Empty Mansions

by Bill Dedman

  Patrick McCord, the plot whisperer, offered valuable insights from the Editing Company in Westport, Connecticut.

  Guillaine Dale Farrell translated from French four thousand pages of correspondence from Huguette’s papers and was a patient translator of continuing conversations with contacts in France. In Paris, Ph.D. student Alexander Yarbrough from the University of Buffalo helped by tracing the history of Etienne de Villermont and the Allard family’s interrupted path to nobility. Research assistants who contributed hundreds of hours to this effort were Michelle Crespo, Margaux Stack-Babich, Sara Germano, and Beau Caruso. Roland Jones helped with public records in New York, and Jacques Kauffmann in France.

  Other researchers who have walked the Clark trail showed great kindness toward this project. Professor Keith Edgerton of Montana State University Billings, who graciously shared research files on W. A. Clark. Retired newspaperman Steven Shirley in Helena, who reached Huguette for a couple of chats on the phone, offered his memories and his extensive bibliography of Montana history. Don Lynch provided research on the Titanic and the Clarks. Author Brad Tyer, who surveyed the environmental damage in Montana. Documentary photographer Elijah Solomon, who looked into the circumstances of Timothy Gray’s life and death. Others who offered information include Barney Brantingham of The Santa Barbara Independent and Gerry O’Brien, Carmen Winslow, Tim Trainor, and Roberta Stauffer of The Montana Standard.

  Generous assistance came from experts in diverse special subjects. On psychiatry in geriatric patients, Dr. Benjamin Liptzin, professor and deputy chair of psychiatry at Tufts University School of Medicine and psychiatry chair at Baystate Medical Center. On the history of fashions, Nancy Deihl, a master teacher of costume studies at New York University. On the music of harpist Marcel Grandjany, Professor Kathleen Bride of the Eastman School of Music at the University of Rochester. On Huguette’s paintings and the women artists of her time, Associate Professor Marice E. Rose of Fairfield University. On Japanese art and translation, postdoctoral teaching fellow Ive Covaci of Fairfield University. On New York architecture, attorney/architect Andrew Alpern. On charitable gift annuities, wealth management specialist Gavin Morrissey of Commonwealth Financial Network. On Huguette’s Stradivarius violin, La Pucelle, collector David Fulton, dealer Charles Beare, and violinist James Ehnes. On Butte and its mining history, geologist and historian Richard I. Gibson. On Masonic history and the Vigilantes, Reid Gardiner and Daniel Gardiner of the Grand Masonic Lodge of Montana. On the French nobility, Professor Jonathan S. Dewald of the University of Buffalo. On the Clark pipe organ, author Jim Lewis. On medical ethics, Yale University senior scholar Daniel Callahan, president emeritus of the Hastings Center. For analysis of Huguette’s tax returns, journalist David Cay Johnston. For information on copper-jacketed bullets, Dale Clingan. On the trees and plants at Bellosguardo from detailed photographs, Jessica Lawrence of Green Landscape Nursery in Santa Clarita, California. On the Hawaiian language, Professor Puakea Nogelmeier of the University of Hawaii Manoa. And on Huguette’s automobiles, Geoffrey Keller at Dragone Classic Motorcars in Westport, Connecticut.

  Many members of the Clark family shared information, despite their attorney’s repeated admonitions. We drew on the genealogical research on the family by Eve Newell, Colin Berens, and J. P. Canton and the resourceful research staff at Ancestry.com.

  Many individuals who had contact with the Clarks provided invaluable information: Reminiscences of life at Bellosguardo in Santa Barbara came from Barbara Hoelscher Doran and Barry Hoelscher, among others. The son and grandson of Félix Lorioux, Jean-Loup Brusson and Fabrice Brusson, graciously shared information on his work and his patron Huguette. Ann Raynolds and Leontine “Tina” Lyle Harrower described their godmother, Anna Clark. John Taylor still has the Rolls-Royce that Huguette and Bill Gower took on their honeymoon, his father having purchased it after the Clark chauffeur sold it to a dealer. Janice Benatz shared information on Clarkdale, Arizona; Ann Fabrizio on her father, Robert Samuels, and the work of French & Company, which redecorated Huguette’s apartments; Jeff Southmayd on his great-grandfather, Nathan Leroy Southmayd, who may be the man in the middle of the photo of three miners on page 24; Mary Muir on one of Huguette’s paintings found in a London shop; and Stephen Gruse on W. A. Clark, Jr. And then there’s Michael Nygaard, the ultimate Huguette fan.

