Download or read book Empty Mansions written by Bill Dedman and published by Ballantine Books. This book was released on 2013-09-10 with total page 498 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY Janet Maslin, The New York Times • St. Louis Post-Dispatch When Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist Bill Dedman noticed in 2009 a grand home for sale, unoccupied for nearly sixty years, he stumbled through a surprising portal into American history. Empty Mansions is a rich mystery of wealth and loss, connecting the Gilded Age opulence of the nineteenth century with a twenty-first-century battle over a $300 million inheritance. At its heart is a reclusive heiress named Huguette Clark, a woman so secretive that, at the time of her death at age 104, no new photograph of her had been seen in decades. Though she owned palatial homes in California, New York, and Connecticut, why had she lived for twenty years in a simple hospital room, despite being in excellent health? Why were her valuables being sold off? Was she in control of her fortune, or controlled by those managing her money? Dedman has collaborated with Huguette Clark’s cousin, Paul Clark Newell, Jr., one of the few relatives to have frequent conversations with her. Dedman and Newell tell a fairy tale in reverse: the bright, talented daughter, born into a family of extreme wealth and privilege, who secrets herself away from the outside world. Huguette was the daughter of self-made copper industrialist W. A. Clark, nearly as rich as Rockefeller in his day, a controversial senator, railroad builder, and founder of Las Vegas. She grew up in the largest house in New York City, a remarkable dwelling with 121 rooms for a family of four. She owned paintings by Degas and Renoir, a world-renowned Stradivarius violin, a vast collection of antique dolls. But wanting more than treasures, she devoted her wealth to buying gifts for friends and strangers alike, to quietly pursuing her own work as an artist, and to guarding the privacy she valued above all else. The Clark family story spans nearly all of American history in three generations, from a log cabin in Pennsylvania to mining camps in the Montana gold rush, from backdoor politics in Washington to a distress call from an elegant Fifth Avenue apartment. The same Huguette who was touched by the terror attacks of 9/11 held a ticket nine decades earlier for a first-class stateroom on the second voyage of the Titanic. Empty Mansions reveals a complex portrait of the mysterious Huguette and her intimate circle. We meet her extravagant father, her publicity-shy mother, her star-crossed sister, her French boyfriend, her nurse who received more than $30 million in gifts, and the relatives fighting to inherit Huguette’s copper fortune. Richly illustrated with more than seventy photographs, Empty Mansions is an enthralling story of an eccentric of the highest order, a last jewel of the Gilded Age who lived life on her own terms. Praise for Empty Mansions “An amazing story of profligate wealth . . . an outsized tale of rags-to-riches prosperity.”—The New York Times “An evocative and rollicking read, part social history, part hothouse mystery, part grand guignol.”—The Daily Beast “Fascinating . . . [a] haunting true-life tale.”—People “One of those incredible stories that you didn’t even know existed. It filled a void.”—Jon Stewart, The Daily Show “Thrilling . . . deliciously scandalous.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

Download or read book Lost Mansions of Mississippi written by Mary Carol Miller and published by . This book was released on 2010 with total page 134 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As preservationist Mary Carol Miller talked with Mississippians about her books on lost mansions and landmarks, enthusiasts brought her more stories of great architecture ravaged by time. The twenty-seven houses included in her new book are among the most memorable of Mississippi's vanished antebellum and Victorian mansions. The list ranges from the oldest house in the Natchez region, lost in a 1966 fire, to a Reconstruction-era home that found new life as a school for freed slaves. From two Gulf Coast landmarks both lost to Hurricane Katrina, to the mysteriously misplaced facades of Hernando's White House and Columbus's Flynnwood, these homes mark high points in the broad sweep of Mississippi history and the state's architectural legacy. Miller tells the stories of these homes through accounts from the families who built and maintained them. These structures run the stylistic gamut from Greek revival to Second Empire, and their owners include everyone from Revolutionary-era soldiers to governors and scoundrels.

