A famous composer friend and a former employer lived in 906 Fifth Avenue in New York. He remarked to me in the early 1980s about a woman, Huguette Clark, who owned an apartment of an entire floor in the same building and yet no one had ever seen or met her.
This is really great! I'm from Montana, spent many years living in Butte where William Clark made his fortune and left a series of unmistakable marks. For those that don't know; Butte, MT was called "The richest Hill on Earth" due to the vast amounts ore under the mountains - most of which was copper. Clark made a good chunk of his fortune from that copper, and that fortune was inherited by his children, including none other than Huguette Clark, who used that money to live, and purchase and build homes such as the very one shown here! That copper ore was then shipped to Great Falls, home of at one point, one of the largest smoke stacks in the world. That copper ore was refined and turned into different products, primarily copper wire, which was then shipped as far East as New York City, to meet the demands of that growing town. Butte was the largest city between Seattle and Minneapolis circa the early 1900's boasting a population of nearly 120,000 people, most of whom were immigrants, and of those, most were Irish. Teddy Roosevelt stopped by in 1903 and ate Chinese food there. Believe it or not, the oldest Chinese restaurant in all the United States is in Butte, and still operating to this day! Anyways, the Clark name is still very recognizable to the people of Butte to this day and their legacy there runs deep!
I was born in 1953, and raised in Santa Barbara. I remember sitting in the sand right below the Clark mansion always wondering what that beautiful Estate above me looked like inside. Thank you for your video.
What a shame that this property never had an owner who wanted to enjoy this truly fabulous mansion in an equally fabulous area. Put me in Santa Barbara over NYC any day, especially in the dead of Winter! Very few other places on the Planet would equal this unique setting.
The book is wonderful! Highly recommend. A very rich history of America and its roots in upper society. She was wildly generous, not an eccentric just extremely private. Nothing like today.
Im addicted to this story and am so disgusted by the greedy sharks that preyed on her, in life and after death... One thing is for sure, I think Ms Clark would be very upset to know what those sharks did to her long time caregiver, after she died 😞.. Despite their claim, Ms Clark trusted very few people so for her to leave money to the only person that she saw every day and had a friendship with for 20 years, completely makes sense.. Just because she was a "caregiver" doesn't mean she wasn't her friend... That woman was entitled to her inheritance and not only did they steal it from her but then bullied her further by making her return previous gifts 🤔..
We should not worry about the caretaker) She received 31 million during the years ms Clark was alive, of which she settled to return 5 mill to the estate, and is doing just fine. Hope she have passed lots of it on to charity, which would be the most decent thing to do.
I'm not sure what year those phone calls were made but Huguette sounded very coherent, she had a lovely voice. It would be so wonderful to know more about her. She seemed to be perfectly fine living quite modestly for her wealth.
That address they showed in the phone book is my friends Beverly and Hurk Clark no relation to Hugette Clark. So funny how many people make up stories . I live down the street by the bird refuge on the other side of the Estate. Please read the book it’s so full of Historical information and God bless her and her sister André Clark name’s for our bird refuge. Amazing family legacy she and her parents left for Santa Barbara California 🌹❤️🏖
@ quita 1569 - Wow, you have a vivid imagination. Since I can't reply to your comment, I'll reply here & hope you see it. A quick search would have answered many of your questions. Mrs. Clark's sister died @ the age of 16 in 1919 of meningitis. Mrs. Clark had her full faculties, up until the time of her death. She was never in hospice or nursing homes, but lived at Beth Israel Hospital, per her OWN choice. She had round the clock aides & even had a private nurse, that she paid to take care of her. This nurse, Hadassah Peri, took care of her for 2 decades, working 12 hours/day, 7 days a week. Would you have someone willing to work that many hours for you? Mrs. Peri was paid well, but some people, no matter what their salary was, wouldn't be willing to work every single day of the year. Mrs. Clark was generous to those she trusted & obviously she trusted her nurse & longtime CA lawyer, more than she did her distant relatives. Nobody "mismanaged" her estate. This was already investigated, after some of her distant relatives, who didn't even know her, made the allegations. Had anyone really wanted to "mismanage" her estate, she wouldn't have been worth $300 million, at the time of her death, at almost 105. Mrs. Clark isolated herself & nobody kept her from doing anything that she didn't want to do. The only people who took advantage of Mrs. Clark, is the distant relatives of her half siblings. At least 1 grand niece agreed that the others were only after the money & she felt that the will should have been followed, like Mrs. Clark wanted, by donating much of he estate to charity. Many of those fighting for a share of her estate, had never even met her, but that didn't stop them from crawling out of the woodwork at the chance of getting what they felt they were due. She did have a relative, who wrote to her & talked to her about writing a book. It is called "Empty Mansions: The Mysterious Life of Huguette Clark and the Spending of a Great American Fortune" by Bill Dedman & Paul Clark Newell Jr. There is another book about Mrs. Huguette Clark entitled "The Phantom of Fifth Avenue: The Mysterious Life and Scandalous Death of Heiress Huguette Clark” by Meryl Gordon. Maybe you should try reading them, instead of making up your own "facts" about what happened. That way, you can turn your attentions to someone else, to make up stories about, because what you said is nothing but a figment of your own imagination.