  One of the pleasures of this hunt has been the chance to work with so many noteworthy institutions. Very special thanks to Art Loss Register, London (Chris Marinello); Associated Press, New York (Carolyn McGoldrick); Barbara Cleary’s Realty Guild, New Canaan, Connecticut (Barbara and Brian Cleary); Brown Brothers, Sterling, Pennsylvania (Linda Tyler); Brown Harris Stevens, New York (John Burger, Kristin Clark, Leslie Coleman, Amy Gotzler, Mary Rutherfurd, Danielle Wagner, Hall Willkie); Butte Silver Bow Arts Foundation, Butte, Montana (Glenn Bodish, Gretchen Miller); Butte–Silver Bow Public Archives, Butte (Ellen Crain, Irene Scheidecker, Harriet Schultz); Christie’s, New York (Jaime Bernice, Erin McAndrews); Clarkdale Historical Society & Museum, Arizona (Mary Lu Estlick); Copper King Mansion, Butte (Erin Sigl, Pat Sigl, John Thompson); Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. (Marisa Bourgoin, Melanie Feaster, Ila Furman, Kristin Guiter, Dare Myers Hartwell, Anna Kuehl); County of Santa Barbara, California (Beverly Curren); Dunbar Historical Society, Pennsylvania (Donna Myers); Durand-Ruel & Co., Paris (Paul-Louis Durand-Ruel); Fairfield University, Connecticut (Professor Joel Goldfield); Girl Scout National Historic Preservation Center, New York (Pamela Cruz, Yevgeniya Gribov, Michelle Tompkins); Harry S. Truman Library and Museum, Independence, Missouri (Randy Sowell); Iowa Wesleyan College, Mount Pleasant (Lynn Ellsworth, Jay Simmons); Jerome Historical Society, Arizona (Allen Muma); the Joint Commission, Oakbrook Terrace, Illinois (Elizabeth Zhani); Lewis & Clark Fort Mandan Foundation, Washburn, North Dakota (Nicolette Borlaug, Joseph Mussulman); Mark Twain Papers, University of California, Berkeley (Neda Salem); Montana Historical Society Research Center, Helena (Rebecca Kohl, Delores Morrow, Zoe Ann Stoltz); Montecito Historical Archives of the Montecito Association, California (Dana Newquist, Guy Webb); Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, Wellington (Jennifer Twist); Museum of the City of New York (Nilda Rivera, Lindsay Turley); Nassau County District Attorney’s Office, Mineola, New York (Carole Trottere); NBC News InfoCenter, New York (Donna Mendell); Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City (Kathleen Leighton, Toni Wood); New Canaan Historical Society (Janet Lindstrom); New York County District Attorney’s Office (Erin Duggan); New York Department of Education, Office of the Professions, Albany (Jane Briggs); New-York Historical Society (Robert Delap, Eleanor Gillers, Marybeth Kavanagh, Jill Slaight, Joe Festa); The New York Times and Redux Pictures (Rosemary Morrow, Jeff Roth); Nippon Music Foundation, Tokyo (Kazuko Shiomi); Onyx Classics, London (Matthew Cosgrove); Paul Clark Home, Butte (Corri Evans, Betty Ostoj); Pearl S. Buck Family Trust, New York (Craig Tenney); Princeton University’s Seeley G. Mudd Manuscript Library, Princeton, New Jersey (Christa Cleeton, Charles Greene, Anna Chen); Santa Barbara Historical Museum (Michael Redmon); Santa Barbara Trust for Historic Preservation (Anne Petersen); Save Our Seminary, Silver Spring, Maryland (Bonnie Rosenthal); Sotheby’s, London and New York (Blair Hance, Virginia Harley); the Surrogate’s Court, New York City (Suzan Tell, Eugene McCusker, Omar Colon, Marcia Goffin, Diana Sanabria); Tokyo String Quartet (Louise Beach); United Daughters of the Confederacy, Richmond, Virginia (Jane Durden); University of Montana, Missoula (Kathy Zeiler); University of Nevada, Las Vegas (Su Kim, Kelli Luchs); University of Virginia Law School Foundation, Charlottesville (David Ibbeken); Wildenstein & Company, New York (Joseph Baillio); William Andrews Clark Memorial Library, University of California, Los Angeles (Gerald Cloud, Rebecca Fenning Marschall); World Museum of Mining (Dolores Cooney, Tina Davis, Tom Satterthwaite).

  Advice and assistance with photographs came from John Makely, Jonathan Sanger, David Britt-Friedman, Jim Seida, Meredith Birkett, and Damon Kiesow. We acknowledge the granting of publication rights by Cris Molina, Buddy Mo
ffet, David Fulton, Patrice Gilbert, and Stefen Turner.

  Thank you to early readers for suggestions on the manuscript: JoNel Aleccia, Andrew Alpern, Ted Anthony, Linda Dahlstrom, Steven Epley, Gene Foreman, Tish Fried, Don Fry, Lisa Holewa, Tom Johnson, Dave Kindred, Lenette Kosovich, Claire Viguerie Layrisson, Andrew Meyers, and Leslie Spangler.

