Castle Hill (Ipswich)
| Castle Hill | |||
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| National Register of Historic Places | |||
| National Historic Landmark | |||
.jpg) The main building of the property |
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| location | Ipswich , Massachusetts , United States | ||
| Coordinates | 42 ° 40 '57.7 " N , 70 ° 46' 38.6" W | ||
| surface | 165 acres (66.8 ha ) | ||
| Built | 1925 | ||
| architect | David Adler , Shepley, Rutan & Coolidge , Olmsted Brothers , Arthur Shurcliff , Ernest Bowditch , Edward Burnett , Harriett Foote | ||
| Architectural style | Tudor Revival | ||
| NRHP number | [2] 77000183 | ||
| Data | |||
| The NRHP added | 2nd December 1977 | ||
| Declared as an NHL | August 6, 1998 | ||
Castle Hill originally referred to an area of 165 acres (66.8 hectares ) with three drumlins in the area of the city of Ipswich in the extreme northeast of the state of Massachusetts of the United States . Today, however, the name mainly refers to the mansion built on top of one of the elevations by Richard T. Crane, Jr. and his family. Castle Hill is part of the Richard T. Crane, Jr. Memorial Reservation , which, together with the adjacent Cornelius and Mine S. Crane Wildlife Refuge, covers a total of 2,100 acres (8.5 km²) and has been designated a National Historic Landmark in the National Register of Historic Places .
Richard T. Crane acquired the property at the beginning of the 20th century and, with the support of well-known contemporary architects, almost completely redesigned it. The first building on the top of the hill was built in 1909, but was demolished in 1925 and replaced by a new building, which is now a well-known landmark in Essex and Ipswich.
history
The area around Ipswich was known to the Indians as "Agawam", which translates as "Refuge for migratory fish ", and was rich in fish, wood, agricultural land and other natural resources. English settlers acquired the first land rights in 1623, but settlement only began with John Winthrop the Younger , who in 1633 settled with twelve faithful on the north bank of the Ipswich River . The formal founding of the city of Ipswich took place in August 1634; In November of that year, at a town meeting, the area of Castle Hill was initially designated "forever" as the common land : " [...] the Neck of land which is known by the name of the Castle Hill, lyeinge on the other side of this river towards the Sea, shall remayne unto the comon use of the Towne forever ”(German:“ The headland on which the great hill, known as Castle Hill, lies on the other side of the river towards the ocean , should be available to the city for communal use forever ”). Only three years later, however, this decision was revoked: After Winthrop threatened to turn his back on the city, Castle Hill was transferred to him as personal property, but on the condition that he must keep his residence in Ipswich.
In 1759, John bought Patch III. the area and began operating a saltwater farm there. He bequeathed the property to his two daughters Elizabeth Choate and Mary Lakeman: Castle Hill Farm was given to Elizabeth, while Castle Neck was transferred to Mary. Today's Castle Hill was in the area of the farm. In the 19th century the farm, owned by the Brown family, developed from a productive agricultural operation into a so-called gentleman's farm and the family 's summer residence. From 1886 to 1888 the landscape architect Ernest Bowditch was commissioned to lay out streets and paths on the site in such a way that they showed the beauty of the landscape. Agricultural purposes no longer played a role.
At the beginning of the 20th century, Richard T. Crane purchased the property and began the landscaping, for which he commissioned well-known landscape architects. The Olmsted Brothers worked together with Arthur Shurcliff, who lives in the immediate vicinity, on the baroque garden and on the recreational areas around the main house, while Harriett Foote supervised the planting of the rose garden. The architects Shepley, Rutan & Coolidge , as well as the architects Edward Burnett and David Adler designed new and renovated older buildings.
The first building at the top of the hill was built in 1909 by Shepley, Rutan & Coolidge in the Italianate style and had more than 60 rooms. However, it was demolished in 1925 and replaced by a new building with 59 rooms in the style of the English Renaissance by David Adler . This three story building is now a well known landmark in Essex and Ipswich.
The facility was entered on December 2, 1977 on the National Register of Historic Places and on August 6, 1998 as a National Historic Landmark .
