Gilded Age Living In Pittsburgh, PA - The Frick Pittsburgh
Born in a rural town in Pennsylvania in 1849, Henry Clay Frick was the second child of an immigrant farmer who had married the daughter of a flour merchant and whisky distiller. Frick began his career as a salesman and later became the well-paid chief bookkeeper of the family distillery. In 1871, Frick partnered with a cousin, investing in low-priced coking fields and building fifty coke ovens. Within a decade, the H. C. Frick Coke Company operated around one thousand ovens and produced nearly 80% of the coke used by Pittsburgh's burgeoning iron and steel industries.
Frick married Adelaide Howard Childs in 1881 and the couple had four children, though only two survived into adulthood: a son, Childs, born in 1883, and a daughter, Helen, born in 1888. In 1882, the Fricks purchased an 11-room Italianate-style home for $25,000. In 1891, architect Frederick J. Osterling transformed the original structure into the 23-room, four-story chateau-style mansion that stands today.
Frick entered into partnership with steel manufacturer Andrew Carnegie in 1882 and later became chairman of the board. A staunch opponent of labor unions, Frick played a notorious role in the deadly Homestead Strike of 1892. The strike, marked by violence and fatalities, cemented his reputation as a harsh and uncompromising businessman.
Frick was also implicated in the Johnstown Flood of 1889 due to his involvement with the South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club, whose dam failure caused the disaster. He later survived a failed assassination attempt by a Russian anarchist. Frick and Carnegie parted ways and the two men went to court over the value of Frick’s interest in the company. In March 1900, Frick received a settlement of $30 million in securities. In 1901, he became one of the directors of J. P. Morgan’s newly incorporated United States Steel Corporation.
Clayton remained the family’s primary residence until they moved to New York in 1905. When they left Pittsburgh, the Fricks left behind much of their life there, including 93% of Clayton’s original contents—an impressive array of fine and decorative art objects.
Frick began focusing more seriously on art collecting after his move to New York. In 1913, construction began on his Fifth Avenue mansion at a cost of nearly $5,000,000, including the land. Designed by the firm of Carrère and Hastings, the house was built to showcase Frick’s paintings and other works of art. Frick died in 1919. In his will, he left the house, its contents, and furnishings to become a public museum—The Frick Collection—following the death of his wife. He also provided a $15 million endowment for the Collection’s maintenance, improvements, and expansion.
Helen Clay Frick, who never married, founded the Frick Art Reference Library in memory of her father in 1920 and remained its director until 1983. She returned to Clayton in 1981 and lived there permanently until her passing in 1984. Helen was the driving force behind preserving the Frick estate and ensuring its eventual opening to the public.
After a four-year renovation, Clayton opened to the public in 1990 as part of the Frick Art & Historical Center. Today, the 5.5-acre complex includes Clayton—the restored 22-room Frick mansion—The Frick Art Museum, the Visitor Center, the Car and Carriage Museum, the Greenhouse, the Frick Children’s Playhouse, and The Café. Docent-led tours of the mansion explore the Frick family's life, the home's architecture, and the broader context of the Gilded Age in Pittsburgh.
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What you should know:
There is no photography allowed inside the mansion.
There are walking trails on the property as well as in nearby Frick Park.
Free parking is available at the property.
Public restrooms are available.
Admission is free to the gardens.
There is an entrance fee for the the permanent collection of the Frick Art Museum
A separate fee is charged for a guided mansion tour (75-90 minutes long) and a self-guided tour of the Car and Carriage Museum.
There is a small cafe on-site.
You could spend an hour or more here exploring, depending on you level of interest.
Check the website for days and hours of operation, and for any special events.
People are friendly and informative.
Location: 7227 Reynolds St., Pittsburgh, PA 15208
For more information: The Frick Pittsburgh
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