Monday, March 21, 2011

The Lost 1908 William A. Clark Mansion

photo NYPL Collection

William Andrews Clark was born in poverty in Pennsylvania in 1839 to Scotch-Irish parents. When he was just 17, the family traveled to Iowa as homesteaders.

Clark made up his mind early in life that he disliked poverty.

By 1895, when he moved to New York, he had amassed one of the largest fortunes in the country, controlling silver and copper mines, operating railroads, and being elected to the Montana Senate. His reputation, however, was one of deceit, unscrupulous dealings, bribery and cut-throat schemes.

Mark Twain wrote of him, “He is as rotten a human being as can be found anywhere under the flag; he is a shame to the American nation, and no one has helped to send him to the Senate who did not know that his proper place was the penitentiary, with a ball and chain on his legs. To my mind he is the most disgusting creature that the republic has produced since Tweed's time.”

Clark’s image was further sullied when, after the death of his wife in 1893, he “sponsored” a young actress, Eugenia LaChapelle.  The entertainer became pregnant in 1901 and, again, in 1903.  Although Clark reported that the pair had secretly married prior to the first pregnancy, no documentation was ever found.

Upon arriving in New York, Clark embarked on plans to build the largest, most expensive home in America. He commissioned the architectural firm of Lord, Hewlett & Hull to design the mansion at 5th Avenue and 77th Street on land he had purchased from Samuel Untermyer. Repeatedly, he had the plans reworked, “as Mr. Clark has found the proposed designs not sufficient in size or in splendor,” according to The New York Times.

When the size of the art gallery was “entirely insufficient,” he purchased an adjoining lot to increase the size of the mansion. With his succession of changes and additions the estimated cost of the structure rose from $417,000 to $2.5 million.

When the Maine and New Hampshire Granite Company increased their bid for the stone work, Clark purchased an adjoining quarry, then established his own stone cutting plant. Similarly, when he felt the bids for the bronze work were exorbitant, he purchased the Henry Bannard Bronze Company and supplied copper from his own mines.

The construction of Clark’s gargantuan mansion lasted until 1908 – a full 13 years. By the time it was finished it was no longer in style and New Yorkers called the long-term project “an old man’s fad.” The New York Times remarked on the finished structure. “Viewed from the street the building strikes the observer as too big, too heavy, too massive, for its ground space and its residential surroundings.”

With a final cost approaching $10 million, the house rose nine stories with Turkish baths below ground level, laundry rooms on the top floor, scores of Greek marble columns, and mantelpieces costing up to $2,000 each – the Numidian marble fireplace in the banquet room measured 15 feet across with life-size figures of Diana and Neptune. There were 120 rooms filled with medieval tapestries and artwork. The wood for the carved ceiling of the banquet room came from Sherwood Forest; of the 170 carved panels in the breakfast room no two were identical,

On the second floor was a rotunda, 36-feet high, of Maryland marble with eight Bresche violet columns, used as the statuary room. It opened onto a conservatory of solid brass and glass, 30 feet high and 22 feet wide. On the opposite side of the rotunda was the marble-paneled main picture gallery, 95 feet long and two stories high. An organ loft housed the largest chamber organ in America with 62 “speaking stops.”

There were 25 guests rooms, with baths, 35 servants’ rooms with men’s quarters to the east and female rooms in the western wing. Clark’s Gothic style library was 90-feet long with a beamed ceiling and immense carved fireplace.

The Senator's art collection included works by Delacroix, Millet, Corot, Constable, Boucher and Daubigny. He spent $200,000 for the Gobelin tapestries owned by Prince Murat and $350,000 for those of the Earl of Coventry.

Clark's mansion boasted 121 rooms and stood just 19 years

At the time of the mansion’s completion, Clark had an annual income of $12 million and owned homes in Los Angeles, Washington D.C. and Butte, Montana. But despite its size and its cost, the Fifth Avenue house never achieved the admiration for which its owner strove. It was immediately the object of scorn and ridicule for its ungainly ostentation.