Wonderful, the knowledge you have in this. I'm going to get the books on her, I'm fascinated! One of the places I researched was Carolands, before they brought it back to life. It was so run down, and there had been a terrible incident there when the Township offered tours. A girl was murdered by a "private" tour guide. It looks lovely now! But seeing as the blueprints were available back in the late 80's, they have adapted some of the more eloquent features of the house/chateau. I myself have seen the original blueprints. A Dream of Harriet Pullman. (Pullman Trains) in Burlingame, CA
I met Ms. Clark 1966 when I was 4-5. She lived in a hotel 60 miles away. My mother befriended her. I ran into her reintroduced several times. She invited my sixth grade class to the bird sanctuary.1974. Very quiet, my mom (generic, tried o put me up for adoption when twelve, I was only asked if I had a choice without a clear idea who, what, where, or when. I declined. I last was introduced to Ms. Clark in a retirement😅 community 1982. She wasn't assigned to my dining section. Walked over, introduced herself, may or maynot have recognized me, "Hi, my name is Hugette Clark, I honestly did not remember her because of issues at the time, Stress, abuse, health, she wanted to know, " that it would be alright to leave me something in her will. That her family had past and left her a lot of money." Now that I think about it, my mom had mentioned something about her saying she had seen me, the lady friend she would have over for dinner?!... I could not place the name. The irony being, when I first met her she said, whilst rubbing her feet, when I asked her to say her name again, it is Hugette, you won't remember it. This is not my name and I am a male. Having estranged from the Mom, after Ms. Clarks passing, showed up in the place I currently live, did not say one intelligent thing and have not seen since.
I read about her before her death. She was a recluse, didn't have any close relatives, and was heavily influenced by her cabal of lawyers. This is the problem and you misspelled "damn".
A truly Lovely Woman, amidst a world of predators. Bless her Lord, for all the good she gave to others. Reclusiveness... can many times be a blessing, being away from this wicked World.
Since turning the house into some kind of museum or gallery doesn't seem realistic (traffic, tourists etc.), how about restoring the mansion & selling it as a private home, erecting two other grand mansions on the vast acreage which would not obstruct views from the main house, turning the whole property into a private gated enclave & using the profits + proceeds from the trust to open a beautiful arts center in the city of Santa Barbara? Sounds like a win-win.
The Wikipedia Article is fairly extensive and sounds fairly accurate. Miss Clark had not been in the Santa Barbara Mansion since at least 1950. In the last 20 years of her life she was a resident of a Hospital in Manhattan being treated for recurring bouts of basal cell carcinoma; she paid a daily rate to the Hospital to stay there. She left in her will something like $8 million to Bellosquardo for a cultural/art center; $8 million by any standard is a paltry sum for endowment, however well meaning. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huguette_Clark
Not yet open for regular visits, still trying to sort things out. There have been a few occations of it opening for the public since 2018. There have been some issues regarding IRS and taxes, and potential maintenance cost being relatively higher than amount of cash left to the Foundation in the will. I think they are scratching their heads how to run the places, getting the numbers to ad up.
Make it a art foundation that’s what she wanted it was her house respect her wishes. Put her art right in the front and fill the rest of the home with other collections.
Waste?!, think not, storehouses of her memories, like yours, mine, everyone who lives, in apt, house, shack or hovel, keeps alittle something material wise from their living, as a momento of,...?... to each their own reason, that her storehouses were mansions and her momentos extravagant and expesive, bully for her, but to use the word waste in the describing anything of or pertaining to this fine humanbeing is nothing less of an insult to her and her memory.
She referred to Hugette as MRS Clark and SHE'S in charge of this project? Miss Clark would have been saddened that she didn't know her really at all... But then again isn't that ironic? No one ever saw her or spoke directly to her. So while it's sad Hugette left her wishes to a woman who can't even refer to her correctly its more sad that it makes perfect sense
She had horrible lesions on her face and she spent the last several years in the hospital in New York. She was married for a short time but it ended in divorce
What happened to all this woman's money after her death? She was a recluse for decades and lived in a convalescent center for the wealthy. Her apartment in Manhattan had not been touched since the 1930s.. The lawyers probably got all the money.
