Last updated: October 11, 2023
Place
Crane Estate
Olmsted Archives
Quick Facts
The Olmsted Brothers designed a series of Italian gardens for the Crane Estate, all enclosed by evergreens, the same one’s you see lining the Grand Allée, where Daryl Van Horn chooses to have lunch.In 1910, Richard T. Crane, Jr. was also a man of exorbitant wealth, though he didn’t move to Ipswich to stir up anything. Crane inherited the top post in his family’s manufacturing company and expanded it into modern bathroom fixtures. Crane even had an exhibit at the Chicago World’s Fair, where he displayed “the world’s largest shower”.
Crane purchased the 165-acre plot of land and knew exactly what he wanted: a bowling green, tennis court, maze, log-cabin playhouse, golf course and deer preserve. Crane and his family also ran a self-sustaining farm with livestock, an orchard, and dense vegetable and rose gardens, which space needed to be made for.
Crane was building his summer getaway during the country place era, a period of landscape architecture design where wealthy Americans commissioned extensive gardens at their country estates, emulating European gardens. To this day, Crane Estate is one of the last surviving, intact American estates from this era.
Crane brought on the most prominent landscape architects of his time: Frederick Law Olmsted Jr. and John Charles Olmsted, of the Olmsted Brothers firm, and Arthur Shurcliff, who had left the Olmsted firm in 1904 to start his own. Shurcliff was mentored by Charles Eliot, who like himself, left the Olmsted firm to open his own.
Though the Olmsted Brothers started work on the Grande Allée, they were dismissed by Crane and work was handed over to Arthur Shurcliff. From 1913 to 1915, Shurcliff worked on the half-mile long formal mall leading from the Crane Mansion to the Atlantic Ocean.
In 1949, the Crane family donated the land to the Trustees of Reservations, which was founded by former Olmsted firm employee and mentor to Arthur Shurcliff, Charles Eliot.
Crane purchased the 165-acre plot of land and knew exactly what he wanted: a bowling green, tennis court, maze, log-cabin playhouse, golf course and deer preserve. Crane and his family also ran a self-sustaining farm with livestock, an orchard, and dense vegetable and rose gardens, which space needed to be made for.
Crane was building his summer getaway during the country place era, a period of landscape architecture design where wealthy Americans commissioned extensive gardens at their country estates, emulating European gardens. To this day, Crane Estate is one of the last surviving, intact American estates from this era.
Crane brought on the most prominent landscape architects of his time: Frederick Law Olmsted Jr. and John Charles Olmsted, of the Olmsted Brothers firm, and Arthur Shurcliff, who had left the Olmsted firm in 1904 to start his own. Shurcliff was mentored by Charles Eliot, who like himself, left the Olmsted firm to open his own.
Though the Olmsted Brothers started work on the Grande Allée, they were dismissed by Crane and work was handed over to Arthur Shurcliff. From 1913 to 1915, Shurcliff worked on the half-mile long formal mall leading from the Crane Mansion to the Atlantic Ocean.
In 1949, the Crane family donated the land to the Trustees of Reservations, which was founded by former Olmsted firm employee and mentor to Arthur Shurcliff, Charles Eliot.