At the age of 86, William A. Clark died in his bedroom on March 25, 1925, one of the 50 richest men in America.  Two years later, in preparation for the auction of its furnishings and its demolition, the mansion was opened to the public from February 20 through March 1 with admission fees going to charity.  Shortly thereafter great, hulking house was demolished, just 19 years after being built.

According to Robert Stern, Gregory Gilmartin and Thomas Mellins in their New York 1930, Architecture and Urbanism Between the Two World Wars, "No loss was viewed in retrospect to have been greater than that of Senator William Clark's 121-room pile at Seventy-seventh Street, which was felled by the wrecker's ball in 1926 [sic],"

The New York Times gave the house a tongue-in-cheek obituary. “As for the Clark palace, it has been condemned unreasonably, indiscriminately.  An echo of the architectural orgy of the Paris Exposition of 1900, its only fault is that it stops short of perfection in its kind. The inlaid gold leaf that decks its interior woodwork should have been spread upon its fantastic stonework without. Its astronomical tower should have been surmounted by an orrery with a sun of flame and planets of solid gold.  It might thus have truly exemplified the senatorial mood of the eighteen-nineties, illumined by the ambitions of a doge.”

The New Republic viewed the loss with mixed remorse.  "The Clark house was a scandal even more than it was a joke...Decent people were indignant and considered it an affront to the city and to themselves. But time has consecrated its ugliness and it is almost an act of vandalism to tear it down."

On the site of William Clark’s dream house rose a large apartment building.

26 comments:

  1. Floor plans and additional photos:

    http://1889victorianrestoration.blogspot.com/2011/10/william-clark-mansion.html

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  2. There is, was, nothing of uggly in this superb mansion, except its cost for contemporary peoples, or its too french style as was the great post office... From a french admirer in Paris...

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  3. Found your blog by accident resulting from article in today's NYT re Wm. Clark's daughter's two wills, the great fortune, etc., etc., and they linked to your even more fascinating blog regarding "lost" NYC. Your work is incredibly researched. Thanks, and what fun.

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  4. Same deal as daveybaby. Loved digging into your blog!

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  5. Thank you! Brilliant work. Really enjoyed it.

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  6. What on earth were they thinking to tear this beauty down. No, there was nothing ugly about it. A historic loss! -

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    1. Because it was the home of one of the most despicable greed merchants in American history.

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    2. Yes, I read a bit about his history. Very corrupt man. He just may be burning in the pits of hell right now for all his corruption and greed. Sad.

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    3. It was sold for 2 reasons. It was too big to be livable. It also cost a small fortune to run, for example a ton of coal a DAY.

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    4. It was sold because the widow and daughter didn't want to live there and rattle around in this 9 story mansion that had 9 servants maintaining it all, it was Mr Clark's pet project obsession not theirs and they got a big chunk of money for it. it was demolished after Mr Clark died at age 86 because in 1927 nobody cared about stained glass windows, carved wood, marble or anything else, heck, the house had the largest chamber pipe organ in the US- larger than most churches have- it was installed in 1911 at a cost of $120,000 and it was destroyed with the house because the contractor didn't want to bother removing it. $120,000 in 1911 is equal to about $3,300,000 today. Here's the specs and some photos http://nycago.org/Organs/NYC/html/ResClarkWA.html

      The buyer who demolished the mansion built a huge luxury apartment building on the lot that earned him a lot of money every month in rents.
      When I think of how much resources went into quarrying, cutting, transporting all the solid granite blocks to build this one house only to destroy it just 19 years later and trash most of it, I get outraged at the waste.

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    5. I'm saddened by reading and now knowing a grand building had existed but in a total of 19 years had been obliterated by those who never saw the art of itself and craftsmanship. To think of losses incurred by destruction is more than









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  7. His daughter from his second, questionable marriage died recently at over 100 years old Hughette (pronounced Hugh-get) Clark. Sad woman, spent most of her life as a hermit even though she had millions.

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  8. Poor Hughetts (pronounced Hugh-get), the daughter of the questionable marriage. Inherited vast piles of money, lived until over 100, and spent the vast majority of that time as a miserable hermit. Proof that while money buys big houses, it does not buy happiness.