Of the about 300+ mill, 100 mill is part of the thrust owning the Santa Barbara estate, 100 mill went to Uncle Sam (80 mill gift taxes, 20 mill estate taxes) , 35 mill to relatives, 25 mill to the nurse, 20 mill to lawyers, 15 mill to some close friends, some millions to muesums/art galleries. Roughly. If things had been done 'smarter' regarding gifts, the taxes would had been much less. But the lady did what she wanted.
A famous composer friend and a former employer lived in 906 Fifth Avenue in New York. He remarked to me in the early 1980s about a woman, Huguette Clark, who owned an apartment of an entire floor in the same building and yet no one had ever seen or met her.
This is really great! I'm from Montana, spent many years living in Butte where William Clark made his fortune and left a series of unmistakable marks. For those that don't know; Butte, MT was called "The richest Hill on Earth" due to the vast amounts ore under the mountains - most of which was copper. Clark made a good chunk of his fortune from that copper, and that fortune was inherited by his children, including none other than Huguette Clark, who used that money to live, and purchase and build homes such as the very one shown here!
That copper ore was then shipped to Great Falls, home of at one point, one of the largest smoke stacks in the world. That copper ore was refined and turned into different products, primarily copper wire, which was then shipped as far East as New York City, to meet the demands of that growing town.
Butte was the largest city between Seattle and Minneapolis circa the early 1900's boasting a population of nearly 120,000 people, most of whom were immigrants, and of those, most were Irish. Teddy Roosevelt stopped by in 1903 and ate Chinese food there. Believe it or not, the oldest Chinese restaurant in all the United States is in Butte, and still operating to this day!
Anyways, the Clark name is still very recognizable to the people of Butte to this day and their legacy there runs deep!
I was born in 1953, and raised in Santa Barbara. I remember sitting in the sand right below the Clark mansion always wondering what that beautiful Estate above me looked like inside. Thank you for your video.
How time flies!
What a shame that this property never had an owner who wanted to enjoy this truly fabulous mansion in an equally fabulous area. Put me in Santa Barbara over NYC any day, especially in the dead of Winter! Very few other places on the Planet would equal this unique setting.
I hope they make it into a museum, please, myself as an artist, i'ved love to see her art, thank you Mrs Clark.
Artist, philanthropist, inventor of Social Distancing.
hahaha
@@alisonsemail people suck so I understand.
The book is wonderful! Highly recommend. A very rich history of America and its roots in upper society. She was wildly generous, not an eccentric just extremely private. Nothing like today.
Im addicted to this story and am so disgusted by the greedy sharks that preyed on her, in life and after death... One thing is for sure, I think Ms Clark would be very upset to know what those sharks did to her long time caregiver, after she died 😞.. Despite their claim, Ms Clark trusted very few people so for her to leave money to the only person that she saw every day and had a friendship with for 20 years, completely makes sense.. Just because she was a "caregiver" doesn't mean she wasn't her friend... That woman was entitled to her inheritance and not only did they steal it from her but then bullied her further by making her return previous gifts 🤔..
We should not worry about the caretaker) She received 31 million during the years ms Clark was alive, of which she settled to return 5 mill to the estate, and is doing just fine. Hope she have passed lots of it on to charity, which would be the most decent thing to do.
Loved the book…fascinating!! So delighted to have a small glimpse into her life via this video!! Thank you!
What a fascinating and wonderful woman. I wish I knew her but that would have been impossible.
Rich people are wonderful and fascinating. Poor people? Not so much.
I'm not sure what year those phone calls were made but Huguette sounded very coherent, she had a lovely voice.
It would be so wonderful to know more about her. She seemed to be perfectly fine living quite modestly for her wealth.
@Creed Ian I’d rather enjoy you...
That address they showed in the phone book is my friends Beverly and Hurk Clark no relation to Hugette Clark. So funny how many people make up stories . I live down the street by the bird refuge on the other side of the Estate. Please read the book it’s so full of Historical information and God bless her and her sister André Clark name’s for our bird refuge. Amazing family legacy she and her parents left for Santa Barbara California 🌹❤️🏖
Wow!!!!😊
@ quita 1569 - Wow, you have a vivid imagination. Since I can't reply to your comment, I'll reply here & hope you see it. A quick search would have answered many of your questions. Mrs. Clark's sister died @ the age of 16 in 1919 of meningitis.
