May 2015 – The Grand Estate That Opened its Doors for a Cause
The Blairsden Estate in Peapack Gladstone, New Jersey, is undoubtedly one of the most outstanding examples of beaux-arts mansions in the United States. For a short thirty-day window, this private estate is open to the public as part of Mansion in May, which started back in 1974 with the Women’s Association of Morristown Medical Center (WAMMC) and has raised over $8 million for worthwhile causes at Morristown Medical Center.
Blairsden, built in the late 1890’s was Over sixty designers have spent months preparing for the Mansion in May exhibit.
Blairsden is the name of the Peapack, New Jersey estate named after its original owner C. Ledyard Blair, a prominent investment banker and ambitious entrepreneur who recognized the beauty of the beautiful Somerset Hills area and decided to build one of the largest estates ever built in the region.
At its time Blairsden was designed and built by Carrere and Hastings with state of the art technologies that actually still function today. Advanced heating and ductwork, water pumping systems, whole house intercoms, refridgeration, electricity, fire prevention systems are just a few of the advanced technologies.
The Historical Society of the Somerset Hills is a local history organization that has followed the history of Blairsden and states that Blairden is “the most searched history topic on their website.” Some of the best storytellers of Blairsden’s history are W. Barry Thomson and John Charles Smith are two residents directly involved with Blairsden over the years. Mr. Thomson was raised on the Blairsden.
Estate’s lower property and noted that “I was often chased by the nuns while exploring the Blairsden property as a child.” The book “New Jersey Country Estates – The Somerset Hills Vol 1 and 2, written by Barry Thomson and Jack Turpin, serves today as the best reference to the history of Blairsden.
John Smith, a former Trustee at the local historical society, has been involved with landscape architecture on the property for some of the previous owners. John, being a history buff, also created an early 1930s reconstruction of all of the estate properties in a beautiful period map.
Mansion in May – Artists and Designers Profiles
Over 60 artists and designers participate in the 2014 Mansion in May. Each room covers two floors, and exterior spaces are used for the designers and artists to express their crafts using Blairsden as the backdrop. Listen to the experiences of two of the MIM participants below:
Lastly, I couldn’t resist the fact that while waiting for transportation to return to the parking area, several nuns were seen visiting Blairsden. St. John the Baptist was once owners of Blairsden. While the internet has been a bit unkind to the nuns, portraying spooky stories of murder, death, and hauntings, nothing could be further from the truth. It never happened. That’s for sure.
A complete set of videos of the historic Blairsden estate is available on the Mr. Local History YouTube channel
More Mansions
Click around our Mr. Local History Interactive map of Mansions of the Somerset Hills (see our post below)
More Mr. Local History Mansion Posts
- Blairsden Video Series: 15 videos of the Blairsden mansion and property
