Copper King Mansion – Butte, MT story from Polly
There’s a sense
of storytelling when John Thompson passes through Butte’s Copper King Mansion’s
dining room door bearing plates of traditional pasties.
Thompson, a third
generation co-proprietor of the thirty-four room William A. Clark home, baits
his seated guests with bits and pieces of information, with promises to tell
the rest of the story over dessert and coffee.
The other half of the owner team, Erin
Sigli, Thompson’s sister will appear later.
But for now, she is dishing up boats of gravy and bowls of catsup to
accompany the famous steak and potato pastry pies.
Questioning
stares and prolonged queries spike the conversation as the grandeur and
Victorian opulence of one of America’s nineteenth and twentieth century richest
men stretches beyond the exquisitely crafted walls.
Eventually, the
firestorm of questions from a group of antique and history buffs, brings the
shirt sleeved Thompson to the head of the table to regale the audience seated
in this grand old house.
“Since 1953, my
grandmother, Anna Cote, my mother, and my siblings have owned the mansion; we
bought it wall to wall,” he relates.
Back then, when
“gram” bought the mansion, she had some furniture and fixed up the rooms with
hot plates, a few accessories, and rented space. Gram, and Ann, her daughter, frequented
estate and garage sales to add “piece by piece” to the Clark mansion which was
built from 1884 -1888.
The mansion stood nearly empty after
previous owners had done away with the furnishings.
According to Thompson, in 1953, World War II
and the Korean War were over. With the
GI Bill people were able to get a new house. They got rid of “old stuff.” In addition, every once in awhile, someone
would give his grandmother a treasured item.
One day, a lady
knocked on the door with a beautiful crystal epergne she had bought in
Hollywood. When it was shipped to Butte
and she opened the box, she thought it was the ugliest thing she had ever
seen. Gram put it on top of the china
closet along with many other collectables, and a few original Clark pieces, that
add to the present day splendor of that long ago era.
William Andrew
Clark moved to Montana in 1863. From a lucky
strike in Bannack, he extracted $1500 worth of gold which became the start of
his immense wealth. He arrived in Butte
in 1872 and began amassing his fortune in copper smelting, banking, newspapers,
and railroads. He lived in Butte for
nearly three decades with his first wife, Catherine, and their five children. Catherine died in 1893. In 1900, Clark married
Anna Eugenia La Chapelle in Paris, a Butte native studying in France. They had two daughters: Andree and
Huguette. Andree died of meningitis in
1919, a week before her seventeenth birthday.
Huguette passed away at the age of 104 in May 2011.
In 1907, Clark moved his family from Butte to
New York City where he had built a 121 room Beaux Arts mansion on Fifth Avenue. He continued to visit his Butte home as
Eugenia had family in the city and Clark remained involved in Montana business.
Clark died in
1925, and his son, Will Clark, Jr. took ownership of the mansion until 1934
where upon his death, it was acquired by a business partner who worked for the
Hansen Packing Company. They sold all
the furnishings.
In 1935 the
Catholic Diocese purchased the building and turned it into a convent for nuns.
Since 1953, when
Anna Cote bought the mansion, the family has been capable of keeping it
historically correct through many stages of restoration.
“We have six
children, four of whom are very involved in the business from accounting to
contracting,” says Sigl. “Over time, we
have worked meagerly,” she adds.
Recently, a national historic preservation
grant helped immensely.
Referring to the contributions, Sigl
comments: “it was God sent,” as the money
provided a means to replace the boiler, rain gutters, and restore the exterior.
Throughout the
years of upkeep, the Cote family has continued to offer tours of the mansion
and maintain their Bed & Breakfast which is listed in the National Historic
Preservation. Today, there is a
seventeen page script about the Copper King mansion that the guides must
memorize. The long narrative is a tale of glass workers who made all the French
beveled stained glass; artists who hand painted different frescoes on the
ceilings in every room; and craftsmen who hand- carved and finished all the
imported woodwork. It took four and a half years to complete with the total
cost of construction at over a quarter million dollars. However, it has been noted that Clark’s income
in 1888 was nearly seventeen million dollars a month. The cost of his home represents about a half
day of his income.
If you go:
Copper King Mansion
219 Granite Street
Tel: (406) 782-750
Tours everyday May 1 – September 30
Adults: $7.50 - Children $3.50
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