History

Cyrus Ingersol Scofield created his seminal work the Scofield Reference Bible at Crestwood. He was a noted 19th century religious scholar. He came to the mountain as a private chaplain to Dwight Moody, founder of the nearby Mount Hermon School.

A noted evangelist, he often hosted retreats at Crestwood. He built four guest lodges that opened onto western views. He also constructed a Spa-Bath complex, complete with an iron tub that easily held four with a balcony for air baths. It was a precursor to the hot tub and deck common today.

Crestwood was on of the only residences in 1895 to have gas light in the region. Scofield found the location of the only other light he could see at night in East Northfield and he then constructed a carbonic acid gas plant and laid miles of 1-1/2" zinc galvanized pipes underground that would illuminate the buildings. Carbonic Acid gas (H2CO3) was an unstable compound and not used today, it would be responsible for three explosions. The first blew part of the main house up along with the gas plant, the second was in the housekeeper's cottage. Fragments of china and earthenware are still being unearthed in the yellow garden below the serpentine wall, the third in the 1930's blew up the plant for a second time but by then the risky venture was abandoned when the CCC built a road linking Crestwood to the rest of New Hampshire for the first time. Remains of the exploded iron tanks were photographed prior to their removal in the late 1970's. The location is coincidentally about 30 feet from where the gas tank is buried today, beside the road to the summit of Scofield Mountain behind the Chapel Garden.

The Estate was purchased by the Count and Countess Phillippe Videl from the Scofield estate in the late 1920's. In the 1930's, the Videls who like the Scofields who summered at Crestwood opened their home to orphans first from Span and the Spanish Civil War then later others from Europe through the end of World War II, and through reconstruction in the 1950's would spend time on the mountain. The guest lodges of Scofield became dorms; they were burned by vandals after the death of the Countess in the early 1970's.