The Manhattan apartments of Huguette M. Clark, the copper heiress who died in May, 2011 at the age of 104, are officially on the market with a $55 million price tag.
Mary Rutherfurd and Leslie Coleman of Brown Harris Stevens are representing the properties, which overlook Central Park’s model boat pond, with international marketing services provided by Christie’s International Real Estate.
907 Fifth Avenue is a limestone clad, Italian palazzo-style co-operative on 72nd Street designed by architect J.E.R. Carpenter in 1915. Two of Mrs. Clark’s apartments make up the entire eighth floor; the third occupies half of the 12th floor.
The floor plans of her residences, which need renovation, are being made public for the first time ever.
“We are honored to present to the international stage these historic properties, so inextricably tied to one of the most storied American families,” said Kathleen Coumou, senior vice president for Christie’s International Real Estate. “The Fifth Avenue location is beyond compare.”
Mrs. Clark lived in apartment 12W from the 1920s and it is believed that many of the rooms embellished with ornate moldings were designed at that time by French & Company in the Louis XVI style.
The residence, comprising 14 rooms, stretches the full length of the Fifth Avenue façade of the building, offering over 100 feet of frontage on the Avenue and views of Central Park and the West Side skyline.
The 37- foot gallery has 11-foot ceilings, stone door surrounds, linen-fold panel doors, and herringbone floors. From the corner master bedroom, views can be enjoyed over the model boat pond all the way north to the George Washington Bridge.
Apartment 8W has over 100 feet of frontage on Fifth Avenue and more spectacular city views from nine enormous windows. There is a 37-foot paneled gallery and 10 rooms.
Apartment 8E has a 47-by-13 foot windowed gallery, herringbone floors, a 29-foot corner living room; library, reception room, and formal dining room. The ceilings are high and the walls are expansive– an art collector’s dream.
Huguette Clark was the youngest daughter of William Andrews Clark, an investor in Montana and Arizona copper mines. He went on to amass a fortune in banks, railroads, newspapers, sugar, tea, timber, and real estate so vast that the Clarks challenged the Rockefellers as America’s wealthiest family in the early 1900’s.
The Clark family has been tied to New York’s luxury real estate for decades. After he retired from the Senate in 1907, William and his wife Anna moved their two daughters, Andrée and Hugette, into a grand 121-room mansion on Fifth Avenue at 77th Street. The building has since been demolished.
After the deaths of Andrée, in 1919, and William Andrews Clark in 1925, Anna and Huguette moved five blocks down Fifth Avenue, to the Italian-Renaissance apartment building at 72nd Street.
Huguette – who spent the last 20 years of her life at Beth Israel Hospital – was the sole heir to one of the last great American fortunes, estimated to be worth nearly half a billion dollars.
Her remaining relatives and attorney’s have been involved in a legal battle for the cash – nearly $60 million of which was given to her longtime nurse before and after her death.
The relatives got zero and her attorney and accountant were left $500,000 each.
