Gerard Crane House
The Gerard Crane House is a residential house Somerstown Turnpike ( US Highway 202 ) from the Old Croton Falls Road in Somers , New York , United States. The stone building dates from the middle of the 19th century. The circus entrepreneur Gerard Crane had it built in his later years.
The house is largely in the same condition in which it was originally built. It is an unusually detailed building in the classical architectural style. The interior makes extensive use of ornaments use, especially of stucco decorations in the style of English Renaissance ceilings that are not well represented in rural houses of classicism.
The house, built in 1849, is at the center of a 12 acre estate that not only includes the original outbuildings, but also an earlier portion of the Somerstown Turnpike and one of its milestones . The property was listed on the National Register of Historic Places as a Historic District in 1985 .
estate
The property is on the west side of the road, 1,600 m north of central Somers , directly across from Old Croton Falls Road. At the sharp junction, a grassy section of the old route of the Somerstown Turnpike leads across the grounds in front of the house and then past the house for about 250 m parallel to Route 202 north of the house before the road takes this route again. The house stands on a slight hill; Outbuildings and gardens are to the south of it. There are a total of ten other contributing properties on the site , five of which are buildings and five are other structures. A section of Rhinoceros Brooks runs through the property on its way to the East Branch Reservoir .
House
The distinctive details of the house and the fine stone carvings are characteristics of a country estate in the classical tradition. The stucco work in the style of the English Renaissance on the ceilings on the first floor was common in urban dwellings of this type, but is rather rare in buildings in rural areas and reflects Crane's cosmopolitan taste. The house is a two-and-a-half-story stone building with five bays on a slightly raised foundation, the flat gable roof with a small dome and identical chimneys in the north and south. The granite on the facade was extracted from a local quarry and has an unusual natural marbled appearance. The eaves are set off from the simple frieze with the simple cornice by a row of runners.
The entrance on the east facade is located under a centrally arranged portico with classic Doric columns that support a gable triangle with a serrated cornice. The slightly recessed ten centimeter thick mahogany door is framed by a fighter window , side light inlet slots and an ornate frontispiece . The rear door is less detailed and is located under a similar portico.
The interior of the house is richly decorated. On the north side of the central hall are the library and salon with high ceilings. The stucco ceilings go on a tape with a fillet strip in the Ceiling cornices with leaf embellishments on and a wide strip of flowers and leaves. Underneath on the wall there is a frieze with extremely detailed plaster miniatures of well-known literary figures, which are surrounded and connected by oak leaves and acorns. The passages and windows are framed by Corinthian pilasters and a leaf-like main beam. in the library, a chandelier hangs in the center of an ornamented stucco medallion . There is also an open fireplace made of Italian marble in the library . The cast iron spark arrester is decorated with a brass crane ; the English word for this species of bird is crane , like the name of the house owner.
The dining room on the south side of the house has similarly designed stucco strips below the ceiling. The former music room was later converted into a kitchen. A less ornate open fireplace is on the south side. The staircase, which is also made of mahogany, has turned balusters, a beveled stair post and ornate risers.
The second floor is divided similarly, but less heavily decorated. All bedrooms have cast iron heating slides. The attic on the third floor served as a ballroom . Four double posts frame this area under the skylight and are surrounded by the L-shaped rooms of the servants on the north and east sides.
The kitchen in the basement is original. It has a large forge and bread oven. Below is a chamber with a stone that shows the date of the laying of the foundation stone and the names of the builders, as well as a built-in safe.
Outbuildings and gardens
In addition to the house, there are five other contributing buildings on the property . The former garden kitchen, which has since been converted into a double garage, is located directly at the rear. The one-story building with a flat roof and granite facades with stepped parapets is built into the mountainside. A little further back, also built into the steeper mountain at this point, is the stable with a stone base and mansard roof , the outer walls of which are paneled from vertical boards. In the eastern gable there is an inconsistent window arrangement and an elliptical window and a silo on the northwest corner . Also adjacent is a deep stone foundation, which is believed to be the remains of the ice house .
A well house in timber frame construction is on the south side and a one-story granite workshop, which is also a garage today, is in the northwest. Directly on the southwest corner of the house is the toilet block made of granite blocks with a flat roof and an overhanging wooden parapet as well as mahogany doors and a sliding window with six slug panes each.
The contributing buildings also include the iron fence on the original property line, the stone wall between the garden kitchen and the stable, and a stone bridge over the stream. The former route of the Somerstown Turnpike, which now forms part of the driveway to the property, is just as important as one of the stone milestones of the early road route.
history
Crane and his brother Thaddeus were descendants of a colonel in the American War of Independence . They came to Somers from their hometown, nearby North Salem , in 1823 . The two had gained a foothold in the then-new trade of exhibiting exotic species, and records show that they brought a lion to the Carolina States three years earlier. They acquired the property from Hachaliah Bailey, whose elephant Old Bet in the building now known as the Elephant Hotel is considered to be the beginning of the circus industry in America.
The two expanded their menagerie , found partners and, through their local partners, also performed further west, as far as the Mississippi River . The brothers were among the co-founders of a zoo animal trading organization, the Zoological Institute; this collapsed during the economic crisis of 1837 . Crane himself had a happier hand, serving as director and later board member of a local bank. At the beginning of the panic, Crane had served four years as city manager.
After marrying Roxana Purdy, Crane built the house in 1849. Records from the 1850 United States Census show that the Crane family lived at this address with their six children and one other wife. Crane died in 1872. Since then, the house and grounds have been privately owned. With the exception of the gambrel roof of the stable and the conversion of the music room in the main house into a kitchen in the 1980s, there were no significant changes to the property.
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e f g Neil Larson: National Register of Historic Places nomination, Gerard Crane House ( English ) New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation . June 1985. Archived from the original on June 10, 2012. Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved July 19, 2009.
Coordinates: 41 ° 20 ′ 22 " N , 73 ° 40 ′ 23" W.