William A. Clark House

William A. Clark House
William A. Clark House on Fifth Avenue and 77th Street
General information
Type	Residence
Architectural style	Beaux-Arts Châteauesque
Location	New York, New York U.S.A.
Address	962 Fifth Avenue
Construction started	1897
Completed	1911
Demolished	1927
Cost	$7 million (equivalent to $179,925,000 in 2016)
Client	William A. Clark
Design and construction
Architect	Lord, Hewlett and Hull, Kenneth Murchison, Washington Hull

The William A. Clark House, also known as "Clark's Folly", was a mansion located at 962 Fifth Avenue on the northeast corner of its intersection with East 77th Street on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. It was demolished in 1927 and replaced with a luxury apartment building.

William A. Clark, an enormously wealthy entrepreneur and politician from Montana, commissioned the New York firm of Lord and Hewlett to build the house in 1897. The house was completed in 1911, after numerous legal disputes, at a cost of $7 million (equivalent to $179,925,000 in 2016). The house contained 121 rooms, 31 baths, four art galleries, a swimming pool, a concealed garage, and a private rail line to bring in coal for heat.

It was reported that Clark bought a quarry in New Hampshire, at a cost of $50,000 (equivalent to $1,285,000 in 2016), and built a railroad to get out the stone for the building. He also bought a bronze foundry employing 200 men to manufacture the bronze fittings. In addition, he imported marble from Italy, oak from Sherwood Forest in England, and parts of old French Châteaus for the interior.

The building of the mansion is described in the bestselling biography of Clark's daughter, Huguette, and her family, Empty Mansions: The Mysterious Life of Huguette Clark and the Spending of a Great American Fortune by Bill Dedman and Paul Clark Newell, Jr.