Mansions of the Gilded Age: Fifth Avenue mansion of Huguette Clark

Tuesday, March 20, 2012

Fifth Avenue mansion of Huguette Clark

Here is the gold salon of the mansion at Fifth Avenue and 77th Street that was the childhood home of reclusive heiress Huguette Clark. The house was built by her father Senator William A. Clark to be the biggest and showiest mansion on Fifth Avenue. It unfortunately only lasted about 20 years.

For more on this house with floor plans, click HERE.

4 comments:

chauncy primm said...: oh yeah i have pics and the floorplan of that mansion. it was replaced by a very expensive apartment building. it cost a sweet $7 million and took 13 years i think to build. Henri deglane was the one responsible for the real expenses and the critics hated it, mocking the tower or belvedere.; March 20, 2012 at 2:07 PM
Gary Lawrance said...: It really was a fascinating house. Too bad it didn't survive.; March 20, 2012 at 4:17 PM
NYarch said...: The Clark mansion was spectacular in its grandeur and for all the criticism it received when built, the home contained some of the finest interior panelling, furnishings and artwork, much of it which went to the Corcoran Gallery in DC, I believe. Many contemporary homes on 5th Ave couldnt compare with the quality of the Clark mansion. I love the tower and bow front facade and the tall steep roof, everything the early 20th C. critics hated, but hey, they were only critics. Much of the mockery was due to the brash and hard elder Clark himself and old money New York society hated an upstart, especially one who came to their hometown to build a mansion to outdo them all. Unfortunate it did not survive indeed along with the Vanderbilt home on Grand Army Plaza and the Schwab home on Riverside. Now that trio of homes is my idea of fantasy Gilded Age residential architecture in NYC.; March 20, 2012 at 8:21 PM
Gary Lawrance said...: Yes, I think those are some of the grandest that are gone. Even though I always loved the Vanderbilt mansion on the Plaza, it was an odd house and it wouldn't have looked as impressive with out the house next to it, done in the same style and I am sure most visitors who saw it, assumed it was all one house.; March 21, 2012 at 7:00 AM