Statement of Significance (as of designation - August 6, 1998):
Castle Hill is fittingly named. Overlooking the New England coast from its isolated hill, the baronial brick Georgian Revival mansion was built in the 1920s as a summer house for plumbing magnate Richard Teller Crane, Jr. It survives as a pre-eminent example of the American "country house," typically a large-scale complex with a main house surrounded by formal grounds, recreational facilities, greenhouses, and support buildings. Such establishments served the rich as comfortable rural retreats from increasingly crowded, industrialized cities. Castle Hill is also significant for its well-preserved examples of the work of seven nationally-known architects and landscape architects, including David Adler; Shepley, Rutan & Coolidge; the Olmsted Brothers; Arthur Shurcliff; Ernest Bowditch; Edward Burnett; and Harriett Foote." The house and grounds, maintained by the Trustees of Reservations, are open to the public.