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    1. Huguette, ( pronounced Ooh-get, was far from miserable. I suggest you read the book EMPTY MANSIONS and learn the true facts. She was very generous with her money and giving gifts to friends, charities, some family members and to others, gave her great pleasure......so, yes her money did buy her happiness.

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    2. 'Proof that while money buys big houses, it does not buy happiness.'

      Huguette obviously had some kind of mental disorder (s), that explains why she became a recluse, didnt remarry, and then lived for 20 years in a hospital room while she had SEVERAL mansions and could have easily afforded to have private nurses and anything else attending her in any one of them.
      When a photo postcard was made of one of her mansions she had her attorney buy the entire stock of the postcards so that no one could see her house, a sure sign of something not right "upstairs"

      When an aerial view photo postcard was published that showed the Clark estate in Santa Barbara, Huguette decided to buy them ALL so the public could not see her private estate. The thousands of postcards were stored in the old carriage house.

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  9. Read "Empty Mansions"....bio of the Clark family. Interesting story, very eccentric family....downloaded from Amazon books.

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  10. If this structure were a court house or a hotel, or a train station there might have been an excuse for the massiveness- but in my opinion the exterior was ugly primarily because there is just too much of it crammed onto a city lot. The interiors are better, and it seems that some of the paneling and other elements found their way into Hugette's "Beau Chateau".

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    1. That was the style back then, the style was not "ugly" but the overall execution of the style was not very good, and too bold, it looked very thrown together with as much decoration they could cram in and would have been better suited for the "base" of a 50 story building like the old Singer tower. Clark should have had McKim Mead and White for the architects.
      I saw a couple of old stained glass windows in her apartment, I bet they came from the old mansion.

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  11. I believe you are correct , Eric. And I've read he promised his his childern by his first wife not to leave the New York Mansion to his second wife, which is why it was broken up, and demolished.

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  12. There is a photograph of this building taken from the park to its front,does anyone know the name of the photographer

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  13. I cannot believe this glorious house, the quintessential museum house, couldn't be spared of vandalic destruccion like a time capsule: -The NY Gilded Age Era Museum-; would it have be a big success. Too bad in those times the art's sense from a bygone era and the new century couldn't be compatible anymore.

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  14. A magnificent mansion indeed with one of the more eccentric owners ever, but the daughters story is equally compelling, if only as an example that great wealth doesn't always make ones life care free. Hugette used her wealth to insulate herself from the prying eyes and wagging tongues of her contemporaries and while she was happy collecting dolls and artwork and also donating generously, it had to be disappointing that she could not lead what we all take for granted, a normal life. These gilded age palaces unfortunately became white elephants within years of their construction. Rising real estate values, encroaching commercialism, high costs to maintain, requiring armies of servants and changing lifestyles meant the wealthy did not need a burdensome mansion in NYC and instead migrated to luxury apartments. However, what a fantasy it would be to see this beauty on Fifth Ave along with the JJ Astor, Cornelius Vanderbilt II mega-mansion, the William Vanderbilt twin, the Schwab mansion on Riverside Drive, to name but a few. Wonderful post and one I read everyday to discover what treasures are awaiting me today.

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  15. Ahh a tragic loss indeed. The last post sums it up perfectly. That list of incredible mansions, now long gone would be amazing to see today. Changing times and life styles doomed these mega-mansions almost as soon as they were completed. NYC truly was the center of residential architectural excess during the Gilded Age and the early 20th century. Too little remains, but the Frick Collection, the Morgan Library, The Cooper-Hewitt, The Jewish Museum, Cartier's and countless consulates and private townhouses on the upper East side still give a hint at this glorious age. Great post and blog. NYarch

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  16. An exterior hideous enough to match the interior of Trump's apartment.

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  17. Looks remarkably similar to the City Hall in Paris. Magnificent interior rooms and an equally museum quality art collection made this mansion a true gem. Very tragic that mansions like this and countless others became almost instant white elephants within a few years of their construction. Agree with the posts that long for these structures to still grace our city streets.

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