  I thank co-author Paul Newell for his good humor, gentlemanly spirit, and respect for the truth.

  Deepest thanks go to my family for enduring the latest Huguette stories, and for their loving support: my mother, Bobbye Schroeder; my brother, Scott Dedman; my son, Justin, and daughter-in-law, Brittany; my wife, Pam Belluck; and our girls, Arielle and Jillian.

  NOTES

  Abbreviations

  HMC PAPERS: The unpublished correspondence and financial records of Huguette M. Clark, reviewed by the authors.

  HMC MEDICAL RECORDS: The medical records from Huguette Clark’s twenty-year stay at Doctors Hospital and Beth Israel Medical Center.

  DEPOSITIONS: Sworn testimony from the several proceedings related to the estate of Huguette M. Clark, Surrogate’s Court of the State of New York County, County of New York, case 1995-1375A. Most of the testimony has not been filed with the court, but all of it has been reviewed by the authors.

  Introduction

  1 THERE WAS AN ODD NOTE: The zoning attorney for Huguette Clark, Edward Mellick, said at a meeting of the New Canaan Planning and Zoning Commission on December 18, 2007, that the Clark home “has never been lived in.” (In fact, it was occupied until 1951, when Huguette bought it.) She was seeking approval for a subdivision into ten lots, to make it easier to sell the property. The minutes are available online at http://​ebookbrowse.​com/​plan-​zone-​comm-​minutes-​071218-​pdf-​d1211​48791.

  2 ACCORDING TO THE INTERNET CHATTER: See, for example, Edhat Santa Barbara, http://​www.​edhat.​com/​site/​tidbit.​cfm?​id=​1215&​tid=​1394&​art=​13051.

  3 THE NEW YORK TIMES CALCULATED: “Fortunes Which Exceed a Hundred Million Dollars,” The New York Times, February 24, 1907. “John D. Rockefeller’s fortune, according to Frederick T. Gates, his almoner, ‘cannot exceed $250,000,000 to $300,000,000.’ This statement was made last week on Mr. Rockefeller’s own estimate. While this figure indicates a smaller sum than Mr. Rockefeller has been popularly supposed possessed of, it leaves him still the richest man in America, although many believe Senator William Clark may prove eventually to be the richest man in the United States.… A recent estimate of Senator Clark’s fortune at something over $150,000,000 was considered not excessive.” The Times, after W.A.’s death, settled on the figure of $250 million as an estimate of his estate. For tax purposes, the total came in at about half that amount, with Arizona valuing his properties there at $80 million, Montana $40 million, New York $10 million, and California $1.5 million.

  4 ANNA LACHAPELLE CLARK: The name is sometimes spelled La Chapelle, or LaChappelle, but family documents consistently show LaChapelle.

  5 ONE-FIFTH OF THE ESTATE: Last will and testament of W. A. Clark, Surrogate’s Court of the State of New York County, County of New York; available online at NBCNews.​com, http://​msnbcmedia.​msn.​com/​i/​msnbc/​Sections/​NEWS/​William_​Clark_​Will.​pdf.

  6 IN RESEARCHING STORIES: The reports on Huguette by msnbc.com, NBCNews.​com, and the Today show are collected at http://​nbcnews.​com/​clark/.

  7 NEW YORK TABLOIDS: See, for example, Doug Auer, Laura Italiano, and Dan Mangan, “ ‘Princess’ of Beth Israel,” New York Post, August 27, 2010.

  8 FRONT PAGE OF THE NEW YORK TIMES: Margalit Fox, “Huguette Clark, Reclusive Heiress, Dies at 104,” The New York Times, May 24, 2011.

  An Apparition

  1 DR. HENRY SINGMAN: Dr. Singman described his visit to 907 Fifth Avenue on March 26, 1991, in a note in Huguette Clark’s medical chart on April 30, 1996. This note was filed with his affidavit in Surrogate’s Court, May 24, 2012.

  Still Life

  1 “ON 29 NOVEMBER 2001”: Photograph, HMC papers.

  2 ARMSTRONG FILLED THE QUIET AFTERNOONS: Walter Armstrong’s bagpipe playing was remembered by Barry Hoelscher, son of the estate manager, in an interview with Dedman, February 27, 2012.

  3 HUGUETTE PAID HIM HIS FULL SALARY: HMC papers.

  4 TWO OF THE AUTOMOBILES: Photographs, HMC papers.

  Chapter 1: The Clark Mansion, Part One

  1 ARRIVED IN NEW YORK HARBOR: See, for example, The Anaconda Standard, “Former Senator Clark and His Daughters,” July 6, 1910, and Grand Rapids Press (Michigan), “Children Speak No English: Former Senator Clark Had Them Educated in France,” July 28, 1910.