Download or read book Lost Mansions written by J. Raven and published by Springer. This book was released on 2015-04-29 with total page 226 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This provocative volume stimulates debate about lost 'heritage' by examining the history of the hundreds of great houses demolished in Britain and Ireland in the twentieth century. Seven lively essays debate our understanding of what is meant by loss and how it relates to popular conceptions of the great house.

Download or read book Once There Were Castles written by Larry Millett and published by U of Minnesota Press. This book was released on with total page 377 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Take a tour of the lost mansions of the Twin Cities

Download or read book The Lost Mansions of Mayfair written by Oliver Bradbury and published by . This book was released on 2008 with total page 260 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Internationally renowned, Mayfair is comprised principally of the important estates of the Grosvenors and Berkeleys. It has always been an area where the affluent resided. This work is the first to catalogue in detail the architectural losses of this area. It provides detailed descriptions in text, photographs and drawings, building on the work of the Survey of London in providing such a record. Though describing the losses, it also contains an appendix of the best of the survivors for the reader to see in Mayfair or in nearby Marylebone. Owners, key artisans and, of course, architects are listed. Fully indexed.

Download or read book Lost Mansions of Mississippi written by Mary Carol Miller and published by Univ. Press of Mississippi. This book was released on 1996-01-01 with total page 152 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book England s Lost Houses written by Giles Worsley and published by White Lion Publishing. This book was released on 2002 with total page 200 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Of all the photographs in Country Life's archives, none are more poignant or intriguing than the images of houses that have been lost. This text puts the lost country houses of England in historical context and explains why so many were destroyed.

Download or read book Lost Plantations of the South written by Marc R. Matrana and published by Univ. Press of Mississippi. This book was released on 2014-07-18 with total page 942 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The great majority of the South's plantation homes have been destroyed over time, and many have long been forgotten. In Lost Plantations of the South, Marc R. Matrana weaves together photographs, diaries and letters, architectural renderings, and other rare documents to tell the story of sixty of these vanquished estates and the people who once called them home. From plantations that were destroyed by natural disaster such as Alabama's Forks of Cypress, to those that were intentionally demolished such as Seven Oaks in Louisiana and Mount Brilliant in Kentucky, Matrana resurrects these lost mansions. Including plantations throughout the South as well as border states, Matrana carefully tracks the histories of each from the earliest days of construction to the often-contentious struggles to preserve these irreplaceable historic treasures. Lost Plantations of the South explores the root causes of demise and provides understanding and insight on how lessons learned in these sad losses can help prevent future preservation crises. Capturing the voices of masters and mistresses alongside those of slaves, and featuring more than one hundred elegant archival illustrations, this book explores the powerful and complex histories of these cardinal homes across the South.

Download or read book Lost Mansions of Mississippi Volume II written by Mary Carol Miller and published by Univ. Press of Mississippi. This book was released on 2010-09-14 with total page 149 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As preservationist Mary Carol Miller talked with Mississippians about her books on lost mansions and landmarks, enthusiasts brought her more stories of great architecture ravaged by time. The twenty-seven houses included in her new book are among the most memorable of Mississippi's vanished antebellum and Victorian mansions. The list ranges from the oldest house in the Natchez region, lost in a 1966 fire, to a Reconstruction-era home that found new life as a school for freed slaves. From two Gulf Coast landmarks both lost to Hurricane Katrina, to the mysteriously misplaced facades of Hernando's White House and Columbus's Flynnwood, these homes mark high points in the broad sweep of Mississippi history and the state's architectural legacy. Miller tells the stories of these homes through accounts from the families who built and maintained them. These structures run the stylistic gamut from Greek revival to Second Empire, and their owners include everyone from Revolutionary-era soldiers to governors and scoundrels.

Download or read book Lost Newport written by Paul Miller and published by Applewood Books. This book was released on 2008-11-15 with total page 130 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Published in cooperation with the Preservation Society of Newport County, this evocative paperback guide recreates 50 summer houses, now lost, built during the golden age of Newport, Rhode Island's reign as the queen of resorts.

