When Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist Bill Dedman noticed in 2009 a grand home for sale, unoccupied for nearly sixty years, he stumbled through a surprising portal into American history. Empty Mansions is a rich mystery of wealth and loss, connecting the Gilded Age opulence of the nineteenth century with a twenty-first-century battle over a $300 million inheritance. At its heart is a reclusive … is a reclusive heiress named Huguette Clark, a woman so secretive that, at the time of her death at age 104, no new photograph of her had been seen in decades. Though she owned palatial homes in California, New York, and Connecticut, why had she lived for twenty years in a simple hospital room, despite being in excellent health? Why were her valuables being sold off? Was she in control of her fortune, or controlled by those managing her money?
Dedman has collaborated with Huguette Clark’s cousin, Paul Clark Newell, Jr., one of the few relatives to have frequent conversations with her. Dedman and Newell tell a fairy tale in reverse: the bright, talented daughter, born into a family of extreme wealth and privilege, who secrets herself away from the outside world.
Huguette was the daughter of self-made copper industrialist W. A. Clark, nearly as rich as Rockefeller in his day, a controversial senator, railroad builder, and founder of Las Vegas. She grew up in the largest house in New York City, a remarkable dwelling with 121 rooms for a family of four. She owned paintings by Degas and Renoir, a world-renowned Stradivarius violin, a vast collection of antique dolls. But wanting more than treasures, she devoted her wealth to buying gifts for friends and strangers alike, to quietly pursuing her own work as an artist, and to guarding the privacy she valued above all else.
The Clark family story spans nearly all of American history in three generations, from a log cabin in Pennsylvania to mining camps in the Montana gold rush, from backdoor politics in Washington to a distress call from an elegant Fifth Avenue apartment. The same Huguette who was touched by the terror attacks of 9/11 held a ticket nine decades earlier for a first-class stateroom on the second voyage of the Titanic.
Empty Mansions reveals a complex portrait of the mysterious Huguette and her intimate circle. We meet her extravagant father, her publicity-shy mother, her star-crossed sister, her French boyfriend, her nurse who received more than $30 million in gifts, and the relatives fighting to inherit Huguette’s copper fortune. Richly illustrated with more than seventy photographs, Empty Mansions is an enthralling story of an eccentric of the highest order, a last jewel of the Gilded Age who lived life on her own terms.
Advance praise for Empty Mansions
“Empty Mansions is a dazzlement and a wonder. Bill Dedman and Paul Newell unravel a great character, Huguette Clark, a shy soul akin to Boo Radley in To Kill a Mockingbird—if Boo’s father had been as rich as Rockefeller. This is an enchanting journey into the mysteries of the mind, a true-to-life exploration of strangeness and delight.”—Pat Conroy, author of The Death of Santini: The Story of a Father and His Son
“Empty Mansions is at once an engrossing portrait of a forgotten American heiress and a fascinating meditation on the crosswinds of extreme wealth. Hugely entertaining and well researched, Empty Mansions is a fabulous read.”—Amanda Foreman, author of A World on Fire
From the Hardcover edition.
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Fantastic look at eccentricity and the history of gilded age people. Inspiring, sad and realistic in its interpretation of how the rich function, or don’t function, in the real world. Scary when looking at how the innocent can be taken advantage of.
This book was recommended to me by a family friend. The Clark family originated from Connellsville and that is where I grew up. It is always amazing to me to see our little corner of the world in a book.
This is the true story of Huguette Clark and her family. The Clark family made their millions on copper in the late 1800s. Huguette was the youngest child of W.A. Clark. She was born in 1906 and lived until the age of 104. Even thought Hugette had several houses all over the country, and over 300 million dollars to her name, she spent the last 20 years of her life living in a small, hospital room at a local hospital in New York City. Even though she was healthy, she refused to move back to her sprawling New York City apartment.
The book covers the years from when W.A. Clark was a child, through how he made his money, his two wives and his many children. W.A. Clark was on par with the Rockafellars and Carnegies in terms of wealth and eventually built a 121 room house in NYC. The family owned valuable paintings from famous artist, several stradavarius violins, and countless priceless items.
Huguette spent a large part of her life living as a recluse, yet being generous with giving her money away. She gave away large amounts to her favorite nurse and people close to her. She gave her most expensive Violin away (priced at 6 million dollars) to someone she knew who wanted to start a string quartet. The amount of money she had in liquid cash, not to mention in real estate and valuables, was mind blowing.