Components of the property
main building
The main building was built in 1925 based on a design by David Adler. It replaced a previous building on whose foundation walls it stands. For the new building, the Cranes chose a contemporary English style with Renaissance influences from the 17th century. Specifically, Adler oriented itself towards Belton House in Lincolnshire (1684), Eagle House in Surrey (1705) and Ham House in Richmond (1610).
The three-story house has a steel frame with load-bearing bricks in the Flemish Association and decorative elements made of sandstone . The entrance side consists of a total of 13 symmetrically arranged oriels and is supplemented by a staff wing in the northwest. Consisting of slate existing hipped roof above the gable is a balustrade limited and of a dome dominates, with pillars and arched windows, showcases. The main entrance is protected by a sweeping Queen Anne style canopy . A wide stone terrace extends between the wings of the building. The house has ten tall brick chimneys decorated with carnies .
The interior of the building is arranged around a central gallery that extends 63 ft (19.2 m ) long through the central midsection, has two fire pits and reaches a height of 16 ft (4.9 m). The living room is located in the southeast of the gallery, while the library occupies the entire northeast wing of the house. There is also an ornate fireplace surround made by Grinling Gibbons , made of wood imported from Cassiobury Park in Hertfordshire . There is a guest suite opposite the library. The dining room, along with the pantry, kitchens, and maids' rooms, is northwest of the gallery. The offices of the Trustees of Reservations are located on the third floor.
Forecourt, east and north terraces
The forecourt and the terraces in the east and north of the building were laid out together with the first house and taken over during the redesign. The design shows Italian influences, and its balustrades are identical to those of the Villa Borghese . While Shepley, Rutan & Coolidge designed the balustrades and retaining walls , the Olmsted Brothers were responsible for the selection of the locations, necessary straightening, the design of the boundaries and the planting. In the run-up to the construction of the house, the top of the hill had to be completely redesigned, which was completed in 1911.
Today the east terrace extends along the entire length of the house and is connected by a staircase to a lower platform on which there is a tennis court . Later a maze was built right next to it . For the construction of the north terraces, the top of the hill had to be removed in order to reach a lower level. The promenade that leads down to the sea was built there.
The forecourt, which was originally built primarily in the neoclassical style, was laid out in the shape of a rectangle and had a balustrade made of concrete roughened with a wire brush . It was largely planted with grass and evergreen shrubs and trees. In the course of the new construction of the main house, the space was converted into a simple, oval parking lot.
Outbuildings
Garage and chauffeur accommodation
The building, which serves as both a garage and chauffeur accommodation, was designed by Shepley, Rutan & Coolidge from 1910 to 1912 when the original house was built. Therefore, its architectural style corresponds to that of the first house and features Italian ornaments and stucco . It is to the west of the main building along the road leading to the house. It was partially built into the hill, but designed so that the garages had direct access to the street.
The large, arched exits of the individual garages together form an arcade with flanking entrances, over which there are round windows. The side and rear walls, on the other hand, are far less elaborate. The balusters are identical to those on the terraces. Both the garages and the residential building have a flat roof covered with asphalt .
Main gate and porter's lodge
The main gate was designed together with the porter's lodge in 1926 by David Adler as part of the construction of the main building. This was the first time that a formal entrance was added to the property. Adler put a gatehouse on both sides of the access road and connected them in a wave-shaped pattern with stone walls. The buildings themselves were made of reinforced concrete and clad with bricks. The roof is made of gray slate. The architectural style corresponds to that of the main building and has decorative elements derived from the style of the English Renaissance. While the western building was also designed as residential accommodation, the smaller eastern building served exclusively as an office building.
Brown Cottage
The Brown Cottage is the oldest standing building on Castle Hill and is believed to date from the 19th century when it was built by the Brown family , who owned it at the time . It was changed several times and in some cases greatly; last in 1958 an annex was added, called a “tavern”, imitating the style of the 17th century. Today the building shows many elements of the Shingle architecture that were added as part of a major renovation at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. It rests on a foundation of field stones and is completely clad with dark clapboard .
What is special is the unusual floor plan of the two-and-a-half-storey building, which is V-shaped towards the southeast. The raised roof is provided with dormers , each with a hipped roof . The wings of the building themselves have roofs with different inclines: a mansard roof on the west and a hipped roof on the north. The main entrance is in the middle of the building and is flanked by a window on each side. This tripartite division is reflected on the floor above through a tripartite window. A covered walkway to the tavern extends from the north wing.
