Hartley W. Mason, born in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, in 1844 to Daniel and Augusta Manson Mason, was a businessman and property owner whose family was linked to local craftsmanship and whose life reflected industry and vision. His ancestor John Mason, with Sir Fernando Gorges, secured patent rights in 1621 for development of the Piscataqua region from King James I and Charles I of England. Hartley Mason began his business career at age 18, had a dry goods business at 3 Market Street between 1867 and 1873, maintained a Market Street office in 1886, and was later a salesman of woolen goods to retail stores in Boston, including Jordan Marsh. He married Anna Townsend Newick on January 2, 1867, and they had four children: Harry C., John Tufton, Ethel T., and Rita Mason. Mason traveled to Europe as many as sixteen times, journeys that may have encouraged his interest in Italian architecture, while Anna's family had connections to merchant shipping through her father, Captain John Townsend, and her brother James L. Townsend, a partner in a Newburyport shipbuilding company that built the clipper ship Dreadnought. Mason's interest in York Harbor property began with a lot purchase in 1881 in what later became the Hartley Mason Reservation, with additional property and buildings acquired in 1894. In his handwritten will of June 2, 1921, he created the Hartley Mason Reservation, directing that all buildings be removed and the real estate held in trust forever as a public pleasure ground, with income from bath houses and other privileges used to improve and beautify the property for public enjoyment. The bath houses, first built around 1893, were destroyed in a winter storm in 1978. His will placed the real estate under three trustees, including the chair of the York Board of Selectmen and two local residents and property owners, and the first trustees were appointed in 1993. At its height, the property included six shingle-style buildings typical of Maine coast resort architecture at the turn of the century: Rocky Knowl, Overbank Cottage, Hill Top Cottage, Sunny Side, The Lodge, and The Octagon. Mason died in Roxbury, Massachusetts, on December 16, 1925, at age 82, after being predeceased by Anna, who died on May 24, 1921, also at age 82.