While the surrounding area has become Bradley Palmer State Park, the mansion has been a civil defense training academy and is currently leased to the Forsythe-Fandetti family as part of the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation's Historic Curatorship Program.

[1] The now heavily forested area would have originally been empty fields and pastures, ideal for Palmer's equestrian hobbies, especially with its close proximity to the famous Myopia Hunt Club.

Bradley Palmer chose Charles K. Cummings, a Boston architect with the firm Andrews, Jaques & Rantoul, to design his summer retreat.

Cummings conceived Willow Dale (as it was originally called) as a single U-shaped building that included domestic, equestrian, and agricultural functions.

In an article for Architectural Review in 1904, Cummings describes the layout of the building as a rather unusual arrangement, the master’s house, the quarters for a farmer or caretaker, and the stable, all being joined together under one roof.

At the peak of its operation, more than thirty buildings, primarily relating to agriculture or husbandry, but also a garage, a pump house, reservoir, and homes for staff.

His rapid financial success, shown by tax records stating the amount he paid increased from $15,645 in 1908 to $128,574 in 1923, meant a need for a home that could entertain guests beyond just a few intimate friends.

In the south wing, the stable became a formal dining room, while the coach house became a ballroom, complete with an orchestra balcony, though the exterior of both remained the same.

The interior of the mansion became more elegant with the addition of a number of stained glass windows and the replacement of small, tile fireplaces with ornate, Italian marble ones.

He imported plants to the estate from across the America, but especially his native Pennsylvania and New Hampshire.He consulted widely with botanists and gardeners in the Boston area, who recommended nurseries both domestic and foreign.

Soon after, Bill Keith, evidently worried that this violated the terms of his employment, quickly wrote his wife's sister back in Scotland, asking for her hand in marriage.

Arts and Crafts architecture built on the philosophical momentum of the Gothic Revival begun in England under the works of authors such as John Ruskin, Augustus Pugin, and William Morris.

Even after the 1915 renovation, when Palmer's wealth had substantially increased, the interior design maintains the unified commitment to simplicity found in the original work.

Also added during the 1915 renovation were a number of stained glass windows, particularly in the dining room, which feature mythical figures, quotes from Virgil and Shakespeare, and the Palmer family crest.

One of the more surprising features of the dining room is a large Madonna of Light mosaic taken from a Mexican church during one of Palmer's business trips for United Fruit Company.

In design work, this manifested in a natural interpretation of scrolls, lozenges, and straps found both in Jacobean Revival architecture and Willow Dale.

The Forsythe-Fandettis had already restored multiple historic properties in Cambridge, Massachusetts and gave management of the company to their daughter Briar Rose Forsythe.