Crane, Gerard, House

Built in 1849 for Gerard Crane, this two and one-half story Greek Revival house sits on a knoll at the edge of Somers, Westchester County. Its walls are made of a local marbleized granite laid with exceptional masonry craftsmanship, an unusual choice in an area where granite was more often used for fences and foundations. The five-bay facade has quoins and a Doric-columned portico, and the interior includes elaborate English Renaissance plasterwork and Italian marble mantelpieces. The 30-acre grounds retain a barn, summer kitchen, shop, springhouse, privy, stone bridge, fences and a stretch of the old Somerstown Turnpike. Crane was a menagerie owner, a founder of the Zoological Institute, a bank president and a town supervisor. Somers was a center of the nineteenth-century circus industry, and the house reflects the wealth that business created. The estate keeps its rural, mid-nineteenth century character despite nearby modern development.