The Crocker-McMillin Mansion

A home sometimes referred to as the ‘American Versailles’, the Crocker-McMillin Mansion, completed in 1907, was actually modeled by architect James Brite after Bramshill House in England. The home ran with forty full time staff. It is now on the market, offered at an eye popping $33 million dollars. Considered to be part of Ramsey at the time of this postcard, and owned by its second owner the American financier and Union veteran Emerson McMillin, the residence at 675 Ramapo Valley Road in Mahwah has a storied history. 

Its original owner was George Crocker, a member of the wealthy Crocker family that made their fortune in railroads, and his wife Emma Rutherford. George was nearly left out of his family’s wealth due to his struggles with alcohol, he would be disinherited unless he abstained from spritious, vinous, or malt liquors for five years and avoided intoxication. He checked into a sanatorium, gave up alcohol, and inherited six million dollars. George would purchase the 1,100 acre Darling Estate, established in 1872 and owned by Alfred B. Darling, in 1901. 

Emma would unfortunately not see the house’s completion, dying of stomach cancer in 1904. George would donate the funds that would build St. John’s Episcopal Church at the entrance of Main Street in her memory, and would donate the proceeds of his mansion sale in Manhattan after death for the study of cancer at Columbia College (Columbia University). The donation would go through, despite a challenge to the will from his widow’s children from a prior marriage. George would also die of stomach cancer in 1909 at the age of 54.

When second owner Emerson McMillan died in 1922, the home was purchased by the Catholic Church and the gardens in the postcard gave way to dorms for the Immaculate Conception Seminary. The Church sold the property in 1984. The property has spent only a limited part of its life as a residence. In 2008, Darlington Associates, who had developed much of the property’s land, sold the house to a Ramsey businessman involved in the real estate industry for $8.88 million. It was originally listed at more than $47 million after some renovation, but would sell in 2021 for $26 million. This sale is questionable however, the house was seized in 2023 by the U.S. Government after owner and Chinese businessman Ho Wan Kwok was indicted for fraud.