An impressive, 40-room stone building set on 62 acres surrounded by high walls and within walking distance of downtown Great Barrington, Mass., the Searles Castle has been a landmark in the Berkshires since it was completed in 1888.
AdvertisementNow it's for sale. The price tag? A cool $15 million.For more than 25 years, the 60,000-square-foot mansion and adjacent 6,000-square-foot carriage house have been home to the John Dewey Academy, a coeducational college preparatory school with a strong therapeutic component.The school's founder and president, Thomas Bratter, owns the castle and put the property up for sale last year. The school will be moved to anther location in the Great Barrington area once a sale is finalized and time is allotted for a smooth transition to a new campus.Kristine Girardin of the Kristine Girardin Group and a broker associate with William Raveis Exceptional Properties took two visitors on a tour of the castle on a warm summer day. The guests were interested in viewing the structure and discovering its provenance but not in purchasing the property. Thus, the tour took considerably less than the usual four or five hours Ms. Girardin invests in taking potential buyers through the seven-level castle, which has 36 working fireplaces, is filled with detailed woodwork and has, literally, tons of marble in its interior."We have had several offers, one that was close to closing," said Ms Girardin, as she walked through the building's front entrance into a vestibule and then into a hall where several students were reading or doing homework. "We've had interest both from within this country and from international buyers. Individuals have expressed an interest in turning the castle and property into a resort, and others have looked at it as a residence. It's really quite unique, and something like this doesn't come onto the market often."Both the exterior and interior of the castle are in excellent condition, a credit to its original builders. No expense, it seems, was spared in making the castle one of the grandest buildings in the Berkshires. It is not an ominous structure, as some large stone buildings can be. The castle's exterior is softened by several large, round spires that rise three stories high. A red roof adds a touch of distinction to the building, as do its several tall chimneys that rise about the building on all sides.The interior of the castle, whose property includes 1,000 feet of frontage on the Housatonic River, is also quite unlike what one would expect in such a massive structure. The designers successfully imbued the castle with a sense of openness through the use of large windows and a central atrium that offer sunlit views of a portico, lawns, a pond and a faux Greco/Roman temple that hovers over the water feature to the south of the castle. The light marble floors in many of the rooms and opaque ceilings lend a further air of lightness to the building.But let's start at the beginning.The castle was built over a three-year period, from 1885 to 1888, by Mary Sherwood Hopkins, the widow of Central Pacific Railroad magnate Mark Hopkins, who had passed away in 1879 at the age of 66. At the time of his death, Mr. Hopkins was said to have been one of the wealthiest men in the United States. After launching a career as a merchant in New York, he traveled to San Francisco, where, in 1861, he became a founder and treasurer of the Central Pacific. (The Mark Hopkins Hotel in San Francisco was built on the site of his former home on Nob Hill.)After her husband's death, Mary Hopkins returned home to Great Barrington, where she took up the companionship of Edward Searles, a "man of the arts" who was to serve as the interior designer of the castle. Also after her husband's death, Mrs. Hopkins adopted the adult son (Timothy) of her widowed housekeeper, but she later disinherited him. That resulted in quite a scandal, as Timothy Hopkins successfully sued for a portion of her estate (most of it, however, went to her much younger, by 22 years, second husband, Mr. Searles).Mary Hopkins and Mr. Searles spent considerable time in Europe, where they acquired a number of items for their Great Barrington mansion, which they called Kellog Terrace. After his wife died in 1891, at the age of 73, Mr. Searles inherited her vast estate, which included 25 percent ownership of the Central Pacific Railroad and considerable real estate holdings in San Francisco, New York, and Methuen, Mass., in addition to Great Barrington.Quite a notable figure in his own right, Mr. Searles would satisfy a love of architecture by collaborating with architect Henry Vaughn on a number of large buildings, including the Stanton Hardcourt Castle, now known as the Searles Castle in Windham, N.H.; the Dream House, known as the Searles Mansion on Block Island; and the Mary