COUNTRY HOUSE CONFERENCE 2022
November 12, 2022
Castle Hill on the Crane Estate,
a property of The Trustees of Reservations
Ipswich, Massachusetts
From Puritans to Brahmins, the New England country house has evolved over three centuries as merchants from early urban settlements of Boston and Salem began to seek respite and status through the creation of bucolic country homes.
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SPEAKERS
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Royall House and Slave Quarters
will present a concise history of the Royall house starting from a late 17th century single-pile structure constructed by the Lidgett family to the present Georgian mansion and support buildings developed in the 18th century by the Royall Family. The program will also focus on the efforts to reinterpret the extant slave quarters and the work to better understand the lives of enslaved individuals at the site during and after the period of slavery in Massachusetts.
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Camille Arbogast
Codman Estate
Camille Arbogast will present From The Grange to Grègy : Ogden Codman, Jr., and the country house focusing on Codman's time at his ancestral estate and his impact on country house design around the US.
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Gillian K. Bearns Esq.
Cultural Resource and Land Use Law
Gillian K. Bearns Esq. will present a historical background on preservation movements in the US, how those movements codified tools to help save historic sites and what legal tools are available today to help owners and the public at large ensure that there is some level of protection for historic sites, particularly those in rural and suburban settings.
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Christie Jackson
Long Hill/The Trustees
Christie Jackson will present on her research on Long Hill, a country estate in Beverly, Massachusetts, where a story of early preservation, the untold story of enslaved artisans, and one family’s passion for history all combine. Her lecture is entitled, Quietly Hidden: A Story of Architectural Salvage and Discovered Craftsmanship at Long Hill, Massachusetts.
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John Leysath
Hammond Castle Museum
John Leysath will present the story of American inventor, John Hays Hammond Jr, and the creation Hammond Castle Museum as well as the architectural legacy of the property.
Susan Hill Dolan
Castle Hill/The Trustees
Curator Susan Hill Dolan will present; The Manor Reborn: An English Country House for an American Industrialist. In 1924, Crane Co. heir Richard T. Crane Jr. hired architect David Adler to design a new mansion for his coastal New England estate at Castle Hill. Crane Estate curator Susan Hill Dolan will discuss how the English Country House was “re-born” to appear like a Stuart-style mansion with traditional interiors combined with all of the comforts of the modern era.
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Host Site
Our host site is Castle Hill was acquired in 1910 by Richard Teller Crane Jr. (1873 - 1931) and his wife Florence Higinbotham (1871 - 1949). The extensive grounds were designed by The Olmsted Brothers and Arthur Shurcliff, the extant outbuildings by Shepley, Rutan and Coolidge, and the present house by Chicago architect David Adler from 1924-1928. Castle Hill was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1998.
HOUSE TOURS
Friday Nov. 11th
Quincy House - Quincy, MA
Eustis Estate - Milton, MA
Loring-Greenough House - Jamaica Plain, MA
Gore Place - Waltham, MA
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Sunday Nov. 13th
Lee Mansion - Marblehead, MA
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Health & Safety Notice:
In an effort to assure the health and safety of guests the ACHF Protocols will be in place in accordance with the Massachusetts Department of Health.
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Image courtesy of The Trustees of Reservations Archives & Research Center, Castle Hill Collection