Henry Clay Frick is one of the most well known names from the Gilded Age, but where did he
get his beginnings?
Hi everyone ken here, welcome to this house.
Today we are exploring the many mansions of Henry Clay Frick in a 3 part series.
Make sure to hit that subscribe button so you don’t miss the next two episodes.
In 1849, Henry Clay Frick was born in West Overton Pennsylvania.
Though his father had been entirely unsuccessful in his business endeavors, his grandfather
Abraham Overholt had made a name for the family.
Abraham founded the Overholt Whiskey Distillery which provided his children and grandchildren
with a modest, comfortable lifestyle.
Henry had always aspired to be wealthy as he saw his grandfather brushing shoulders
with some of the country’s most elite.
He took all the proper steps to achieve his dream including enrolling in college, though
he would drop out just one year later to start a company with his cousins named the Frick
Coke Company.
They had devised a simple system for turning coal into coke using a beehive oven.
Coke was used as an additive to steal because it was high in carbon with very few impurities.
With the steel industry soaring at this time, there was more demand for their coke than
they could supply.
Henry contacted his grandfather’s friend, Andrew Mellon and asked him for a small loan.
Mellon gave frick the money he asked for and then bought out his cousins share of the company.
Henry renamed it to HC Frick and Company and quickly expanded the business to include coal
mines employing over 1000 workers in Pennsylvania.
In just a few short years he nearly had a monopoly in Pennsylvania as he controlled
upwards of 80 percent of the state’s coal output.
Now that Henry had become one of the most eligible bachelors in Pennsylvania, he began
searching for a wife.
He met Adelaide Howard Childs and the young couple married in 1881.
While on their honeymoon in New York City, they met Andrew Carnegie.
Henry and Andrew immediately hit it off forming a business deal for Henry to supply coke to
the Carnegie Steel Company.
This deal sealed Henry’s fate, by signing his contract he ensured that he would become
one of the wealthiest men in American history as the chief of operations at the Carnegie
Steel Company
The newly weds traveled back to Pennsylvania and began searching for their dream house.
In 1882, they purchased a stately Italianate style house known as Homewood.
It had been built in 1866 and stood prominently on Pittsburgh’s millionaires row.
It boasted 11 rooms and sat on one and a half acres.
The Fricks brought in architect Andrew W Peebles to complete the initial renovations but had
architect Frederick Osterling finish it 10 years later.
The result was a high queen anne style house with towers and turrets looking out over its
gardens.
The grounds included a sprawling greenhouse and a childrens play house for their daughter
Helen Frick.
The Fricks named their grand estate Clayton.
Coming inside from the front porch, you would pass through a large stone archway and pass
into a small vestibule with a tile mosaic floor.
From here you would continue through the front door and arrive in the entrance hall.
Complete with dark wood paneling and decorated with art and statuary, you would pass through
here before being seated in the reception room.
Decorated with floral rugs, curtains, and wall paper, the reception room had enough
seats to keep an entire family waiting to be welcomed.
The walls were decorated with portraits and in the front facing window, a bust stood against
the daylight on a pedestal.
At the other end of the room was a floor to ceiling fireplace with a large mirror in its
upper mantle reflecting light from the window.
From here you could pass into the parlor complete with ornately carved millwork and layers of
wallpaper.
Family portraits were hung to either side of the fireplace flanked by pilasters framing
another portrait.
The dining room was decorated with oversized, dark wood furniture, the table set directly
below an electric chandelier.
The table could be expanded with leaves and the spare chairs were kept set against the
walls on either side of a massive curio cabinet for displaying the Frick’s fine collection
of china.
At one end of the table was a simple brick fireplace with 2 layers of expansive brick
arches.
At the other end was a large mural set between wood pilasters decorated with floral relief
work.
The library contained half height book cases with inset glass panels on either side of
the marble fireplace.
The two windows in this room stretched from floor to ceiling below the coffered ceilings
casting light on the conversational furniture and antique desk.
The breakfast room, or the family dining room, was a more intimate space filled with natural
light.
The chandelier was decorated with hanging plants centered above freshly picked flowers
on the kitchen table.
Heading upstairs, the stair landing sat in a bay window with stained glass panels depicting
scenes from nature.
The first bedroom we’ll see is Helena’s bedroom furnished with 3 separate beds.
One for her and one for her governess with the smallest bed being for her beloved dolls.
Also on the second floor, with large rounded windows was the sitting room.
It had multiple desks arranged about the room and was overflowing with leather bound books.
Their son, Childs’ bedroom had a large tile fireplace surrounded with wood trim.
The décor was themed for the hunt with trophies and swords displayed on every wall.
The play room housed every toy a Victorian era child could ask for.
Set against the windows was a doll house where helen would spend her days playing.
In addition to this, there was furniture for her larger dolls, books, and a piano for the
children to learn on.
There was even a sewing room where helen could sew with her dolls.
The guest bedrooms were every bit as grand with oversized furniture.
The yellow room had striped yellow wallpaper set behind a large painted fireplace.
Henry’s suite included a sitting room with damask wallpaper below a picture rail His
bed was set to the side of a bay window with his blankets consisting of simple white linens.
Adelaide’s suite was more decoated with heavy fabrics covering the windows.
Every surface was covered in family photos and freshly picked flowers.
All together it took 11 full time servants to keep the house running, some of whom stayed
and worked for the Fricks for over 40 years.
As time went on, Henry and Carnegie felt tension in their business dealings.
Wanting to be where the financial action was, he leased a portion of the Vanderbilt’s
triple palace which we covered in a previous video.
And by 1905 he had begun planning his vacation home, Eagle Rock which we will cover in our
next video.
Though the family had moved on from their house in Pennsylvania, their daughter helen
mourned her childhood home.
The Fricks never sold it, so helen would visit from time to time.
She put dust covers over all the furniture, art and floors to keep the house in pristine
condition.
When she was 93 years old in 1981, she returned to the house to live out her last few years.
She removed the dust covers and unveiled a perfectly preserved house which had not been
touched for the better part of a century.
Upon her death in 1984, she willed it along with millions of dollars to have the house
opened to the public as a museum.
Today, Clayton can be toured as the Frick Art and Historical Center which is open to
the public.
In our next episode we will be touring eagle rock and hearing the next chapter of Fricks
story.
Make sure to hit that subscribe button so you don’t miss part two.
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