Mrs. Clark had her full faculties, up until the time of her death. She was never in hospice or nursing homes, but lived at Beth Israel Hospital, per her OWN choice. She had round the clock aides & even had a private nurse, that she paid to take care of her. This nurse, Hadassah Peri, took care of her for 2 decades, working 12 hours/day, 7 days a week. Would you have someone willing to work that many hours for you? Mrs. Peri was paid well, but some people, no matter what their salary was, wouldn't be willing to work every single day of the year. Mrs. Clark was generous to those she trusted & obviously she trusted her nurse & longtime CA lawyer, more than she did her distant relatives. Nobody "mismanaged" her estate. This was already investigated, after some of her distant relatives, who didn't even know her, made the allegations. Had anyone really wanted to "mismanage" her estate, she wouldn't have been worth $300 million, at the time of her death, at almost 105. Mrs. Clark isolated herself & nobody kept her from doing anything that she didn't want to do.
The only people who took advantage of Mrs. Clark, is the distant relatives of her half siblings. At least 1 grand niece agreed that the others were only after the money & she felt that the will should have been followed, like Mrs. Clark wanted, by donating much of he estate to charity. Many of those fighting for a share of her estate, had never even met her, but that didn't stop them from crawling out of the woodwork at the chance of getting what they felt they were due. She did have a relative, who wrote to her & talked to her about writing a book. It is called "Empty Mansions: The Mysterious Life of Huguette Clark and the Spending of a Great American Fortune" by Bill Dedman & Paul Clark Newell Jr.
There is another book about Mrs. Huguette Clark entitled "The Phantom of Fifth Avenue: The Mysterious Life and Scandalous Death of Heiress Huguette Clark” by Meryl Gordon. Maybe you should try reading them, instead of making up your own "facts" about what happened. That way, you can turn your attentions to someone else, to make up stories about, because what you said is nothing but a figment of your own imagination.
Wonderful, the knowledge you have in this. I'm going to get the books on her, I'm fascinated! One of the places I researched was Carolands, before they brought it back to life. It was so run down, and there had been a terrible incident there when the Township offered tours. A girl was murdered by a "private" tour guide. It looks lovely now! But seeing as the blueprints were available back in the late 80's, they have adapted some of the more eloquent features of the house/chateau. I myself have seen the original blueprints. A Dream of Harriet Pullman. (Pullman Trains) in Burlingame, CA
Very passionate defense of Miss Clark. That was a very nice thing to do and to read. Thank you for having a sense of honor
Booo
Let me live in that beautiful property.
Come to live with me.
Empty Mansions book awesome read
Should be declared a National Treasure.
Great place for a mental health facilitie
I met Ms. Clark 1966 when I was 4-5. She lived in a hotel 60 miles away. My mother befriended her. I ran into her reintroduced several times. She invited my sixth grade class to the bird sanctuary.1974. Very quiet, my mom (generic, tried o put me up for adoption when twelve, I was only asked if I had a choice without a clear idea who, what, where, or when. I declined. I last was introduced to Ms. Clark in a retirement😅 community 1982. She wasn't assigned to my dining section. Walked over, introduced herself, may or maynot have recognized me, "Hi, my name is Hugette Clark, I honestly did not remember her because of issues at the time, Stress, abuse, health, she wanted to know, " that it would be alright to leave me something in her will. That her family had past and left her a lot of money." Now that I think about it, my mom had mentioned something about her saying she had seen me, the lady friend she would have over for dinner?!... I could not place the name. The irony being, when I first met her she said, whilst rubbing her feet, when I asked her to say her name again, it is Hugette, you won't remember it. This is not my name and I am a male. Having estranged from the Mom, after Ms. Clarks passing, showed up in the place I currently live, did not say one intelligent thing and have not seen since.
THE LADY LEFT IT IN HER WILL SO FOLLOW THE DAM WILL
I agree. What is the problem? Greed?
I read about her before her death. She was a recluse, didn't have any close relatives, and was heavily influenced by her cabal of lawyers. This is the problem and you misspelled "damn".
Too entitled a person studying, cleaning or pumping gas pays taxes !! No excuses to do what’s legal or expected !!
Automobiles in the carriage house had 1949 license plates. At basic 1% value, property taxes alone are almost half a million dollars per year.
A truly Lovely Woman, amidst a world of predators. Bless her Lord, for all the good she gave to others. Reclusiveness... can many times be a blessing, being away from this wicked World.
