Upstate

The Stone House of Somers, Traveling Menagerie Not Included, Yours for $1.6 Million

by Susan De Vries

11/11/2022 8 minute 0

If only every historic house came with an unusual feature of this Westchester County Greek Revival: a handy carving documenting the year it was built, the original owner and the team of craftsmen involved. Dating to 1849, the house has an impressive stone exterior and a wealth of ornamental plasterwork on the interior.

In Somers, N.Y., the property on the market at 413 Route 202 also has an unexpected connection to the early 19th century traveling menagerie business, a forerunner of the modern circus.

The house was built for Gerard and Roxanna Crane (only his name made it onto the stone marker) and was a grand statement of success and a home for retirement after Gerard had spent years on the circuit with his menagerie. If Gerard commissioned an architect, one isn’t acknowledged on that stone marker in the cellar, but it does identify the chief carpenter, John W. Dickinson, as well as stone mason William R. Waters, plasterers C & C Lobdell and “ornamental cornichers” J & J Garvey.

On a large parcel of land, the team constructed a house of local granite with a shallow hip roof and symmetrical facade. A portico is the most ornamental flourish, with fluted Doric columns and a denticulated cornice. The work inside is more lavish with double parlors filled with ornamental plasterwork including swags, foliate details and plaster heads, presumably of classical or literary figures. Corinthian pilasters frame the doorways. Interestingly, no animals seem to be featured in the plasterwork.

exterior of the crane house — An early 20th century view of the house. Photo courtesy of the Westchester County Historical Society

Gerard was in his late 50s at the time the house was constructed and had built his fortune partnering with his brother, and later others, in touring with a menagerie of animals beginning in roughly 1818. The allure was the “exotic” and ads from the 1833 show Crane was involved in showing quite the array of animals. There was elephant named Flora, a lion, tiger, polar bear, camel and “a variety of apes and monkeys.”

Crane wasn’t the only area man to hop onto the traveling menagerie business as a money maker. Around 1806, another Somers man, Hachaliah Bailey, acquired an elephant, dubbed her “Old Bet” and began touring. Bailey constructed the Elephant Hotel in the town and the Federal-style structure still stands. In 1835, according to circus historians, the Zoological Institute, a consortium of menagerie and circus operators, was incorporated at the hotel.

While Crane was traveling with his animals, Roxanna was presumably holding down the home front. The couple married around 1823 and had seven children between roughly 1824 and 1845. By 1850, when they were ensconced in the new home, the census record shows the household of 15 included six of their children along with several men indicated as laborers. Gerard’s occupation was listed as farmer with real estate valued at $30,000.

1877 ad — After Gerard’s death the house and land were put up for sale in 1877 and an ad described the 350 acres and “fine stone mansion.” Image from The Evening Post via NYS Historic Newspapers

Roxanna died in 1867 and Gerard stayed in the house until his own death in 1872. Gerard had sold some acreage in 1865 to a mining concern and then bought it back again in 1870 so when local newspapers advertised the farm for sale in 1877, it included 350 acres along with a “stone mansion.” The property didn’t sell and ultimately went into foreclosure. Local man William Todd bought 163 acres and the house in 1880 for $14,200.

While the building now sits on 25 acres of land, some of the original farm land is preserved as part of the Crane-Beshar Rhinoceros Creek Reservation. Sympathetic owners Robert and Christine Beshar bought the house in 1981 and also eventually purchased 115 acres of open space surrounding the stone residence. The couple restored original details while making modern updates, telling the Herald Statesman in 1984 that they upgraded plumbing and electrical, transformed the former ballroom and servants quarters into living space and installed a kitchen on the main level. The house was also listed in the National Register of Historic Places during their ownership. While the house was sold in 2017, the couple donated the additional land they acquired to the Somers Land Trust.

Their restoration work is on display on the main level of the house, with all of those plaster details in wonderful condition. The parlors, one set up as a library with modern bookshelves, each have an equally ornate marble mantel. It looks like an animal made it into the library; a bird ornaments the fireplace insert. The mantel in the dining room is slightly less ornate as is the plasterwork. According to the listing, there are 10 mantels in the house.

The kitchen is at the rear of the main floor with wood cabinets and strap hinges in a nod to an earlier era, but modern appliances include a dishwasher.

Bedrooms upstairs have wide planked floorboards and mantels.

The top floor isn’t shown in the current listing, but a Lohud.com story from when the house was on the market in 2015 shows many of the other spaces. There are also some other historic details that are, one hopes, still in place, including a row of servants bells in the original lower level kitchen.

There are five outbuildings on the property, including a springhouse and two garages. According to the National Register nomination, one of those garages is the original summer kitchen. There is also a barn on a stone foundation. The gambrel roof is an early 20th century addition, according to the nomination, but the framing suggests the barn itself is consistent with the general time period of the house. An oft repeated bit of lore is that the barn housed Crane’s menagerie.

The property is listed with Jody Rosen and Mary H. Palmerton of Houlihan Lawrence and recently got a price reduction from $1.75 million to $1.6 million.