You may be familiar with the Pulitzer Prize, one of the highest awards for achievement
in American Journalism, but how much do you know about the man the awards are named after?
Hi everyone, ken here, welcome to this house.
Today we are following Joseph Pulitzer as he made his way from humble beginnings to
lavish mansions.
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Joseph Pulitzer was born in Hungary in 1847.
By 1853, his family had moved to Austria where he would attend private schools.
His father passed away when he was only 11 years old and his mother remarried soon after.
At the young age of 17, he left home and attempted to join the armed forces, but he had poor
vision and was rejected from Austria’s Military.
During a trip to Germany, he was recruited by the Union to fight in the American Civil
war, so he headed to boston harbor, not knowing any English.
When the war ended, Joseph found himself unemployed and homeless in East St. Louis.
Without a penny to his name, he offered to shovel coal on a ferry in exchange for transport
to St. Louis Missouri, across the Mississippi river.
He found several gigs, but no real career path.
He worked as a grave digger, a waiter, and tended to the animals at Jefferson Barracks.
By shear luck, he was offered a job that would change the course of his life.
The Atlantic and Pacific Railroad hired him to record land rights around the state of
Missouri.
Joseph would travel by horseback while reading law books and mastering the English language.
In 1867, he became a naturalized US Citizen and in 1868 he was admitted to the Bar, becoming
a lawyer.
While continuing to study at the Mercantile Library, he met Carl Schurz, a part owner
of the Westliche Post, one of St. Louis’s german newspapers.
Joseph began contributing to the newspaper while covering the political events and decided
to throw his hat in the ring.
The 22 year old Joseph Pulitzer was elected as the representative for the 5th district
in St Louis.
Pulitzer quickly set out to dismantle corruption in the city.
He lost favor with his party after shooting an elected official in the leg, but was quickly
welcomed by the other political party.
During this time, he married the love of his life, Kate Davis, who was said to be fashion
forward with a desire for acquiring the finer things.
Soon after, Joseph was offered part ownership of the Westliche Post which he could use to
spread his political agenda.
Soon after, he acquired the St Louis Dispatch which merged with the Post to create the Post
Dispatch.
But his media empire was just starting.
He purchased the New York World from Jay Gould and moved to New York City where he became
a congressman in 1884.
At this time, New York City and St. Louis were two of the 4 largest cities in the US,
and he controlled their media.
with his influence came staggering wealth which he used build a lavish lifestyle.
Though his earlier homes aren’t as well documented, his first vacation house was.
He purchased the Mount Storm Estate in Bar Harbor Maine and hired architect Stanford
White to double it’s size.
The new house was nearly unrecognizable from the original and was dubbed the Chatwold.
The house was redesigned in an eclectic mix of Tudor Revival and High Queen Anne styles
with brick chimneys and stone towers piercing the sky.
The entrance hall was finished in wood panels with ornately carved wood newel posts and
balustrade.
Diamond pained windows allowed natural lights to illuminate the space and pointed gothic
arches welcomed you to the second floor landing.
The entrance hall was expanded, becoming known as the Pulitzer Hall which would mirror the
staircase opposite the bulging landing and feature curtains draped in front of double
hung windows.
As Joseph aged, he completely lost his vision and became increasingly sensitive to sound.
He was unable to sleep in his bedroom with the sound of wind or wild animals outside
his walls, so he had Stanford White design him a Tower of Silence, a soundproof stone
block tower where he could sleep without hearing anything other than his own breath.
Pleased with his vacation house, he once again employed Stanford White in 1901 to design
his Manhattan mansion at 11 east 73rd street.
It was designed in the Italian Renaissance Revival style and modeled after the grand
palazzos of Venice with a 3 story limestone block façade capped off by a stone cornice
running below a limestone balustrade.
Joseph never saw this house as he was now completely blind, but his wife Kate was thrilled
with the beauty of the home which contained an indoor swimming pool and an indoor squash
court.
Kate chose the finishes for the interior of the house, including 19 foot tall marble columns
as seen here in front of the pipe organ.
The Breakfast room played on the circle with a round table, and curving furniture to fit
on the walls all set below a domed skylight, decorated with geometric fret work.
The formal Dining room dwarfed the scale of the breakfast room.
Pilasters were set in the corners below the ornate frieze with painted walls spanning
between them.
A solid wood fireplace rose floor to ceiling with intricate relief work carved in the panels
while exposed wood beams ran overhead.
Even the smallest details in the house, were intricately crafted by artists as we can see
one of the smaller stained glass windows depicting figures surrounding a scene from antiquity.
The family would only enjoy the house for 8 years as Joseph was unable to sleep in it
with all the sounds of New York City happening outside his window.
He retreated back to chatwold where he would live out the rest of his days in silence until
his death in 1911.
Following her husbands death, Kate moved to France to live out the rest of her life until
her passing in 1927.
Following her death, her children scrambled to sell the mansions during the great depression
as they became impossible to maintain.
In 1930, the Pulitzer’s sons sold the Manhattan mansion to a developer who had intended to
demolish it in favor of erecting a skyscraper, however, that plan never came to fruition
and the mansion now stands, divided into 17 very sought after cooperative apartments.
In 1946, Joseph Jr had given up hope on finding a buyer for Chatwold, the taxes and maintenance
were eating away at his dwindling bank account, so he made the decision to have the mansion
demolished.
Though one of the mansions was lost, one has survived to be repurposed.
Which of these mansions was your favorite?
Let me know down below in the comments section.
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