Draft:Richard T. Crane Jr.

• Comment: No independant third-party reliable sources mentioned. Only sources seem to be linked to the person. ~/Bunnypranav:<ping> 07:37, 8 December 2024 (UTC)

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Richard Teller Crane Jr.
Born	(1873-11-07)November 7, 1873
Died	November 7, 1931(1931-11-07) (aged 58)
Cause of death	Heart Attack
Occupation	President of Crane Company
Spouse	Florence Higinbotham Crane ​ ​ (m. 1904)​
Children	Cornelius Vanderbilt Crane & Florence Crane Belosselsky-Belozersky
Parent	Richard T. Crane & Mary Josephine Prentice

Richard Teller Crane Jr., Esq. (November 7, 1873 - November 7, 1931) was a wealthy American plumbing tycoon, philanthropist, and the second President of Crane Company. He is most well-known for his prominent seaside estate, Castle Hill, now owned and managed by The Trustees of Reservations.

Biography

Richard T. Crane Jr. was born in Chicago, Illinois on November 7, 1873 to Richard T. Crane Sr. and Mary Josephine Prentice. The youngest of seven children, Crane grew up in a prominent and wealthy family. His father was the wealthy founder and president of Crane Co., a brass, bell, and plumbing foundry created on July 4, 1855. Mr. Crane attended The Hill School in his teens, with a focus on mechanical engineering. He was notably the Class Statistician and a governor of the University Club. Crane later attended Yale University, where he became authorized to practice law.

After a brief world vacation from 1895 to 1896, Mr. Crane entered work in his father's company as the head of the Chicago sales department. After holding this position for two years, he served as the second Vice-President from 1898-1912. During this time, Crane also served as the Consul General of Persia in Chicago. On June 4, 1904, Mr. Crane married Florence Higinbotham, daughter of Harlow Niles Higinbotham and Rachael Davison Higinbotham. Harlow was the president of the first World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893. Mr. and Mrs. Crane welcomed their first child, Cornelius Vanderbilt Crane in 1905, and their second, Florence Crane, in 1909.

When his father passed away in 1912, Mr. Crane was pitted against his eldest brother, Charles Richard Crane, over who would take control of the family business. Crane served as the company's first Vice-President under his brother until 1914, when he and Charles were to submit individual, closed bids for the company to determine who would buy out the other. Richard T. Crane Jr. ultimately submitted the higher bid and became president of Crane Company in 1914.

In the wake of World War I, the company's sales and global reach had dramatically increased. In 1921, Crane coordinated the purchase of the Trenton Potteries Company. This merger resulted in a profound transition in the focus of the company, from industrial pipes and fittings to modern indoor bathrooms. Although the company had sold plumbing fixtures in some capacity since 1894, Mr. Crane soon pioneered the idea of "building America a better bathroom". The company spent over a million dollars a year on color-print advertising for their new, luxurious, and lavish indoor bathrooms. The Drake Hotel, Field Museum of Natural History, and Wrigley Field all had Crane Plumbing installed by 1928.

Personal Life

Mr. and Mrs. Crane mainly resided in a 45-room gothic manor on the corner of North Avenue and Lake Shore Drive. The house was constructed jointly by Charles Sumner Frost and the Boston firm Shepley, Rutan and Coolidge, being finished in 1910 and costing approximately half a million dollars.

In this same year, Mr. Crane purchased a 1380-acre plot of land in Ipswich, Massachusetts known as Castle Hill, which included 5 miles of private beach. Two years later, an Italian villa was constructed on the top of the hill by Shepley, Rutan, and Coolidge, along with a Chauffeur's Garage, Casino Complex, and gate buildings. The Olmsted Brothers were initially hired to design the Italian Garden and an expansive mall complex. After they were dismissed due to disagreements on the design of the landscape, Arthur Asahel Shurcliff was hired instead. He constructed the half-mile-long undulating lawn known as the "Grand Allée", modeled after the Boboli Gardens in Italy.

In 1917, Mr. Crane built another Italian-style cottage on Jekyll Island, Georgia. The cottage was somewhat controversial for its size and stately presence, but was soon accepted by the wealthy society. The building today serves as a Bed and breakfast and an event venue.

