n 1872 when 49-year-old Albert Crosby returned to Cape Cod after making a bundle of money in Chicago, he brought with him his new 28-year-old wife, Matilda, and built this showplace for her in 1888.

Albert may have had a way with money, but he was no architect. he tried at first to build a mansion inside the four-room cottage in which he grew up. Then, realizing it wouldn't fit, Crosby built the showplace outside it, around the little house. On Crosby Lane in Brewster, the old cottage is still there, deep inside the mansion, but Crosby and his wife are long gone. Over the years the mansion became a residence, an art gallery, a derelict, a conservatory of music, a restaurant, and a camp for overweight girls. The mansion is now owned by the State of Massachusetts as part of its parks system, and a group called Friends of the Crosby Mansionis raising money to restore it. 

This setting has become popular for weddings and receptions.