Since turning the house into some kind of museum or gallery doesn't seem realistic (traffic, tourists etc.), how about restoring the mansion & selling it as a private home, erecting two other grand mansions on the vast acreage which would not obstruct views from the main house, turning the whole property into a private gated enclave & using the profits + proceeds from the trust to open a beautiful arts center in the city of Santa Barbara? Sounds like a win-win.
Helene Schneider is beautiful! 💙
❤❤
I like her.
So what is the situation today? April 10, 2020?
The Wikipedia Article is fairly extensive and sounds fairly accurate. Miss Clark had not been in the Santa Barbara Mansion since at least 1950. In the last 20 years of her life she was a resident of a Hospital in Manhattan being treated for recurring bouts of basal cell carcinoma; she paid a daily rate to the Hospital to stay there. She left in her will something like $8 million to Bellosquardo for a cultural/art center; $8 million by any standard is a paltry sum for endowment, however well meaning. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huguette_Clark
It’s 2020. What’s the status of the mansion today?
Not yet open for regular visits, still trying to sort things out. There have been a few occations of it opening for the public since 2018. There have been some issues regarding IRS and taxes, and potential maintenance cost being relatively higher than amount of cash left to the Foundation in the will. I think they are scratching their heads how to run the places, getting the numbers to ad up.
Finally, in 2024, open for a ground-level house tour @$100.
Make it a art foundation that’s what she wanted it was her house respect her wishes. Put her art right in the front and fill the rest of the home with other collections.
So, it's been 10 years... what's the update?
The property was left to “the city of Santa Barbara “? Wth. So the city who’s the city who exactly is profiting from it? Elected officials?
READ BETWEEN THE LINES....I R S
Based on all the comments and remarks listed below I can understand why she became reclusive.
The site "Forgotten Lives" has a more somber biography of her.
Humanitarian doesnt quite do the ladys' character justice....
I read her story
She passed in 2011 at age 104 with a 3 million fortune
Three hundred million...differece in ceros.
They don't tell you Huguette Clark lived in a hospital room in Manhattan.
Taxs...taxs..taxs the end.
I find her and her world fascinating, but the fact that she had 3 mansions which she did not love in for decades shows such waste!
Waste?!, think not, storehouses of her memories, like yours, mine, everyone who lives, in apt, house, shack or hovel, keeps alittle something material wise from their living, as a momento of,...?... to each their own reason, that her storehouses were mansions and her momentos extravagant and expesive, bully for her, but to use the word waste in the describing anything of or pertaining to this fine humanbeing is nothing less of an insult to her and her memory.
The NY AG? Good God. What a mess.
They fucked the family for their own greedy ways... look at their disgusting ways....
Gift taxes?😳
Beautiful but what a waste of space. The rich are so disconnected from reality. So sad.
one elitist takes over the opulence of another elitist. no citizen will ever see the property.
Should be a tourist attraction but apparently former mayor, lives there for some reason.
Put in a community garden in place of the lawn
She referred to Hugette as MRS Clark and SHE'S in charge of this project? Miss Clark would have been saddened that she didn't know her really at all... But then again isn't that ironic? No one ever saw her or spoke directly to her. So while it's sad Hugette left her wishes to a woman who can't even refer to her correctly its more sad that it makes perfect sense
She was never married, Miss or Miz Clark.
Yes, she did marry once. Her husband's name was Bill Gower and he was a Princeton graduate and law student. They wed at Bellosguardo in 1928.
@@csfan65 she still shouldn't be referred to as MRS CLARK
@@terriec808 Yes, she WAS married to Bill Gower on August 18, 1928.
@@csfan65 then she'd be Mrs Gower NOT MRS CLARK which is my whole point. This woman who is the mayor called her Mrs Clark
@@terriec808 I assume that she took her maiden name back after she and her husband divorced. She did go by the last name of Clark after that.
She had horrible lesions on her face and she spent the last several years in the hospital in New York. She was married for a short time but it ended in divorce
Make it a skate park
She seems like a rather disturbed, self-centered woman.
Hughenette hugenoot
So childish....
What happened to all this woman's money after her death? She was a recluse for decades and lived in a convalescent center for the wealthy. Her apartment in Manhattan had not been touched since the 1930s.. The lawyers probably got all the money.
Of the about 300+ mill, 100 mill is part of the thrust owning the Santa Barbara estate, 100 mill went to Uncle Sam (80 mill gift taxes, 20 mill estate taxes) , 35 mill to relatives, 25 mill to the nurse, 20 mill to lawyers, 15 mill to some close friends, some millions to muesums/art galleries. Roughly. If things had been done 'smarter' regarding gifts, the taxes would had been much less. But the lady did what she wanted.
Her fathers real name was Jesse James (the outlaw) Clark was an alias