Road system
The streets on the property today were laid out in the 19th and 20th centuries. The oldest parts include sections of the formerly public road that led from the Chaussee past Brown Cottage to Castle Hill Farm , where it changed direction and continued to the lighthouse and finally to Castle Neck . Between 1884 and 1886, the course of the road was changed and the previously public road became part of the private path system on Castle Hill. The grass or gravel road from Brown Cottage to the dike and the footpath from Brown Cottage to Steep Hill also date from the beginning and middle of the 19th century.
Most of the remaining streets and paths on the property were laid out by Ernest Bowditch from 1886 to 1888. Bowditch took the existing streets and paths as a foundation and expanded them with a network of new streets designed to connect the best vantage points on the property. In this context, he gave the Brown Cottage a formal landscaped access, in contrast to the other, English-style streets of the Castle Hill rather French style elements above as evidenced in particular by means of the double row of deciduous trees can be seen that at a turning circle around a elm around ends. The stone walls flanking the entrance area softened the formality and blended the newly designed entrance area with the surroundings.
The streets laid out by Bowditch were only slightly changed in the following period. At the beginning of the 20th century, for example, the main street was relocated to the west near the baroque garden in order to create space for the garage and chauffeur building to be built. The stone walls were removed at the same time, and the material used to build the retaining wall , which starts near the garages and goes up the hill between the rose garden and the Italian garden. The course of the road at the property driveway was also changed to soften the curve north of Brown Cottage . The original course of the road can still be seen today based on the silver maples planted along the former road .
The road leading to the main building was laid out between 1910 and 1912. The route was laid out by Shepley, Rutan & Coolidge , while the design of the necessary straightening and fortifications and construction supervision were carried out by the Olmsted Brothers . The running over the dike road to Cedar Point originates from before 1909. The dike was constructed from 1846 to 1910 to the Cranberry - Moor enclose and allow vehicles access to the site of the main house, carried the be handed down by the lakeside building material. After 1912, the route was primarily used by the Crane family to reach the pier where their yacht was docked.
Today the roads and paths on Castle Hill are made of asphalt , gravel, and packed grass. They connect all the important points of the property with each other and are almost completely designated as one-way streets due to their historically narrow width .
Landscaping
Castle Hill Allée
The Crane family made extensive landscaping changes, of which the promenade known as Castle Hill Allée , laid out between 1913 and 1915 by Arthur Shurcliff and last restored in 2011 , is best preserved. It can best be described as a 160 ft (48.8 m ) wide ribbon of lawn that extends from the north deck of the main house down to the ocean. It is bordered by Norwegian spruce along both sides up to Middle Hill and from there to the beach by local juniper .
The design of the Allée is virtually identical to the cypress avenue of the Boboli Gardens in Italian Florence . Since there were previously irregularly distributed fields in their place , considerable earthworks had to be carried out in the course of their construction. A single document is still preserved in the archives, in which a drawing shows the precisely calculated straightening.
Baroque garden
The Baroque garden was the first garden of the Crane family and, unlike the other gardens on Castle Hill, was designed by the Olmsted Brothers . The blueprints show the garden as an elongated rectangle with rounded corners, the eastern end of which faces the main building. A path leads from the north terrace over a forest clearing to a balcony from which one can overlook the garden. Below this is a fountain and a pond, which form the central element at this end of the garden.
From the balcony, two curved ramps lead down to the grassy areas that flank the two long sides of the garden. In the center there is an embedded strip of lawn and decorated flower beds. The western end is dominated by two octagonal teahouses, which are connected by a pergola , from the middle of which there is a view of the sea. The terraces, pergolas, statues and fountains in the garden are based on Italian models, but the annual and perennial plants and the choice of colors for the planting beds are more in keeping with the style of an English garden.
