Gilded Age Estate to Add 11 Apartments — The Berkshire Eagle
Construct, an affordable housing developer, has scooped up a Gilded Age estate at auction and plans to convert its mansion into 11 affordable and low-income apartments.
Two separate houses in mostly cosmetic disrepair on the 20-acre property also will be fixed up and rented to workers at affordable rates. One will be occupied by the end of the month by a local emergency medical technician who couldn’t afford to live close enough to go on ambulance calls.

“It’s exactly the need we were seeking to fill,” said Jane Ralph, executive director of Construct, Inc., of the EMT. “It’s also just a really transformative vision of what affordable housing is.” With the help of the town and the community, Construct bought the estate known as Cassilis Farm off Hartsville New Marlborough Road in August.