Not far from the entrance of the Leon Levy Preserve in South Salem are the ruins of the Bell estate, known as the “Black Mansion.” Hardly resembling a residence, the ruins are more like the remnants of an ancient stone castle, with only a few pieces of free-standing wall and empty window casings to remind the generations of what once stood.
According to Town Historian Maureen Koehl, the mansion was developed along with many of the other structures on the property by an organic chemist and president of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dr. James Mason Crafts, after he bought the property around 1890.
Among the structures built were a laboratory, ice house, coach house, and garage with six bays and a grease pit. A history of the mansion is included in Ms. Koehl’s book Lewisboro Ghosts: Strange Tales and Scary Sightings.