VUE

igh on a hill in Somerset County, amid the lofty trees and alongside the Raritan River, sits a century-old Tudor mansion. The mansion resides on a 500-acre estate known as Natirar, an anagram for Raritan. Designed in 1912 by architect Guy Lowell, the mansion takes its lead from one of the era's most prominent structures, Henry VIII's Hampton Court Palace. Today, with its stone masonry, large iron gates and graceful archways, the Natirar Mansion feels otherworldly. The estate was originally owned by Kate Macy Ladd, a philanthropist and heiress to a Massachusetts oil fortune. Ladd used her considerable inheritance to commission the building of the mansion in 1905. From the very beginning, Natirar was more than a country home for Ladd. The estate quickly became her primary residence and the grounds for the Maple Cottage, a wellness center that helped women regain their strength after severe illnesses. With the inception of the Maple Cottage, Ladd began a timeless tradition of opening Natirar's gates to the public. The wellness center eventually moved into the mansion, where it provided a haven to women for an estimated 50 years. In 1983, nearly 40 years after Ladd's death, the property was sold to The King of Morocco, Hassan II, who used Natirar as his New Jersey home while his sons attended Princeton University. In 2003, the King's family sold the estate to Somerset County, who in turn, leased the top 90 acres of Natirar in a public- private partnership with Robert Wojtowicz. The leasing agreement was made between Wojtowicz and the county with the intention of banning together to restore Natirar to its former splendor. In June of this year, after nine months of meticulous restoration and expansion, Natirar reopened its doors to the public. THE MANSION AT NATIRAR b y B R E N N A H O L L A N D VUE ON DESIGN V U E N J . C O M 41

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