Rose garden and maze
The formal rose garden was designed by Arthur Shurcliff in collaboration with Harriett Foote and completed in 1914. The garden was circular and was framed on three sides by a footpath that was covered with a pergola. On the east side there was an opening through which Ipswich Bay could be seen near the mouth of the Ipswich River . The garden itself consisted of four semicircular rose beds, separated by grass areas, which bordered the center consisting of another rose bed, a pond and a fountain. The pergola was made of concrete on the outside and was decorated with stucco work, while along the inside with stucco concrete pillars supported a rustic and open wooden roof, which was covered with climbing roses and other climbing plants . Although photographs that have survived show the appearance of the garden, no construction plans have been found to date. Arthur Shurcliff used his experiences here to create another rose garden in Franklin Park in 1928 . Today only the concrete parts of the garden have been preserved, so that from the main path it appears as a rustic ruin. The main reason for the decay was the extremely high level of maintenance required for its plantings, which could not be maintained for long.
The first plans for the maze date back to 1911. The Olmsted Brothers recommended a location northeast of the main house next to the tennis court and modeled the maze on Cornelia Warren's maze in Waltham , which in turn was a copy of the maze at Hampton Court Palace in England. In 1920 it was finally created with hedges made of trees of life and gravel paths, but like the rose garden, it required unaffordable maintenance costs, so that it was later torn down again (the exact date is not known).
Recreation and entertainment
Casino group
The casino group is an area designed by Shepley, Rutan & Coolidge from 1914 on, which is located about a third of the way down the Allée towards Steep Hill Beach and was created exclusively for entertainment and amusement purposes. Although the complex is in the immediate vicinity of the main building, it is hardly recognizable from there due to the landscaping. The central element is a grassy area on the site where once a salt water - pool was located. It is framed on three sides by buildings that are decorated with details made of artificial stone . The materials and design elements used here are simpler versions of their counterparts on the terraces, balusters and walls of the original Italian villa.
On the south side there is a concrete retaining wall on which an artificial stone balustrade rests, which surrounds a loggia . On both sides of the loggia stairs lead from the level of the Allée down to the former swimming pool. At both ends there are two identical buildings, of which the western one was used as a ballroom or billiard room and the eastern one was used as a bachelor’s accommodation. Both buildings are made of reinforced concrete and have an asphalt roof. However, the original balustrades made of artificial stone are missing.
The facades each have three openings with round arches, whereby the central opening is emphasized by pilasters placed on both sides , on the upper end of which rest half-figures , which in turn support the parapet above them . There are urns on the parapet of the ballroom, and battlements on that of the bachelor's quarters . The ballroom consists of just one large room with a wood-paneled ceiling and a fireplace, while the bachelor's accommodation has a centrally located hall with two bedrooms and a bathroom connected on either side.
The casino group also includes a small reservoir with an identical design, which is located above the main house in the southwest of the hill.
Tennis court
The tennis court , built in October 1911, was designed as a grass court and is still located on the east side of the main building today. While the retaining walls were designed by Shepley, Rutan & Coolidge, the Olmsted Brothers, along with Tom Pettitt , who represented the Boston Athletic Association , gave important guidance on the design and construction of the facility itself. When grass courts went out of fashion, a new tennis court was added a clay floor below the casino and west of the Allée. The former grass pitch became known as the "Bowling Green" in the following years.
Agricultural facilities
The farm buildings form the largest group on the property. You are at the bottom of the hill south of the main house and west of Brown Cottage . Some of the buildings are still in their original form, but most of the agricultural facilities were demolished and replaced by new buildings in the course of the new construction of the main house and the associated change in the use of the property. The buildings are made of concrete and are plastered with gypsum . Originally all the roofs were covered with tiles made of green terracotta to give the group of buildings a uniform appearance. In addition to terracotta, cast concrete and concrete blocks were also used, as these materials are stable, fireproof and easy to clean. The major buildings in the complex were designed by Shepley, Rutan & Coolidge with advice from Edward Burnett . Burnett had previously worked with Alfred Hopkins , who had written two books on farm design, Planning for Sunshine and Fresh Air and Modern Farm Buildings . Today the buildings are mainly used by the Trustees of Reservations as storage rooms.
Barns and stables
The barns and stables make up most of the complex. They are interconnected and are at the bottom of the hill west of the main path. The facility consists of an elongated main block with three wings that surround two inner courtyards. In the western part of the main block there is a large warehouse for hay , in the eastern part there is a smaller section with workshops. In the recent past, modern toilet rooms have been retrofitted to meet the current use of this building as a concert hall .
