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Crosby Mansion

Discover one of the Cape's hidden jewels, wrapped in a love story over a century old...

The story begins with a young man, Albert Crosby, born in 1823 and raised in a modest Cape house in Brewster. An enterprising young man, he worked for a mercantile marine service, which sailed from Boston to the West Indies. He later married Margaret Henderson, and the couple had four children. Despite his wife's reluctance to join him, he moved to Chicago. There, he sold teas and liquors, and, during the Civil War, distilled alcohol for the army and area druggists. The windy city was more than kind to Albert. Sales of his medicinal alcohol made him wealthy. And, in Chicago, he met the love of his life.

Depending on accounts, Georgia Matilda Garrison was either an actress or dancer. At the time, both were scandalous professions and Albert's family disapproved of his amour. Nevertheless, Albert, then 49, was smitten with the vivacious beauty, then 28. He divorced his wife, married Matilda and whisked her away to Europe. More than a decade passed before the "honeymooning" couple returned to Boston and planned their home in Brewster.

Albert spared no expense for the three story, 35-room "summer home" overlooking Cape Cod Bay. Built in the grand style of Chicago's Gold Coast Mansions, the home featured a 60-foot tower with cupola (later destroyed in the 1938 hurricane), 17 fireplaces with imported tile, a French inspired salon, two-story billiard room, marble sinks and floors in the baths and gas lighting.

Because of the heightened construction, the Old Colony Railroad laid a side track to the site. Completed in 1888, the home was named Tawasentha, probably after Longfellow's poem, Song of Hiawatha.

Amid the splendor, though, lies deep sentiment. Unable to tear down the modest home of his childhood that stood on the property, Albert incorporated it into the mansion. An 1897 account reported:

"Mr. Crosby opened a low posted door in the rear of the hall and waited for us to pass through into what proved a tiny Cape house, whose four rooms were furnished in the style of the olden days...It was literally a house within a house, affording a contrast of the lowly life of the early settlers, with the sumptuousness of the wealthy of present times."

When he tired of the extravagant parties Matilda adored, Alfred would often retreat into his secret home within the home.

The Gallery
In Europe the Crosbys acquired an impressive collection of paintings, statuary and bronzes. To properly display it, Alfred built a two-story, 75x50 gallery next to the house. Works by Childe Hassam and Albert Bierstadt's celebrated The Yosemite Valley were among the collection which attracted many well-known visitors, including Helen Keller and Mark Twain.

Regrettably, after Matilda's death in 1928, the gallery's contents were auctioned. The sale of almost 150 paintings (valued at over $100,000) brought in a mere $6,000. Bierstadt's masterpiece sold for $250.

Years later, the gallery met with a tragic demise. Just prior to the Great Fire of 1871, Albert acquired the celebrated Chicago Opera House. Although some art was saved, much disappeared in flames. For this reason, Albert constructed his Brewster gallery of triple-walled brick. However, long after his death, when the mansion was converted into a restaurant, a bun warmer started a fire from within-- destroying the gallery, then used as a dining room.

The Mansion's Many Lives
Matilda's grand nieces inherited the grand estate. However, unable to support the property, they sold it. Over the years, the lovely Tawasentha housed an arts school, the Gold Coast Restaurant and Hotel, and Seascape, a summer camp for overweight girls. In the 1970s, the property was vacant, subject to vandalism, arson and the general decay of neglect. In 1985, the state assumed ownership, and the property became part of Nickerson Park. The state's interest, though, was more in the land along the Bay than in the home, now viewed as an eyesore. However, in 1991, a group of citizens formed "The Friends of Crosby Mansion" and launched the ongoing effort to restore the mansion to its 1890s splendor.