Crocker-McMillin Mansion

The Darling estate, over 1,100 acres, was purchased by A. B. Darling in 1872.[4] The Darlings placed a mansion on the property, as well as a racetrack for horses. The Crocker-McMillin Mansion is located on the former Alfred B. Darling property, which was purchased by the Crocker family of New York City in November 1901. George Crocker described the property as "the finest site for a residence in the country."[4] In response to rumors of the possible purchase, the Ramsey Journal wrote that "the coming of such a man would mean much to our town."[4] He brought horses to the estate. Early in 1902, Crocker acquired the well-known racehorse King Muscovite, and by September 1902, his horses were winning awards.[4] Crocker had 4,000 trout brought for the property's pond in the spring of 1903 from Plymouth, Massachusetts, and bass were also added.[4] By the spring of 1904, the old Darling racetrack was again usable for exercising Crocker's horses.[4]

Crocker placed the mansion 185 feet above the old Darling home, sparing no expense.[4] Utilizing the old Darling home as his own during the building process, he commissioned the architect James Brite to build Crocker Mansion, a 45,000 square foot house. Modelled after the Jacobean Bramshill House in England, it was built between 1902 and 1907.[5][2] Workers began arriving in the spring of 1902 to work on the roads under the direction of Theodor Shuart of Ramsey.[4] Excavation of the foundation began in April 1903, and construction was fully underway a year later.[4] The mansion was fully completed and furnished in 1907, with much time spent on the wood and stone carving.[4] The building had a great hall on the first floor, and the house was heated by steam with elevators and a switchboard.[4]

Outside the main mansion were outbuildings such as greenhouses, barns, stables, a dairy, gatehouse, garage, workshops, and bathhouses on the river, with a new bridge built across the Ramapo River. There were nine single houses and four duplexes for employees, and a two-story house for the head gardener Edmund Daches.[4] By 1909, the property had sixty head of Jersey cattle, with many work and carriage horses, a kennel, sheep, and chickens. There were also vines and vegetables, and in spring 1909 the farm began trucking the produce to sell in New York.[4] Overall, it is estimated that the creation of the estate cost $2,000,000.[4]

After Emma Crocker died in 1904 and George Crocker died in 1909, the Crocker Mansion was sold to the banker Emerson McMillin, with the proceeds going to the George Crocker Special Research Fund at Columbia University for cancer research.[4] McMillin then lived in the estate until his death in 1922.[2] The Immaculate Conception Seminary was founded in 1861 as part of Seton Hall University in New Jersey, and from 1927 until 1984 the seminary was located in the Crocker-McMillin Mansion. The seminary then again became part of Seton Hall University.[6][7]

After the property fell out of the hands of the Catholic Diocese of Newark, it underwent restorations.[2] Placed on the New Jersey Register of Historic Places in 1995, in 1997 the Crocker Mansion was also placed on the National Register.[4] In October 2005, Forbes reported that the mansion was on the market for $25 million, in what it described as a "relative bargain." Although the original estate had included 1,000 acres of land, by the time of the listing, development had pared the size down to 12.5 acres.[2] After the developer-owners Darlington Associates tried to sell the 45,000-square-foot Crocker Mansion and 12.5 acres for $25 million, it was listed $11 million. In 2008, it was sold for $8.88 million to a business-owner in nearby Ramsey.[5] In 2017 Darlington was put back on the market through a listing with Christie's Real Estate for a sum of $47,422,900.00.[8][9]