Man with Connellsville ties considered one of the founders of Las Vegas
When his mother, Mary Andrews Clark died, William Clark built a memorial home in her honor in Los Angeles, Calif. Initially, it was operated as a YWCA home for young working women. In 1987 it closed after it sustained damage during an earthquake. It reopened in 1995 as housing for low income single workers. The building has been designated as a Historic Cultural Monument and listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
William Clark built the largest mansion to be built on New York City's Fifth Avenue. It stood nine stories tall with 121 rooms. It was later demolished.
William Andrews Clark, businessman, banker, senator and landowner amassed great wealth during his lifetime. He retired to New York and built the largest mansion in the city. Although costing $10 million to build, a buyer could not be found when it was offered for a mere $2 million. It was later demolished.
?The following is the last of a three-part series about William Andrews Clark, a Connellsville native who went on to become one of the wealthiest and most powerful men in the United States during the 19th century. Little is written in local history books about Clark. However, this son of a poor farmer did get the attention of Dr. David Geary, a local historian now residing in Arizona, who agreed to share his extensive research of Clark鈥檚 鈥渞ags-to-riches鈥� story.
In 1901, William Clark announced his marriage to his second wife, a woman nearly 40 years his junior.
鈥淗e first saw her as a girl in Butte, a daughter of a poverty-stricken man who had impersonated a physician, on stage as the 鈥淕oddess of Liberty,鈥� said Geary. 鈥淪mitten with her looks, Clark befriended her and stunned Butte by sending her to a private school in France.
鈥淭ongues wagged at the White House when Sen. Clark showed up with his new, young wife.鈥�
The couple had two children, Hugette and Andree.
A letter to Sen. Clark from the Fayette County Commission requesting a monetary donation for a painting for the courthouse went unanswered, according to Geary鈥檚 research.
William Clark, meanwhile, continued to amass wealth. In addition to his Montana property, he also owned large amounts of land in Nevada, California and Arizona and nearly 32,000 acres in Mexico. In California, a venture to grow sugar beets was marginally successful, while in Arizona he sought to build a 鈥渕odern鈥� mining town.
鈥�(William Clark) bought copper ore claims around Jerome, Arizona,鈥� said Geary. 鈥淭he mine became the largest open pit copper mine in the world and (William Clark) built a company town beginning in 1912 to go along with it.
鈥淭oday, the town of Clarkdale, near Sedona鈥檚 picturesque Red Rock country, has become a minor tourist site. Several buildings of the original town still stand.鈥�
In Nevada, to service his new railroad from Salt Lake City to Los Angeles, Clark built a railroad depot in the middle of nowhere.
鈥�(In a Nevada desert) he sold lots and called the town Las Vegas,鈥� said Geary. 鈥淚t鈥檚 in Clark County, named for him.鈥�
When his Connellsville-born mother, Mary Andrews Clark, died in 1907, he built a huge boarding house hotel for working women in Los Angeles to honor her, said Geary.
鈥淚t is still standing, well-preserved and on the National Register of Historic Places,鈥� said Geary. 鈥淚t is the largest monument built to anyone from Connellsville.
鈥淥ccasionally, it has served as a film set and seen by millions of people all over the world in motion pictures and television shows.鈥�
William Clark eventually retired to New York where he had established a bank, said Geary.
Over a 13-year period, he built the largest and most ostentatious mansion in the city.
It stood nine stories tall, with 121 rooms, an observatory, auditorium, rotunda, Turkish baths and the largest chamber organ in America at the time.
鈥淚n the winter, it took seven tons of coal to heat it that was brought in by a special train,鈥� said Geary. 鈥淎fter his death, the mansion that cost $10 million to build was offered for sale at $2 million, with no buyers because no one wanted the expense of upkeep.鈥�
The house was eventually demolished with the exception of one room, which is now a part of the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.
At the same time his mansion was being built, he had a large mausoleum erected in Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx. Many family members are interred there including his first wife.
William Clark died in 1925.
At the time of his death, he was near equal in wealth to America鈥檚 richest man, John D. Rockefeller.
In 2008, the filled mausoleum was altered to make room for Huguette Clark.
According to reports, she was entombed just days after her death and without any services or family members in attendance.
Her will was filed in a Manhattan, N.Y., court at the end of June and indicated much of her $400 million estate would be shared by a close friend, a god daughter and a foundation to be established to support the arts.
Geary, meanwhile, said it was a fascinating journey to uncover the story of William Clark.
鈥淢ost of the research was done over several years and through various databases, libraries and historical associations in Montana, Iowa, California, Nevada, Arizona, New York, Pennsylvania and Washington, D.C.,鈥� he said. 鈥淭he best time though, was going to where he was born along the Arch Bridge Road, where his mother was raised along Mountz Creek and where his first wife lived on Peach Street.
鈥淜nowing from other research what Connellsville and the area was like before the Civil War let me step back in time and envision what Clark saw around him as a youth, and how that may have influenced his life.鈥