The Copper King Mansion

by Katie Aschim

Written 1997

 

	The Copper King Mansion on Granite St. is an awesome structure 
built by an awesome man.  William Andrews Clark, born in 1839 in 
Pennsylvania, started out as a teacher, but soon became involved in the 
gold rush.  He first came to Montana by way of Deer Lodge, but later 
moved to Bannack when gold was struck there.  He earned enough trading 
gold for paper currency to buy a horse and wagon, and soon he was 
making a respectable living selling supplies to the miners.
        
	Eventually, Clark headed for Silver Bow Creek, where gold had just 
been found, and the mining town of Butte was just rising.  Butte was 
built on gold and silver mining until the arrival of Marcus Daly, a man
who could "see further beneath the surface than anyone else".  It was 
Daly who realized that Butte was built on one of the richest copper 
veins in the world.  Butte boomed as electricity boomed, since copper 
wires were used to conduct electricity.
        
	Butte became known as the richest hill on earth, and Daly, 
Clark, and F. Augustus Heinze - the "Copper Kings" - became known as 
some of the richest men on earth.
        
	They were entrepreneurs - that is, they bought the mines, the 
timber mills where the timber used to build the mine shafts was 
processed, the coal mines, from where the coal was used to stoke the 
smelter fires, and everything else.  This way, supplies were cheap, 
so they could pay the workers ridiculously low wages.  
       
	A skilled businessman, Clark's monthly income totaled 17.5 
million dollars at his peak.  It was around this time, 1884, that he 
began to construct his magnificent home.
        
	The house was constructed Victorian-style.  It stands several 
stories high, with beautiful turrets that seem to puncture the sky.  
As you enter the house, you can't help but notice the walls of the 
entryway, receiving room, billiard room, front hall, 
and other rooms.  These walls have three-dimensional, 
ornate patterns.  Some are gold, some silver, some copper.

        These patterns were made with molds imprinted into the  plaster. 
When the  plaster was nearly  set, the molds were removed and burned so 
they couldn't be reused.  After the plaster dried, the walls were painted 
to look like gold, silver,  or copper.
        
	


	All of the original ceilings in the house have beautiful frescoes, 
or paintings, on the ceiling.  The transoms - windows above the doors 
that could be opened for ventilation - are inlaid with copper or amber
engravings of children at play (an addition to the house, built in 1917,
is less elaborate - there are no frescoes and the transoms are plain
glass)
        
	The house was built with electric wiring.  The light fixtures have 
gas fixtures and electric fixtures, since at the time the house was 
built, people weren't sure whether electricity was a fad or a 
lasting thing.  
        
	The centerpiece of the house is the Staircase of Nations, a 
hand carved two-story work of art.  On the side railings of the massive 
staircase, which is overlooked by a two-story-tall stained glass window, are
panels, about six inches square.  They are set on the banister posts,
one per stair.  Carved into each panel is a bird and a flower from 
every country in the world in 1884.
        
	After William Clark's death in 1925, the house was passed along 
to many owners, including the Diocese of Helena and the Sisters 
of Charity, who used the house as a schoolroom. 
        
	Mrs. Ann Cote and her daughter, Ann Cote Smith, moved into the house
during the 1950's.  At this time, most of Clark's possessions had been
given away or sold.  Mrs. Cote worked to get many of these possessions
back.  She also salvaged some possessions from other older homes of the
wealthy in Butte that were being torn down.  Other things in the home
are from the old Butte library, which was destroyed by fire in 1962, 
and churches in the community that were destroyed for mining purposes.
        
	There are many stories that go with the house, such as this one, 
an old miners' tale:
        
	When the Copper Kings were at their prime, they were bitter enemies. 
The many eastward-facing windows in the Clark Mansion provided its owner
a spectacular view of the sunrise over the East Ridge.  So Daly, one of
Clark's rivals, built the Leonard apartments to block Clark's view!
        
	This story is just a tale - there is no truth to it.  But it does
accurately show the rivalry between the Copper Kings.
        
	Here is another (true) tale:
        
	The huge stained glass window overlooking the Staircase of Nations
features a man and a woman.  The woman's dress exposes her breast.  
When the Sisters of Charity owned the house, they objected to the 
window. So they painted a turtleneck over the woman!
        
	Butte is no longer a mining town.  And the hill is no longer the 
center of a big, bustling, wide open town.  However, the remains of 
a bygone era are still evident.  The mansion is a good place to start 
your ghost hunting.

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