Christmas with the Cranes

If you’ve never been to Castle Hill, otherwise known as the Crane Estate, you may still recognize it from iconic films like The Equalizer, The Next Karate Kid, The Witches of Eastwick, and the upcoming Little Women. This 1928 Stuart style mansion overlooks the Crane beach and beyond, to Choate island. Along with the mansion itself, the Castle Hill grounds have an old carriage house, a rose garden which is being renovated, a working inn, miles of trails which loop around the property, connecting Cedar Point and Castle Neck, the casino (not the gambling sort) that at one time housed a swimming pool, as well as the Crane Wildlife Refuge on Choate island. A whopping 2,100 acres in all.

The Front of the Crane Estate.

The mansion itself is immense. With 59 rooms, including a grand foyer and a huge ballroom—there is something for everyone. One of my favorite things about the mansion (aside from the secret staircase) is the safe which is an entire room in its own right. Behind a thick layer of metal and an impenetrable lock, there are shelves, cubbies and drawers lined in bright green velvet on which still sit different pieces of silver passed down by the Cranes.

The architecture of the house is incredible, designed by David Adler, it includes a fascinating trick of physics—on the first floor there is a room between the library and the gift shop, where if you stand in the direct center, your voice will be amplified and your echoes will reverberate back to you. What is so fascinating about this one spot is that no one else can hear that amplification, and no one but you can hear the echoes. In short, the mansion feels both like a powerful show of wealth, and like a child’s fun-house.

One of the Crane trees featuring Hedwig.

If you recognize the Crane name that might be because of Crane Co. which was founded in 1855 and is still operational today. They began by making pipe fittings, valves, and plumbing fixtures, but now work with aerospace electronics among other things. The Crane family was a prominent name in the North Shore area, even hosting a yearly end of the school year party for the students of Ipswich. The Cranes prided themselves on how they treated their employees. Richard T. Crane’s quote “I am resolved to conduct my business in the strictest honesty and fairness; to avoid all deception and trickery; to deal fairly with both customers and competitors; to be liberal and just toward employees; and to put my whole mind upon the business,” can still be found on the company’s website today.

The estate and grounds are now owned by the Trustees of Reservations, and if you are interested in visiting this holiday season, the property is currently open weekends until Christmas with tours between 10 and 4. The mansion is home to two tours, one being the “Guest of the Cranes” tour where you will be given the name of someone who at one time visited the mansion (for instance, Amelia Earhart), and you will see much of what those people saw, the vastness and grandeur of the mansion itself, along with its gorgeous views. The other is the “Help Wanted: Becoming a Servant at Castle Hill” tour where you play a character seeking employment with the Crane family. This version of the tour will go into the belly of the beast, so to speak, and see the behind the scenes spots where the servants lived and worked.

Even the dining room is decked with boughs of holly.

We went to the Crane Estate just this past weekend, and in addition to what we’ve come to expect of the grounds, we saw a special bit of magic as the entire first floor of the mansion is decorated for the holidays and open to the public free of charge during operating hours. Wreaths, trees, ornaments, decorations, and even an old sleigh are all around the first floor, which is self-guided as well as included as part of the guided guest tour. As beautiful as the property and mansion are from day-to-day, the added beauty of the decorations make it all feel cozier, more personal, almost like home, giving us all that bit of familiarity.

Jacques sitting in the sleigh, but the reindeer aren’t allowed in the mansion.

For anyone interested in movies, or Louisa May Alcott, you might also be interested to learn that part of the upcoming Little Women movie was shot at the Crane Estate, as well as on Crane beach. Other historical places filmed for the movie include several historic sites in Concord and the Lyman Estate in Waltham.