Architect, Wood Carver & Muralist

The architect for the mansion, James Brite, started his career as an apprentice in McKim, Mead and White, which was the largest and most important architectural partnership in America, if not the world, and the firm of choice for the elite of New York society of the time. Brite and his architectural partner, Henry Bacon, later prospered with notable works including the original Madison Square Garden, the Public Library in Jersey City, the American University and the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC. In 1912 Britt designed another grand Jacobean country estate for Herbert L. Pratt known as “The Braes”. The largest of the Pratt mansions, the Braes, was built in Glen Cove, Long Island. The name Braes is Scottish for "hillside", and a notable landscape feature of this estate is the terraced grounds facing Long Island Sound. The Braes now houses the Webb Institute of Naval Architecture. 

Famed architect James Brite modeled Crocker Mansion directly on Bramshill Manor, Hampshire in Kent, described as “one of the finest examples of English Jacobean architecture”. Bramshill, attributed to architect John Thorpe, was built in 1612 for Prince Henry, the son of King James I, whose coronet in carved stone hung over the main entrance. An identical stone coronet is set into the exterior of the Great Hall fireplace of Crocker Mansion above the main terrace. Bramshill House was owned by Sir William Cope, the sixth baronet, whose family occupied the house from 1699 until 1935, when Lord Brocket purchased it. Lord Brocket then sold Bramshill House to the British Home Office that has maintained it in its original condition as the Police Staff College.

The elaborate interior wood carving throughout the mansion is the work of John H. Elliott, a master wood carver who lived and worked in Philadelphia from the 1880’s to 1930’s. Elliott worked on the mansion for four years and was one of his major commissions.

The ceiling of the library is painted after the style of the Italian Renaissance by Tiffany Studios James Wall Finn, who was a muralist of note in the early nineteenth century. Other recognized works by Finn include the Payne Whitney NYC Townhouse at 972 Fifth Avenue near 79th Street, Vernon Court in Newport, Rhode Island, and the New York Public Library at 42nd Street in New York City.