  2 BORN IN PARIS: Huguette was born in the elegant sixteenth arrondissement of Paris, an area known as Passy.

  3 FRANCE’S BELOVED NOVELIST: All of Paris had turned out for Hugo’s funeral in 1885.

  4 “LET ME THINK IT OVER”: Coffey deposition.

  5 HIS NEW YORK APARTMENT: The Clark apartment was in the Navarro Flats, the Spanish-themed apartment buildings at 175 West Fifty-Eighth Street.

  6 “WHEN THIS MODERN PALACE”: Progress on the construction of the Clark mansion was reported regularly in newspapers and magazines around the world. See, for example, “The Most Remarkable House in the World,” The Straits Times (Singapore), May 19, 1906; “The Astonishing Story and First Photographs of America’s Costliest Palace,” The World Magazine, September 24, 1905; “New York’s Most Expensive Private Mansion,” The New York Times, May 31, 1908; “Costly Furnishings of an American Palace,” Michigan Artisan, June 10, 1908; and “$125,000 Pipe Organ to Soothe Former Senator Clark,” The San Francisco Call, June 11, 1911. W.A. had bought the corner lot in 1895; see “Senator Clark’s New Home Causes a Suit,” The New York Times, December 11, 1901, which describes a disagreement over architects’ fees. Construction had begun by February 1899; see “W. A. Clark’s New House,” The New York Times, February 6, 1899.

  7 THEY WENT COASTING: Photos and letters, HMC papers.

  8 REPORTERS WHO TOURED THE HOME: Details of the home are drawn from photographs and many newspaper and magazine articles. See, for example, “Senator Clark’s Home,” The New York Times, February 28, 1904.

  9 LITTLE-KNOWN FIRM: The first architects on the Clark mansion were from the firm of Lord, Hewlett & Hull.

  10 TO HURRY ALONG THE WORK: “Senator Clark’s New Home Causes a Suit,” The New York Times, December 11, 1901.

  11 “I AM NOT MUCH OF A CHURCHMAN”: W. A. Clark to W. M. Bickford, letter, March 13, 1915. He was being asked to donate to another church building. “I have, I think, helped to build every church in Butte and a number of others in the state. As you well know, I am not much of a churchman, and I think the superabundance of churches results in an unjust burden upon the resources of the community in maintenance thereof.”

  12 JOAN OF ARC: The son of artist Louis-Maurice Boutet de Monvel described how the planned paintings for Domrémy became a Clark commission, in “Maurice Boutet de Monvel,” by Bernard Boutet de Monvel, introduced by Stéphane-Jacques Addade, Part 3; available online at http://​www.​stephane-​jacques-​addade.​com/​en/​maurice-​boutet-​de-​monvel-​3/​by-​bernard-​boutet-​de-​monvel-​part-​3.

  13 SALON DORÉ: The room was decorated with mirror-paneled doors, garlands, and “trophy panels,” vertical decorations derived from the practice of hanging captured weapons from a tree or standard on a battlefield. The original panels represented victory, love, music, and the arts and sciences, and W.A. added panels for theater and sports. Overhead, a canvas ceiling was painted with putti, the clever, chubby figures of winged male children, frolicking amid stately figures representing the seasons and the arts.

  14 VAINGLORIOUS FRENCH NOBLEMAN: The comte d’Orsay, with designs by the architect of the Arc de Triomphe.

  15 “AS THE SENATOR AND MRS. CLARK”: “New York’s Most Expensive Private Mansion: For the First Time a Detailed Description Is Given of Senator Clark’s Fifth Avenue Palace, a
Residence Remarkable Among American Homes,” The New York Times, May 31, 1908.

  16 THE FAMILY OF FOUR: U.S. Census, New York City, 1920.

  17 SET OF CHINA, COSTING $100,000: “$100,000 Dinner Service,” The New York Times, December 6, 1901.

  18 DICKENS AND CONAN DOYLE: The books from W.A.’s library are detailed in an auction catalog for a sale on January 29, 1926, by the American Art Association, New York.

  19 A BOOK OF THE GREAT HOUSES: Huguette had a copy of Michael C. Kathrens’s Great Houses of New York, 1880–1930 (New York: Acanthus Press, 2005), published in her ninety-ninth year.

  20 P. T. BARNUM: “The House of Senator Clark,” Architectural Record, January 1906, 27.

  21 “THESE OPINIONS HAVE BEEN PARROTED”: Christopher Gray, “Huguette Clark’s ‘Worthless’ Girlhood Home,” The New York Times, June 2, 2011.

  Chapter 2: The Log Cabin

  1 WHEN THE SLIGHTLY BUILT MAN: A photograph by International News Service of the April 1914 Easter Parade on Fifth Avenue is contained in the New York Times archives.