Download or read book Heritage Lost written by Fred DeWolfe and published by . This book was released on 2003-09 with total page 144 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Offers guidance to Oregon place names. This book includes more than 6,200 entries, arranged alphabetically. Each entry lists the county where the place is located and reports about the origin and meaning of the name. An accompanying CD-ROM holds biographical and geographical indexes and maps that show the locations of over 1,600 place names.

Download or read book Mansions of Morris County written by John W. Rae and published by Arcadia Publishing. This book was released on 1999 with total page 132 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This pictorial record of Morris County, New Jersey, traces the dramatic rise of America's least-known colony of millionaires during the Gilded Age. The area became a country retreat for the upper class. Families such as the Vanderbilts, Rockefellers, Kountzes, Wolffs, Dodges, and Claflins built impressive estates in the area referred to as the "inland Newport." By the 1920s, the prominence of Morris County was eclipsed by the lure of Long Island, and its economy was being threatened by the Depression. Faced with high taxes from the newly established income tax, skyrocketing maintenance costs, and a dwindling reservoir of help, the wealthy residents began razing their mansions. Although many of these vast estates have been long gone and forgotten, author John W. Rae's collection of early Morris County photographs recaptures the area's palatial homes in their full grandeur. Within the pages of Morris County Mansions, Rae invites you to join him on a visual tour of the magnificent architecture of the Gilded Age. Meet the area's prominent families and discover little-known facts about the homes in which they resided.

Download or read book Lost Country Houses of the North East written by Ian Greaves and published by Amberley Publishing Limited. This book was released on 2024-03-15 with total page 164 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A fascinating, highly illustrated description of the lost country houses of the North East of England.

Download or read book Playground written by Jennifer Saginor and published by Harper Collins. This book was released on 2009-03-17 with total page 290 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the vein of Running with Scissors, Playground is the glitzy, glamorous, and surreal true story of a young girl who grew up inside the Playboy Mansion and never learned where the party stopped and the real world began. You are six years old. Every day after school your father takes you to a sprawling castle filled with exotic animals, bowls of candy, and half-naked women catering to your every need. You have your own room. You have new friends. You have an uncle Hef who's always there for you. Welcome to the world of Playground, the true story Jennifer Saginor who grew up inside the Playboy Mansion. By the time she was fourteen, she'd done countless drugs, had a secret affair with Hef's girlfriend, and was already losing her grip on reality. Schoolwork, family, and "ordinary people" had no meaning behind the iron gates of the Mansion, where celebrities frolicked, pool parties abounded, and her own father—Hugh Hefner's personal physician and best friend, the man nicknamed "Dr. Feel Good"—typically held court. Every day was a party, every night was an adventure, and through it all was a young girl falling faster and faster down the rabbit hole—trying desperately hard not to get lost.

Download or read book The Mansions of Long Island s Gold Coast written by Monica Randall and published by Rizzoli International Publications. This book was released on 2003 with total page 318 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Photographs detailing architectural features and interior design, accompanied by a text capturing early twentieth-century ways of life explore the lavish houses built by the Vanderbilts, Morgans, and others on Long Island's North Shore, in an expanded, beautifully illustrated celebration of the desi

Download or read book Lost Twin Cities written by Larry Millett and published by Minnesota Historical Society Press. This book was released on 1992 with total page 351 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 1993 American Institute of Architects International Architecture Book Award

Download or read book Great Houses of Mississippi written by Mary Carol Miller and published by . This book was released on 2004 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Anyone searching for the architectural splendor of the antebellum South will happily find it in the 95 stunning, full-color photographs and fascinating descriptions of the 35 homes showcased in this beautiful, full-color book. Federal town houses, Greek revival plantation homes, and Italianate and Gothic villas recall the decades when Mississippi led the nation in architectural excellence. 1-57806-674-3$45.00 / University Press of Mississippi