MILLIONAIRE'S PALACE.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 320, 21 February 1910, Page 6

MILLIONAIRE'S PALACE.

BUILT AT A COST OF £1,400,000. The magnificent Fifth Avenue palace in New York of ex-United States Senator W. A. Clark, the finest private residence 1:1 the United States, is now ready for occupancy, after having seven years to construct at a coa; of £1,400.000. Mr. dark, vlo owns sraie of the richest mines in the West, and who is many times a millionaire, with an income of £2,500,000 a year, or nearly £7OOO a day, will move into the house with his family after he has given up his prese it residence in Paris. The house is at the corner of Seventyseventh street and Fifth Avenue, overlooking Central Park. It is seven storeys high, and contains 121 rooms, including 30 bath-rooms, a Turkish bath, swimming pool, picture gallery, theatre, statutory hall, 'ball-room, eon- • eervatory and roof garden. There are £400.0Q0 worth of paintings in the picture gallery, and £200,000 worth of rugs are scattered about the house. An unusual feature of ihe residence is an enormous quantity of bronzes, used for decorative purposes, inside and outside the structure Magnificent tapestries and beautiful marDles abound on all the floors. The i furniture is of Louix XIV., XV., XVL i and Empire styles. Experts searched | from one end of France to the other to . obtain original pieces. The Empire ceiling of an old chateau was brought from France for one of the rooms of the house. The most striking feature of the mansion is a lofty granite tower, surmounted by an open loggia, 163 ft above the sidewalk, from which a splendid view can be obtained of the waters about New York. Beneath the lower part of I the tower is the conservatory, which i projects over the street. The public will be admitted once a week to the house, as ii it were u Royal palace, for the purpose ef viewing Mr. j Clark's fine art collections. 1 The mistress of the house was mar- ! ried to Mr. Clark in 1905. She was Miss Ada La Chapeiie, daughter of a I Canadian doctor, who was an intimate i friend of Mr. Clark. When the doctor j died he was not wealthy, and he left I his young daughter in Mr. Clark's care 1 as her guardian.