Lyman Estate

The Lyman Estate, known as "The Vale," is one of the finest examples in the United States of a country estate laid out following the principles of eighteenth-century English naturalistic design. For more than 150 years, it was the country home to four generations of Boston’s prominent Lyman family. Salem, Massachusetts, architect Samuel McIntire designed the Federal-style mansion in 1793 for wealthy shipping merchant Theodore Lyman. The family enlarged the house in 1882 in the Victorian style and then remodeled it in the Colonial Revival style in 1917. The property contains historic greenhouses, a carriage house and gardener’s cottage, and thirty-seven acres of pleasure grounds, gardens, and woodlands. Visitors learn the history of the illustrious Lyman family as they explore the elegant mansion, which is used today as a venue for weddings, meetings, and private parties. The mansion’s architectural features include an elegant ballroom and graceful oval parlor, both pristine examples of Federal design.