Critical Acclaim

Crocker Mansion received the critical acclaim of L.R. McCabe in a review entitled “Darlington – a Jacobean Manor in New Jersey” in The Architectural Record, Volume XXXII, July-December 1912, and was featured in 1909 in American Homes and Gardens.

In 1990 The Atwater Kent Museum, The History Museum of Philadelphia, exhibited the life and work of John H. Elliot, master carver of the woodwork of Crocker Mansion and other fine homes in and outside of Philadelphia. Elliott worked on Crocker Mansion for four years and was one of his major commissions.

The mansion was a futuristic marvel of modern technology of its time, with remarkable systems of luxury for the period including “boilers to radiate steam to heat, ice to cool, there is electric plant distributing through wires in iron conduits not only light to myriad make-believe candles, heat to make-believe logs, but power to turn laundry machines, ice cream freezers and vacuum sweepers that connect on every floor.” The mansion had a telephone system for communications to every outlying house of the estate and an elevator of vintage design that is still in operation. The service level of the mansion contained two laundries, a wine cellar, a humidor for the special 60,000-cigar collection of George Crocker, full kitchen and storage facilities.

The complete history and critical acclaim of Crocker Mansion is set forth in the registration form for the listing of the mansion in the National Register of Historic Places, available upon request.