Francis Searles Science Building at Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine.Mr. Searles, who died in 1921 at the age of 79, was also a notable early environmentalist, who would alter the building of a stone wall in order to preserve a tree that he felt was important. Searles Castle in Great Barrington was designed by McKim, Mead and White, and it is believed, though not certain, that the legendary Stanford White was the primary architect. Mr. White, who was considered an embodiment of the American Renaissance style of architecture, was no stranger to intrigue. The bon vivant was murdered in 1906 at the age of 53 by millionaire Harry K. Thaw, the jealous husband of Evelyn Nesbit, a popular actress and artist's model, with whom the noted architect was said to have had a relationship. The resulting court case was dubbed "The Trial of the Century."But back to the castle. The design of the building, with its elaborate rooflines, was in a style reminiscent of Chambord, the older part of Chenonoeaux, France, near the river Cher. Blue dolomite from a quarry on what is known as East Mountain in Great Barrington was brought onto the property and cut down in stone-dressing sheds.The castle, when it debuted, was extremely modern for its time and was equipped with indoor plumbing and electricity. Many of the early electrical fixtures are still intact. Other unique details include curved rooms, curved pocket doors and carved wood and marble fireplaces. An organ that was used in the music room and the castle's elevator were once powered by water from nearby Lake Mansfield.The vestibule of the castle has a floor made of moriah marble from an area near Lake Champlain, with French griotte, a veined and spotted red and dark green marble from the Pyrenees in Europe, and porto venere, verde maurin and American black marble from Glen Falls, N.Y., also employed.A reception room to the right of the vestibule is paneled in black walnut and has a fireplace of red vecchiano Italian marble. It has an elaborate ceiling that is said to be reminiscent of fan vaulting in the Henry VII Chapel at Windsor Castle in England.A "Great Hall" has woodwork of hand-polished English oak, as does much of the building. Ms. Girardin said that legend has it that two "very old" English oaken ships were towed to America and taken apart in order to provide the wood.A wonderful atrium that is nicknamed "The Heart of the House" has side walls of rose of ivory marble taken from the Atlas Mountains of Africa. The room has 16 pillars and flooring of native white marble. Mexican onyx panels conceal electrical lights, which give the illusion of sunlight seeping into the room.One of the most interesting rooms of the castle is the music room. It is 50 feet long and entered through the atrium beneath carved oak pillars. The room has a dome-shaped ceiling that looms 42 feet above the floor. There are carved oak seats where the former owners of the castle and guests once reclined and listened to classical music. A balcony on the second floor and a third floor window allow music to flood the upper floors from the music room.The dining room is done in the Moorish style and paneled in antique oak wood, with a fireplace of French griotte and Belgian black marble. The room opens onto a private porch.One of the more visually stunning and eclectic spaces is the drawing room, which is fashioned in Louis XIV style. The mantelpiece of the fireplace (porto venere black and gold marble with gold bronze ornaments) alone was valued at $25,000 in 1922. The room's ceiling was painted on canvas, and the woodwork of the room is embellished in real gold leaf. A morning room opens to the southeastern side of the castle.Ms. Girardin said an upstairs hall once served as a family living room, and the ceiling is said to be modeled after a palace in Venice, Italy. Upstairs, there is also a circular library with dark native oak, a billiard room finished in butternut wood, and a suite, once occupied by Mrs. Hopkins, on the east wing of the castle that has a mantel of bois d'Orient and Siena marble in its sitting room.As if all this grandeur isn't enough, the property also boasts a 6,000-square-foot guesthouse that is composed of meeting rooms, bedrooms and apartments, as well as a barn and tennis courts.One can only imagine, while sitting on the terrace at the rear of the castle, what wondrous formal gardens once graced the open space around the lagoon and how many grand parties were held here during its heyday."It is a one-of-a-kind setting," said Ms. Girardin, as she described the property. "There is so much history here, and the work and detail that went into the building is incredible," she added.Potential buyers can reach Ms. Giradin at the William Raveis office in Washington, Conn. The phone number is 860-868-0511.