I really enjoyed this book. I had a hard time putting it down to do other things. I became invested in the story. The book is well written, and well told. Huguette lived through so many things – the sinking of the Titanic (which she and her family were supposed to be on once it reached the United States), two World Wars, 9/11…..just an incredibly long life. And one where she was clear and generous until the end.
I did feel like she was taken advantage of, especially by her nurse and her family, her lawyers, and even the hospital administrators. Huguette had interest that many would consider immature – or even concerning – late into her life. For example – she collected dolls, and doll houses. Spending 100s or 1000s of dollars on them over the course of her life. For those of us who cannot ever fathom seeing that much money in our lifetime, it is hard to understand spending it on things we might consider frivolous.
I encourge you to read this book. It was really wonderful and I am so glad our friends introduced it to me.
I remember reading the article when it first appeared and it was a shocker-millionaire single woman with no family and is sounds like she is being taken advantage of. This book delved deep into her mysterious life. At times you feel bad for her even though she had everything in life she could have except for friends and family. I like how he explored her whole life from start to finish. Although we will never get some answers about her life this was an excellent read.
Easy reading . The writer was very adept at describing the period, architecture, and individuals. A look inside the world of extreme wealth was the informative-entertaining part.
This is a true tragic story of a life wasted which seems all too frequent among the VERY rich. It’s a picture of greed on numerous levels from the heiress and those who could have helped but didn’t and those whose sole motivation was money.
Was immediately drawn into the mystery of this story. The most positively interesting person, however, was W.A. Clark. Not a name we normally associate with great wealth (as a Rockefeller or Vanderbilt), but of great wealth indeed.
I admired his ability to identify opportunity, pursue education and to enrich areas for the good of those around him. His long life was filled with family, tragedy, overwhelming successful, and some scandal, too!
Much of the story, of course, outlines the life of his daughter Huguette. Raised with tremendous opulence and recreated European grandeur, her life journey was far different from that of her fathers.
A ‘peculiar’ person, who had creative gifts of her own, yet she and them were generally hidden from public view. At times charitably generous, she was keenly aware that money was able to buy anything. . . . . . and that included people. Her wealth enriched the caretakers (to an exorbitant extent) during the last decades of her life hidden away in a hospital, while mansions sat cared for and empty.
For many this unfortunate study of human self-serving conduct will spark emotional reactions, as it did for me.
A fascinating account of accomplishment, followed by squandered wealth, phony relationships and greed.
I had never heard of this family before. W.A. Clark was a copper miner. She was his daughter by his 2nd wife. The amount of money is overwhelming. The story left me very sad at the end. No one cared for this poor lady. I can’t believe how the hospital she stayed in treated her or hown her nurse can make excuses. Interesting read.
Got bored & never finished this pne.
If you like history of rich families
This book was fascinating!!
The author stumbled on this exceedingly strange tale of a “poor little rich girl” who inherited 2 mansions – one gargantuan and ornate one on 5th Avenue, and the other on the California coast – from her successful metal baron father. She also bought a 3rd one in Connecticut as a flee-house in case of an air raid on NYC. After the death of her adored older sister, she gradually withdrew from society, she had a brief marriage, and totally withdrew from public view after her mother’s death, leaving the large mansions uninhabited,
She conducted lengthy global correspondences, had phone conversations with her lawyers, was obsessed with dolls. The last 20 years of her long life was spent in a New York hospital for no real medical reasons. She was financially generous to her private nurse in this facility, but resisted the hospital board’s requests to become a patron of the hospital. A strange tale indeed.
Truth is definitely stranger than fiction. This was a fascinating and well-rounded account of a woman with a truly unusual story.
I had heard of someone who owned many homes, never lived in them, but did not know where her money came from or what her life was like. Ms. Clark was certainly an original, an eccentric and very talented artist. Certainly worth the time it takes to read it.
Never knew about this woman
Her story was amazing and at the same time heartbreaking
It left me with the feeling I would not soon forget her
Interesting, well researched and written.
Very interesting book some time with too much detail but still a very interesting read
In 2009, Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist Bill Dedman noticed a grand home for sale. Learning it had been unoccupied for 60 years, Dedman began some research, and ended up with an incredible tale to tell. This book was well-researched, and the subject matter grabs you and just doesn’t let go.