Four smaller buildings form three wings that extend at right angles from the main block. In the west wing there is the cattle shed, a dairy and a silo . The cowshed was designed for around 12 dairy cows and is structurally connected to the dairy, which itself is designed as a small square building and is lined with tiles on the inside. Another stable area is more massive and was apparently designed for bulls and calves.
In the central wing there was a horse stable, which, together with the western cattle barn, framed a common courtyard that is closed off with a concrete wall. An underground slurry tank was once installed underneath . A second, larger and open courtyard is formed by the horse stable in the middle wing with the horse stalls in the east wing. The design of the facilities for horses is typical of Burnett and designed for maximum cleanliness and the greatest possible comfort for the animals.
Freezer and generator house
To the south of the stables, next to a concrete cesspool, there is a small building that was most likely already in use during the Brown family's days and that was moved to its new location as part of the redesign of the property. It was originally used as a deep-freeze store and later served as a fertilizer store.
To the west of the stables is the generator house, which consists of two parts. The older eastern part of the building is single-story and has a hipped roof . There is a separate entrance to each room inside, as the batteries and the generator are structurally separated from each other. The building was later extended to the west.
Vegetable garden
The kitchen gardens and greenhouses stretch east-west along a road behind the barns . In 1917, the large vegetable garden was only surrounded by a wall composed of field stones of different sizes , the top of which was formed by a layer of concrete. In 1919 Arthur Shurcliff added the central pergola on the north wall and octagonal stone towers at each end. While the two floors of the western tower are connected by an internal staircase, the upper floor of the east tower can only be reached via an external stone bridge. The garden itself was systematically divided by paths. Only a few decrepit plum trees are preserved from the former plantings . After 1949, the vegetable garden was planted with roses and other ornamental plants. Paths paved with blue stones have also been added, as have some of the iron gates.
The gardener's house is one and a half stories high and has a hipped roof . Dormer windows with a shed roof direct light into the upper floor and increase the space available.
Dairy, cold store and greenhouse
Behind the gardener's house is the old dairy , a cold store , a greenhouse and cold frames . The old dairy was taken over from the original farm on Castle Hill and is now used by gardeners as well as the former cold store as a work building.
Historical classification and importance of Castle Hill
In its heyday, the term country house , which is common in English-speaking countries, describes a wide range of properties, the dimensions of which ranged from a few hectares to several square kilometers . Some only had a garage as an outbuilding, others operated extensively with dozens of other buildings on the property. The main buildings also differed greatly, both in their external appearance and in terms of the number of rooms; some owned a good ten, others more than a hundred. With an original land area of over 8 km² and its large number of outbuildings, Castle Hill is one of the more ambitious projects.
The country houses of this era were usually tailored to their owners and adapted to the respective environmental conditions. Their owners were regularly wealthy capitalists and company owners who bought the land primarily for recreational and amusement purposes and wanted to display their wealth at the same time. Geographically, the lots were concentrated around major industrial centers and metropolitan areas such as New York , Boston , Philadelphia , Pittsburgh , Cleveland , Chicago , Detroit and Akron . A particularly large number of country houses were built on Long Island .
The properties were supposed to make their owners' leisure time as comfortable as possible and therefore usually had different buildings. The main building was built from noble and expensive materials, richly decorated and integrated into a formal landscape with access gates and service buildings. The most modern available techniques and materials were used and architectural models were used as templates, which were adapted to the respective taste of the owner as well as the current fashion. Sports facilities such as tennis courts and bridle paths, as well as marinas and casinos were also part of the standard equipment. For the further development of rural life, agriculture was often practiced , but - unlike in England or France , for example - it was not necessarily aimed at making a profit. The properties themselves were only used irregularly and were mainly erected as exhibition objects that could be proudly referred to when required.
Few other properties in the United States are larger, more sumptuous, and have more outbuildings than Castle Hill. These include the Vanderbilt family's Biltmore Estate , the Rockefeller family home in Kykuit, and the Winterthur Museum and Country Estate in Winterthur, Delaware .