AdvertisementNow it's for sale. The price tag? A cool $15 million.For more than 25 years, the 60,000-square-foot mansion and adjacent 6,000-square-foot carriage house have been home to the John Dewey Academy, a coeducational college preparatory school with a strong therapeutic component.The school's founder and president, Thomas Bratter, owns the castle and put the property up for sale last year. The school will be moved to anther location in the Great Barrington area once a sale is finalized and time is allotted for a smooth transition to a new campus.Kristine Girardin of the Kristine Girardin Group and a broker associate with William Raveis Exceptional Properties took two visitors on a tour of the castle on a warm summer day. The guests were interested in viewing the structure and discovering its provenance but not in purchasing the property. Thus, the tour took considerably less than the usual four or five hours Ms. Girardin invests in taking potential buyers through the seven-level castle, which has 36 working fireplaces, is filled with detailed woodwork and has, literally, tons of marble in its interior."We have had several offers, one that was close to closing," said Ms Girardin, as she walked through the building's front entrance into a vestibule and then into a hall where several students were reading or doing homework. "We've had interest both from within this country and from international buyers. Individuals have expressed an interest in turning the castle and property into a resort, and others have looked at it as a residence. It's really quite unique, and something like this doesn't come onto the market often."Both the exterior and interior of the castle are in excellent condition, a credit to its original builders. No expense, it seems, was spared in making the castle one of the grandest buildings in the Berkshires. It is not an ominous structure, as some large stone buildings can be. The castle's exterior is softened by several large, round spires that rise three stories high. A red roof adds a touch of distinction to the building, as do its several tall chimneys that rise about the building on all sides.The interior of the castle, whose property includes 1,000 feet of frontage on the Housatonic River, is also quite unlike what one would expect in such a massive structure. The designers successfully imbued the castle with a sense of openness through the use of large windows and a central atrium that offer sunlit views of a portico, lawns, a pond and a faux Greco/Roman temple that hovers over the water feature to the south of the castle. The light marble floors in many of the rooms and opaque ceilings lend a further air of lightness to the building.But let's start at the beginning.The castle was built over a three-year period, from 1885 to 1888, by Mary Sherwood Hopkins, the widow of Central Pacific Railroad magnate Mark Hopkins, who had passed away in 1879 at the age of 66. At the time of his death, Mr. Hopkins was said to have been one of the wealthiest men in the United States. After launching a career as a merchant in New York, he traveled to San Francisco, where, in 1861, he became a founder and treasurer of the Central Pacific. (The Mark Hopkins Hotel in San Francisco was built on the site of his former home on Nob Hill.)After her husband's death, Mary Hopkins returned home to Great Barrington, where she took up the companionship of Edward Searles, a "man of the arts" who was to serve as the interior designer of the castle. Also after her husband's death, Mrs. Hopkins adopted the adult son (Timothy) of her widowed housekeeper, but she later disinherited him. That resulted in quite a scandal, as Timothy Hopkins successfully sued for a portion of her estate (most of it, however, went to her much younger, by 22 years, second husband, Mr. Searles).Mary Hopkins and Mr. Searles spent considerable time in Europe, where they acquired a number of items for their Great Barrington mansion, which they called Kellog Terrace. After his wife died in 1891, at the age of 73, Mr. Searles inherited her vast estate, which included 25 percent ownership of the Central Pacific Railroad and considerable real estate holdings in San Francisco, New York, and Methuen, Mass., in addition to Great Barrington.Quite a notable figure in his own right, Mr. Searles would satisfy a love of architecture by collaborating with architect Henry Vaughn on a number of large buildings, including the Stanton Hardcourt Castle, now known as the Searles Castle in Windham, N.H.; the Dream House, known as the Searles Mansion on Block Island; and the Mary Francis Searles Science Building at Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine.Mr. Searles, who died in 1921 at the age of 79, was also a notable early environmentalist, who would alter the building