An American Palace.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XLIV, Issue 15, 13 April 1910, Page 51

An American Palace.

The magnificent Fifth Avenue palace of ex-United States Senator W. A. Clark, the finest private residence in the United States, is now ready for occupancy, after having taken seven years to construct, at a cost of £1,400,000. Mr. Clark, who owns some of the richest mines in the West, and who is many times a millionaire, with an income of £2,500,000 a year, or nearly £7OOO a day, will move into the house with his family after he has given up his present residence in Paris. The house is at the corner of Seventy-seventh-street and Fifth Avenue, overlooking Central Park. It is seven storeys high, and contains 121 rooms, including thirty bathrooms, a Turkish bath, swimming pool, picture gallery, theatre, statuary hall, ballroom, conservatory, and roof garden. There are £400,000 worth of paintings in the picture gallery, and £200,000 worth of rugs are scattered about the house. An unusual feature of the residence is an enormous quantity of bronzes, used for decorative purposes,

inside and outside the structure. Magnificent tapestries and beautiful marbles abound on all the floors. The furniture is of Louis XIV., XV., XVI., and Empire styles. Experts searched from one end of France to the other to obtain original pieces. The Empire ceiling of an old chateau was brought from France for one of the rooms of the house. The most striking feature of the mansion is a lofty granite tower, surmounted by an open loggia, 163 ft above the sidewalk, from which a splendid view can be obtained of the waters about New York. Beneath the lower part of the tower is the conservatory, which projects over the street. The public will be admitted onee a week to the house, as if it were ;i

royal palace, for the purpose of viewing Mr. Clark’s fine art collections. The mistress of the house was married to Mr. Clark in 11)05. Sue was Miss Ada La Chapelle, daughter of a Canadian doctor who was an intimate friend of Air. Clark. When the doctor died he was not wealthy, and he left his young daughter in Mr, Clark’s care as her guardian.