Jason Baker Photography

If you ever wanted to explore Castle Hill, one of America’s great Country Place Era estates. Led by expert interpreters, guided tours take you through the 59-room Great House, gardens, and grounds. Tour options include:

Guest of the Cranes
Highlights on the Hill
Behind the Scenes at the Great House
Grand Stairs to Back Stairs
Cupola with a View
Hollywood on the Hill
The Cat’s Meow (a family-friendly children’s tour)

The Butler School, named after Benjamin F. Butler, a longtime Lowell resident, Massachusetts Governor, and Civil War general, was built in 1882 and added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1995. Vacant since 1994, the building deteriorated. In May 2013, demolition began on the vacant building, and two new business buildings will be constructed on the lot. A new Butler School facility was built further up Gorham Street in 1992.

The Great Barrington Fair was a 57-acre site on the floodplain of the Housatonic River in Great Barrington, Massachusetts that once hosted the longest continually operating fair in New England. The fair was incorporated in 1848, with area farmers exhibited livestock, fruits, vegetables and other items of interest. Horse racing was added on September 30, 1859. Attendance grew rapidly after Thoroughbred racing with parimutuel betting was added in September 1940. Like many rural tracks, interest declined over the years and the facility eventually closed in 1983. A tornado wrecked the large grandstand at the racetrack in 1995. It was rebuilt and improved and parimutuel betting on the horses resumed in 1997 but lasted only two years before the track closed permanently after the 1998 racing season.
A New York City firm bought the site for $2.7 million in 2006 with the intention of building mixed-use facilities there, including a 100-room hotel. Those plans never materialized and the financiers foreclosed on the property in 2010. In 2012, the property was sold to Fairgrounds Realty LLC for $800,000 with plans for a recreation and sustainable agriculture project.
As of 2026 most of the property still remains vacant.

The Rutland Heights State Hospital was a state sanatorium for the treatment of pulmonary tuberculosis located in Rutland, Massachusetts, built for the purpose of treating Tuberculosis patients. The facility was the first state-operated sanatorium in the United States, opening in 1898 and operating for around 93 years before its closure in 1991. Rutland Heights opened under the title “Massachusetts Hospital for Consumptives and Tubercular Patients,” to which it operated until 1900, where it was renamed to “Massachusetts State Sanatorium.” In 1919 it was renamed to “Rutland State Sanatorium,” which was the longest operating name of the hospital, effective until 1963. In 1963, it was renamed briefly to “Rutland Hospital,” and successively in 1965 to “Rutland Heights State Hospital,” which was the final title of the hospital until closing. In 2004, the hospital was demolished.

Bancroft Tower is a 56-foot-high tower of granite and natural stone, which looks like a miniature feudal castle. It is in Salisbury Park, in the city of Worcester, Massachusetts. The folly was erected in 1900, in memory of George Bancroft, a native of Worcester and a politician, historian, and statesman. The tower was designed by Worcester architects Earle and Fisher, and cost about $15,000 to build. Bancroft Tower is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Collaboration with Preservation Worcester

The John T. Berry Rehabilitation Center, also known as the JT Berry State School, was a state facility for people with developmental disabilities located in North Reading, Massachusetts. The site originally opened in 1909 as the Martin's Brook Sanatorium, which later became the North Reading State Sanatorium to treat patients with tuberculosis. The tuberculosis sanatorium closed in 1962. The property then reopened as the John T. Berry Rehabilitation Center (named after state representative John T. Berry), caring for individuals with developmental disabilities. The facility officially shut down in 1995. Many of the original buildings were eventually demolished. Portions of the land on Lowell Road have since been redeveloped, including making way for housing and being transferred back to the town of North Reading for future use.

The Harding Allen Estate in Barre, Massachusetts, is a grand Roaring Twenties mansion built by prominent local businessman and philanthropist Harding Allen and his wife, Carrie. Harding and Carrie Allen spent 15 years designing and building the estate, drawing inspiration from European architecture, Versailles, and the novel Don Quixote. Completed around 1928, it was reportedly among the first residential buildings in the U.S. to use a structural steel and iron framework capable of supporting heavy Italian marble, intricate granite, and custom millwork. The interior features fine plaster molding, carved woodwork, marble details, and crystal chandeliers crafted by imported Italian artisans. The original property included formal English sunken gardens, a lily pond, a carriage house, and a large Burnham-built greenhouse where Carrie cultivated award-winning orchids and lilacs. Today, the historic estate operates as a popular regional landmark and scenic venue for weddings, events, and historic tours.

The Gaebler Children's Center was a state-run psychiatric hospital for severely mentally ill children and adolescents in Waltham, Massachusetts. Opened on October 8, 1955, and closed in September 1992, the facility was named after William C. Gaebler, an early superintendent of the adjacent Metropolitan State Hospital. The City of Waltham bought the abandoned site in 2005, and demolition finished in January 2011.

5 Beekman Street in Lower Manhattan was built between 1881 and 1883 as the Temple Court Building. Designed by James M. Farnsworth, it is one of New York City’s earliest pre-skyscraper high-rises and first surviving fireproof office buildings. It later fell into abandonment before being restored as The Beekman Hotel.

The Metropolitan State Hospital was a major public psychiatric facility spanning Waltham, Lexington, and Belmont, Massachusetts. Opened in 1927 as the state's last and most modern large hospital of its kind, it housed nearly 2,000 patients before closing in 1992 and later being redeveloped.