a word rich people use for summer homes regardless of size. This choice to expand architecture and curate the landscape was inspired by European and Asian mansion. Brown was not alone in his expansion, but part part of a larger movement called the American Country Place Era, which lasted from the 1880s through the 1920s. His landscape architect, Ernest William Bowditch, was among the most popular men in his field. His other designs including the grounds of Eustis Estate in Milton, MA and The Breakers in Newport, RI. As for the three-story Brown cottage, this building is now a fancy hotel, The Inn at Castle Hill, managed by The Trustees. While the building and grounds were not a part of the tour, I would like to go back and see this part of the property during my next visit to Ipswich.

Crane Estate is named for the Crane family, lead by Richard Teller Crane II, who had inherited the highly successful Crane Company from his father. The family usually lived in Chicago, but like many wealthy people in the early 20^th century, they wanted a summer cottage on the East Coast. Richard II bought the original home on the property in early 1910 with his wife, Florence Higinbotham Crane. Florence’s own father, Harlow Niles Higinbotham, had been the president of the American department store Marshall Field & Company, a position that earned him a lot of money and allowed him to lead other big projects, like being the president of the World Columbian Exposition, also called the Chicago World’s Fair, in 1893, and serving as the head of the Field Museum of Natural History. Florence was accustomed to everything being executed perfectly and at a large scale.

The Crane family hired no one but the best. The first architectural firm was Shepley, Rutan, and Coolidge, which now survives as Shepley Bulfinch. The firm began as the successors of Henry Hobson Richardson, a behemoth of New England architecture who founded the Richardson Romanesque style and led projects including Stonehurst in Waltham, MA and The Trustees’ Governor Oliver Ames Estate in Easton, MA. Shepley, Rutan, and Coolidge quickly filled his shoes, designing public buildings like the original section of the Milton Public Library, along with private homes. The gifted trio created a villa inspired by the Italian Renaissance for the Crane family, only for this to not be good enough for Florence.

Instead of modifying the existing structure, the building was torn down and replaced by the current Stuart-style mansion, or inspired by 17^th century England. This time, the designer was David Adler. Instead of being a local architect like Shepley, Rutan, and Coolidge, Adler came from Chicago like the Crane family. Accordingly, most of his works are in the Midwest, especially in Illinois. The Crane family did hire local when it came to landscape designers. They started with the Olmsted Brothers of Boston, a firm run by the son of prolific Frederick Law Olmsted (who appears on the blog so often that I have search set up for him). The naturalistic style of the Olmsted Brothers proved to not be right for Florence, so they switched to Arthur Shurcliff, another student of Olmsted, who specialized in making landscapes that complimented grand historic architecture. The defining feature of the property is the Grand Allée, a massive lawn leading from the back door to the water, and much longer than one would think. I only walked halfway before turning back for the tour. The lawn was inspired by the Beaux-Arts style taught in Paris, France at that time, which is why Quebec City in Canada has a popular tourist area called Grand Allée.

Standing guard near the back entrance is a pair of griffins gifted to Richard II by 3,600 of his employees at his retirement in 1928, proving both that he was a good boss and that he had unique taste. On the Grand Allée were a hodgepodge of concrete statues from across European history, while the back of the house had niches for busts resembling random Roman emperors. The Cranes wanted the perception of history to give them legitimacy and prestige without bothering to learn the actual history. Once the tour began inside the house, we saw the office-library and dining room, which looked highly similar to the rooms at other mansions of the same time. The dining rooms did have uranium glass, which glowed bright green under the black light carried by the tour guide. The glass has very little radioation and is safe to use. For accessibility, clear plastic chairs were set throughout these spaces, allowing visitors to sit as they needed without distracting from the period furniture. Like many estates, all the goods were sold upon the death of the last owner, Florence, and while The Trustees have recollected some pieces, many are not original to the house.

The house did have unique technological features. First, because the Crane family made their money in plumbing, the house had indoor plumbing when many still used outhouses and pumps. The tour guide related that the contractor originally bought toilets from a rival company, which did not make Richard II very happy. Another interesting invention found throughout the house were compasses indicating which direction the wind was blowing. A large compass was a centerpiece over the fireplace in the Great Hall, while smaller compasses would appear in bedrooms throughout the rest of the tour. While at this point, I had just begun the adventure, I was already thrilled by the architecture, landscaping, and innovation, along with curious to learn more about the unique family who lived in the grand estate.