In 1924, the Italian Villa at Castle Hill was demolished due to structural issues, mainly with the stucco and clay walls, which had quickly deteriorated on the exposed seaside hilltop. Architect David Adler was hired to build a new house, this time a Stuart English manor. Completed in the winter of 1928, the house was largely modeled after Belton House and Ham House, both large mansions in the countryside of England. The house, now known as the "Great House", featured several salvaged interiors, notably several bedrooms from a townhouse at 75 Dean St in the Soho neighborhood of London. Mr. and Mrs. Crane had salvaged its interiors for $50,000. The remaining rooms not used for Castle Hill were donated to the Art Institute of Chicago as exhibition rooms. Intricate oak panels from Cassiobury House, carved by Grinling Gibbons in the 1670s, were also used to form the Great House's library.

Death

The Great Depression, at its onset in 1929, did not directly affect Mr. Crane or Crane Company, as most of the company stocks were in private hands. However, due to the slump in business in the following year, Crane was forced to lay off a third of his workforce, equating to over 10,000 employees. Crane was well-known for being extremely dedicated to his employees, granting all of them pensions, life insurance, healthcare, and annual Christmas bonuses. Crane became quite depressed after these layoffs, and they are believed to have caused him a great deal of stress in 1930 and 1931. On November 7, 1931, his 58th birthday, Mr. Crane perished of a large heart attack in New York. The next day, the New York Times attributed his death to "a broken heart" due to concern for his employees.

In his will, Mr. Crane left $13.5 million to his employees and servants, granting each and every one of them a check for a considerable amount of money. The rest of his assets and the chairmanship of Crane Company were passed to his wife, Florence Higinbotham Crane. The presidency of Crane Company passed to the next in command, John Berryman.

Mr. Crane was survived by his wife of 27 years, Florence Higinbotham Crane, his two children, Cornelius and Florence, and his daughter-in-law, Cathalene Parker Browning Crane. Soon after he died, Florence married William A. Robinson, an Ipswich shipbuilder and sailor. Their marriage was turbulent from the beginning, and the couple divorced several years later. Florence retained custody of their only child, Christopher Robinson. Cornelius also divorced his first wife Cathalene, and married Miné Sawahara Crane in the 1950s. In the 1940s, Florence married Prince Sergei Sergeievich Belosselsky-Belozersky, a prominent member of Russian Romanov royalty. The couple had two daughters, Marina and Tatiana, who are alive today.

Mr. Crane is interred in a mausoleum, constructed by John Russell Pope, alongside Mrs. Crane in Graceland Cemetery, Chicago.

Philanthropy

Mr. Crane was a well-known philanthropist throughout his life. Upon the founding of Crane Company, his father stated that "I am resolved to conduct my business in the strictest honesty and fairness; to avoid all deception and trickery; to deal fairly with both customers and competitors; to be liberal and just toward employees and to put my whole mind upon the business." Crane Company itself was regarded as a reputable employer, granting each and every employee a personal pension plan, life insurance policy, and healthcare policy. Some of Crane's notable philanthropic donations are listed below:

A major contribution to the City of Chicago for the Iroquois Memorial Emergency Hospital.

A $25,000 donation towards the discovery of a cure for infantile paralysis during an epidemic in New York City.

A new hospital in 1921 for the Town of Ipswich, dedicated in memory of his friend Dr. Benjamin Stickney Cable, assistant labor secretary under President Taft, who had perished in a car accident on U.S. Route 1. One of the involved cars was being driven by Mr. Crane.

A 1927 donation of a new tower and a collection of 43 bells to St. Chrysostom's Episcopal Church in Chicago, in memory of his parents.

A 1928 donation, alongside Mrs. Crane, of $100,000 to the endowment of the Department of Therapeutics at New York University.

A 1928 donation of Buffalo Rock on the Illinois River as a 50-acre public park to the State of Illinois.

A 1929 donation of a $300,000 hospital building, named after his daughter, to Hartford Hospital in Connecticut. This was in appreciation for the impeccable medical care that Florence received at the hospital during an ear operation.

Mr. Crane was also a life member and trustee of the Field Museum of Natural History, a life member of the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago Historical Society, Ipswich Historical Society, and New York Yacht Club.

Mr. and Mrs. Crane were also generous benefactors of the Trustees of Reservations, the oldest non-profit land conservation organization in the country. In 1945, Mrs. Crane donated parts of the family's Ipswich estate to the Trustees as the Richard T. Crane Jr. Memorial Reservation. After her death in 1949, the house and main grounds were also given to the Trustees. Today, the Trustees own 2,100 acres of the original 3,500-acre estate, which today includes Castle Hill (a national historic landmark), Crane Beach, and the Crane Wildlife Refuge.