The Ranch’s main post is both gracious and historical.  The earliest of the structures, the Big House, dates to 1837, the ranch’s founding, with other buildings, including the cottage, barn and octagonal chapel, added in the mid to late 1800s.  The gardens and grounds were laid out in the Italian style, with exotic trees and plants, water features and an elegant central axis in the 1890s. 

The main post remains a family home, where the Lloyd-Butler family lives, gathers and entertains weekly.  The Big house accommodates 10-12 overnight guests and the cottage offers space for 4.  The Chapel, is actively used for sacraments and ceremonies as it has been since it was consecrated as a Roman Catholic church in 1926. 

The Big House is furnished with collections of period English and Italian furniture, as well as a mix of paintings, portraits and artwork collected by family members for the past 5 generations.  As an homage to the biodiversity outdoors, the interior of The Cottage serves as a “cabinet of curiosities”, filled with Victorian taxidermy and dioramas, herbaria, and insect and geological specimens. 

The gardens and grounds have both open and intimate locations for family and friends to relax, entertain or hold large functions and charitable events.