Protected area of the Trustees of Reservations
The first parts of what is now Castle Hill on the Crane Estate were inherited by the widow of Richard T. Crane, Jr. to the Trustees of Reservations in 1949 . Further donations followed in the 1980s. Entry to the property is generally free for members of the trustees and for residents of Ipswich on weekdays and otherwise chargeable. Guided tours are offered. In total, the reserve has more than 4 mi (6.4 km ) of hiking trails and roads that are part of the Bay Circuit Trail .
In pop culture
In the film The Witches of Eastwick (1987) some scenes take place on Castle Hill, which is the residence of the eccentric millionaire Daryl van Horne, played by Jack Nicholson .
Almost all scenes in Flowers of the Night (1987) were shot on Castle Hill.
Parts of the film The Womanizer - The Night of Ex-Girlfriends (2009) were shot inside and outside the main building. A number of film sets were set up for this purpose, but they were dismantled again after the shooting.
See also
- List of protected areas of the Trustees of Reservations
- List of National Historic Landmarks in Massachusetts
- List of entries on the National Register of Historic Places in Ipswich
literature
- Elsbeth T. Magnarelli, Carolyn Pitts: NATIONAL HISTORIC LANDMARK NOMINATION: Castle Hill. (PDF; 2.8 MB) National Park Service , February 26, 1998, accessed October 26, 2013 (English).
- Lisa Speckhardt: The 100-year Haircut. (PDF; 911 kB) A fresh start for a stunning allée. In: Landscape Architecture Magazine. American Society of Landscape Architects, December 2012, p. 69 ff. , Accessed on November 2, 2013 (English).
Web links
- Castle Hill in the United States Geological Survey's Geographic Names Information System
- Cranes Castle on the United States Geological Survey's Geographic Names Information System
- Site plan and map of the area ( PDF ; 1.2 MB)
- Castle Hill on the Crane Estate on TripAdvisor
- The Inn at Castle Hill - Restaurant and hotel on property
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Magnarelli, Pitts, pp. 5 f.
- ^ National Register Information System . In: National Register of Historic Places . National Park Service . Retrieved January 23, 2007.
- ↑ Listing of National Historic Landmarks by State: Massachusetts. National Park Service , accessed August 10, 2019.
- ↑ a b Magnarelli, Pitts, p. 19 ff.
- ^ Thomas F. Waters: The Development of Our Town Government and Common Lands and Commonage . Salem Press, Salem, Mass. 1900. p. 6. (= Publications of the Ipswich Historical Society VII)
- ↑ Magnarelli, Pitts, p. 7
- ↑ Magnarelli, Pitts, pp. 7 f.
- ↑ Magnarelli, Pitts, p. 8
- ↑ Magnarelli, Pitts, pp. 8 f.
- ↑ a b Magnarelli, Pitts, p. 9 f.
- ↑ Speckhardt, p. 69 ff.
- ↑ Magnarelli, Pitts, pp. 10 f.
- ↑ Magnarelli, Pitts, p. 11
- ↑ Magnarelli, Pitts, p. 12
- ↑ Magnarelli, Pitts, pp. 12 f.
- ↑ a b Magnarelli, Pitts, p. 13
- ↑ Magnarelli, Pitts, pp. 13 f.
- ↑ Magnarelli, Pitts, p. 14
- ↑ Magnarelli, Pitts, p. 14 f.
- ↑ Magnarelli, Pitts, p. 15
- ↑ a b Magnarelli, Pitts, p. 22 ff.
- ^ Property History. (No longer available online.) The Trustees of Reservations , archived from the original on November 4, 2013 ; accessed on November 3, 2013 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Admission. (No longer available online.) The Trustees of Reservations , archived from the original on November 4, 2013 ; accessed on November 3, 2013 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ^ About Castle Hill on the Crane Estate. (No longer available online.) The Trustees of Reservations , archived from the original on November 4, 2013 ; accessed on November 3, 2013 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ The Witches of Eastwick. Internet Movie Database , accessed May 22, 2015 .
- ↑ Flowers of the night. Internet Movie Database , accessed May 22, 2015 .
- ↑ The Womanizer - The Night of Ex-Girlfriends. Internet Movie Database , accessed May 22, 2015 .
