| William A. Clark House | |
|---|---|
 Main frontage along East 77th Street | |
 Interactive map of William A. Clark House | |
| General information | |
| Status | Demolished |
| Type | Residence |
| Architectural style | Beaux-ArtsChâteauesque |
| Location | 962Fifth Avenue,Manhattan, New York, United States |
| Construction started | 1897 |
| Completed | 1911 |
| Demolished | 1927 |
| Cost | $7 million (equivalent to $236,225,000 in 2024) |
| Client | William A. Clark |
| Design and construction | |
| Architects | Austin W. Lord J. Monroe Hewlett[1] Washington Hull |
TheWilliam A. Clark House, nicknamed "Clark's Folly",[2] was amansion located at 962Fifth Avenue on the northeast corner of its intersection with East 77th Street on theUpper East Side ofManhattan, New York City. It was demolished in 1927 and replaced with a luxury apartment building (960 Fifth Avenue).
William A. Clark, a wealthy entrepreneur and politician fromMontana, commissioned the New York City firm ofLord, Hewlett & Hull to build the mansion in 1897. It was completed in 1911, after numerous legal disputes,[1] at a cost of $7 million[2] (equivalent to $236,225,000 in 2024). The mansion contained 121 rooms, 31 baths, four art galleries, aswimming pool, a concealedgarage, and a privateundergroundrail line to bring incoal for heat.[2]
Clark bought aquarry inNew Hampshire, at a cost of $50,000 (equivalent to $1,687,000 in 2024), and built a railroad to transport the stone for the building. He also bought abronzefoundry employing 200 men to manufacture the bronze fittings.[2] In addition, he imported marble fromItaly, oak fromSherwood Forest inEngland, and parts of oldFrenchchâteaux for the interior.[2]
The building of the mansion is described in the bestselling biography of Clark's daughter,Huguette, and her family,Empty Mansions: The Mysterious Life of Huguette Clark and the Spending of a Great American Fortune byBill Dedman and Paul Clark Newell, Jr.
The house took up 250 feet on 77th Street and 77 feet onFifth Avenue, more than any otherGilded Age mansion on Fifth opposite the park, with the exception of theAndrew Carnegie Mansion.[3] The Fifth Avenue frontage was large for a New York house, with three bays of granite.
On 77th Street, the house featured a long facade rising to a steepmansard roof. The mansion featured a spectacular four-sided tower with a three-story-high inward-curving arch topped by an openpergola[3] that was said to have been visible from almost anywhere inCentral Park.[4]
The house rose nine stories, withVictorian Turkish baths below ground level, laundry rooms on the top floor and many Greek marble columns. There was aNumidian marble fireplace in the banquet room that measured 15 ft. across, with life-size figures of Diana and Neptune. The 121 rooms were filled with medieval tapestries and artwork. In the breakfast room, there were 170 carved panels, with no two being identical.[5]
On the second floor was arotunda, 36 feet high, ofMaryland marble with eight Bresche violet marble columns, used as thestatuary room. The room opened onto aconservatory of solid brass and glass, 30 feet high and 22 feet wide. Across the rotunda was the marble-paneled main picture gallery, which was 95 ft. long and two stories high. Anorgan loft housed the largest chamber organ in America.[5] TheMurray M. Harris organ, designed by Arthur Scott Brook, had four manuals (keyboards) and pedalboard, 74 ranks and 71 speaking stops.[6]
TheSalon Doré, an ornate 18th-century room taken from theHotel de Clermont [fr] inParis, was installed in the house and served as the receiving room.[7]
There were 25 guest rooms with their own baths, and 35 servants' rooms, with men's quarters (to the east) and female rooms (to the west). There was also aGothic library that was 90 feet long, featuring a beamed ceiling and an immense carved fireplace.[5]
Clark's art collection included works byEugène Delacroix,Jean-François Millet,Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot,John Constable,François Boucher andCharles-François Daubigny. It was reported that he spent $200,000 (equivalent to $6,749,000 in 2024) for theGobelin tapestries owned byPrince Murat and $350,000 (equivalent to $11,811,000 in 2024) for those of theEarl of Coventry.[5]
In 1925, upon Clark's death, his widow and his daughter,Huguette Clark, moved to907 Fifth Avenue, where the annual rental for a full-floor apartment was about $30,000.[3] Shortly thereafter, the mansion was sold toAnthony Campagna for $3 million (equivalent to $53,789,000 in 2024). He had the home torn down in 1927, less than 20 years after it was built.[2] It was replaced with the current luxury apartment building at960 Fifth Avenue.[1] TheSalon Doré was bequeathed to theCorcoran Gallery of Art inWashington, D.C.[7]
Montgomery Schuyler, in a column titled "Architectural Aberrations" inArchitectural Record, stated that the house was "an appropriate residence for the lateP. T. Barnum." He felt the tower was "meaningless and fatuous"; the rounded rustication on the first floor suggested the prototype of "a log house." At the time, the French style had gone out of fashion and the ornamentation was no longer in vogue. Schuyler wrote that "a certified check to the amount of all this stone carving hung on the outer wall would serve every artistic purpose attained by the carving itself."[3]
The editor ofThe Architect called the mansion "The House of a Thousand Cartouches" and despised the "dolorous and ponderous granite" chosen.[3] At the time, these opinions were widespread, earning it the nickname "Clark's Folly".[2]
In 2011, however,TheNew York Times architectural criticChristopher Gray stated the house was, in fact, "a pretty neat house. IfCarrère & Hastings had designed it for an establishment client, its profligacy would certainly have been forgiven, perhaps lionized."[3]
Notes
Bibliography
40°46′30.8″N73°57′52.8″W / 40.775222°N 73.964667°W /40.775222; -73.964667