Huguette Clark died at 104, and her worth was estimated at about $300 million. She owned multiple mansions and apartments, yet she died nearly a recluse in a plain hospital room where she had spent the last 20 years of her life. Was she able to make her own decisions, or were they being made for her? Were her caretakers really looking out for her interests, or their own? You have to keep reading to see what happens next.
Let’s start at the beginning. Huguette Clark was the youngest daughter of W. A. Clark. W.A. had tried gold mining, but found it more profitable to supply the miners with goods. He had a real knack for making money, and later made a fortune in mining, banking and railroads, and was the founder of Las Vegas. In his later years, he turned to politics and served as a senator. Clark was 62 when he married 23-year old Anna, Huguette’s mother, in about 1901. I found the length of history spanned by father and daughter astounding. W. A. was born in 1839, during the time of the 8th U.S. president, Martin Van Buren. He was 22 at the start of the Civil War. Huguette was born in 1906, during the time of the 26th U.S. president, Theodore Roosevelt. 170 years after he was born, his youngest child was still alive at 103, during the time of the 44th president, Barack Obama.
W.A. made his fortune, becoming one of the richest men in the U.S., and he then set out to build a palace in New York City the likes of no other. The palace consisted of 121 rooms, 31 baths, four art galleries, Turkish baths, swimming pool, storage room for furs, concealed garage and a private underground rail line to bring in coal for heat. On a typical day, the home used 7 tons of coal to heat the home and run power plants to service 2 elevators, maintain cold storage and air filtration plants, and provide electricity for 4,200 lightbulbs. To expedite the completion, he bought a bronze foundry, which used copper from his Arizona mine, to make the radiator gratings and door locks. To undercut the cost of granite, he bought the quarry. Same with the stone-dressing plant, the marble factory, the woodwork factory and the decorative plaster plant.
The inside of the home contained 13th century stained glass windows from a cathedral at Soissons, France, and the art gallery contained paintings by Renoir, Cezanne, Dega, Manet, Monet. W.A. also collected Italian Renaissance earthenware (vases, inkwells, figurines), pieces that had been owned by the Borgias and the Medicis. A fun fact that has nothing to do with the story, but the artists used brushes made from mouse whiskers.
After W.A.’s death, his fortune is split between all his children and Anna, with Anna and Huguette receiving what is portrayed as a smaller amount. At the time of W.A. and Anna’s marriage, the children from his first marriage expressed their displeasure that they would have to share the fortune. When Huguette died, the greedy offspring of those greedy children would petition the court to overturn her will.
Huguette’s adulthood was spent mostly in solitude. She had a brief marriage, and while she was a private person, she was not quite a recluse. Huguette had a small and intimate circle of friends and she pursued work as an artist. She also collected dolls (I did look some of them up, and have to say I found some downright creepy) and she spent untold dollars commissioning doll houses for her “little people.”
She entered the hospital as she had untreated skin cancers and was not taking care of herself. After treatment, she was able to leave the hospital, but she chose not to. She ended up spending the remaining 20 years of her life in the hospital, by choice. Hospital officials accomodated her, hoping that their “biggest bucks contributing potential” patient would leave a hefty contribution. Yet they made fun of her and moved her to the worst room. hy would she want to stay in a drab hospital room instead of one of her homes? She had the money to hire a staff to take care of her around the clock.
Her estate included artwork by Renoir, Manet, Monet, Rembrandt, Rubens, Degas, Rousseau, Titian, Raphael, and a Stradivarius that was perhaps the finest in the world that was not in a museum. Of course, you know that there will be a play for her estate. There are a lot of questions I had about the outright greed of those who were supposed to be looking out for her.
Whatever her foibles, all Huguette wanted to do was to “live happily, live hidden.” She was an eccentric rich woman, and this was a fascinating story.
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I throughly enjoyed reading about a New York that has come & gone & how the extraordinarily wealthy woman portrayed in the book lived her life, and even with all she possessed a happily ever after was not in the cards! I recommend this book to all who think only money is the answer to complete joy and happiness!
Great story about the gilded age. This family was one I wasn’t familiar with. Very interesting look back to a bygone era.
Interesting and historical. Very long but a good book.