of a stone wall in order to preserve a tree that he felt was important. Searles Castle in Great Barrington was designed by McKim, Mead and White, and it is believed, though not certain, that the legendary Stanford White was the primary architect. Mr. White, who was considered an embodiment of the American Renaissance style of architecture, was no stranger to intrigue. The bon vivant was murdered in 1906 at the age of 53 by millionaire Harry K. Thaw, the jealous husband of Evelyn Nesbit, a popular actress and artist's model, with whom the noted architect was said to have had a relationship. The resulting court case was dubbed "The Trial of the Century."But back to the castle. The design of the building, with its elaborate rooflines, was in a style reminiscent of Chambord, the older part of Chenonoeaux, France, near the river Cher. Blue dolomite from a quarry on what is known as East Mountain in Great Barrington was brought onto the property and cut down in stone-dressing sheds.The castle, when it debuted, was extremely modern for its time and was equipped with indoor plumbing and electricity. Many of the early electrical fixtures are still intact. Other unique details include curved rooms, curved pocket doors and carved wood and marble fireplaces. An organ that was used in the music room and the castle's elevator were once powered by water from nearby Lake Mansfield.The vestibule of the castle has a floor made of moriah marble from an area near Lake Champlain, with French griotte, a veined and spotted red and dark green marble from the Pyrenees in Europe, and porto venere, verde maurin and American black marble from Glen Falls, N.Y., also employed.A reception room to the right of the vestibule is paneled in black walnut and has a fireplace of red vecchiano Italian marble. It has an elaborate ceiling that is said to be reminiscent of fan vaulting in the Henry VII Chapel at Windsor Castle in England.A "Great Hall" has woodwork of hand-polished English oak, as does much of the building. Ms. Girardin said that legend has it that two "very old" English oaken ships were towed to America and taken apart in order to provide the wood.A wonderful atrium that is nicknamed "The Heart of the House" has side walls of rose of ivory marble taken from the Atlas Mountains of Africa. The room has 16 pillars and flooring of native white marble. Mexican onyx panels conceal electrical lights, which give the illusion of sunlight seeping into the room.One of the most interesting rooms of the castle is the music room. It is 50 feet long and entered through the atrium beneath carved oak pillars. The room has a dome-shaped ceiling that looms 42 feet above the floor. There are carved oak seats where the former owners of the castle and guests once reclined and listened to classical music. A balcony on the second floor and a third floor window allow music to flood the upper floors from the music room.The dining room is done in the Moorish style and paneled in antique oak wood, with a fireplace of French griotte and Belgian black marble. The room opens onto a private porch.One of the more visually stunning and eclectic spaces is the drawing room, which is fashioned in Louis XIV style. The mantelpiece of the fireplace (porto venere black and gold marble with gold bronze ornaments) alone was valued at $25,000 in 1922. The room's ceiling was painted on canvas, and the woodwork of the room is embellished in real gold leaf. A morning room opens to the southeastern side of the castle.Ms. Girardin said an upstairs hall once served as a family living room, and the ceiling is said to be modeled after a palace in Venice, Italy. Upstairs, there is also a circular library with dark native oak, a billiard room finished in butternut wood, and a suite, once occupied by Mrs. Hopkins, on the east wing of the castle that has a mantel of bois d'Orient and Siena marble in its sitting room.As if all this grandeur isn't enough, the property also boasts a 6,000-square-foot guesthouse that is composed of meeting rooms, bedrooms and apartments, as well as a barn and tennis courts.One can only imagine, while sitting on the terrace at the rear of the castle, what wondrous formal gardens once graced the open space around the lagoon and how many grand parties were held here during its heyday."It is a one-of-a-kind setting," said Ms. Girardin, as she described the property. "There is so much history here, and the work and detail that went into the building is incredible," she added.Potential buyers can reach Ms. Giradin at the William Raveis office in Washington, Conn. The phone number is 860-868-0511.
Link to article:http://www.passport-mag.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=20132455&BRD=2699&PAG=461&dept_id=672335&rfi=6
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