Exploring Butte's Copper King Mansion: A Legacy of Luxury and Power

So, what does it take to build a home that symbolizes power, ambition, and an entire empire? Well, welcome to the Copper King Mansion in Butte, Montana. It's where opulence meets legacy. Now, before we step inside the mansion and look at its gorgeous interior and discuss some of its history, I would like to invite you to join me on my escapades across the United States and internationally. Just hit that subscribe button if you're curious about history and interesting places as much as I am. But now, on with the show. In 1970, this mansion was added to the National Registry of Historic Places. Construction on the Copper King Mansion took over four years. It was started in 1884 and it cost, well, some say $250,000, some say $500,000, but a lot of money and the most expensive house built at that time in all of Montana. And today, it'd probably be equivalent to about $15 million. But you know what? The owner, William Clark, that was equal to only a half day or a day of his mining operations. He was that wealthy. Now, we're going on a tour and I do have to say that not all rooms are open to the tour because the current owner still resides in the home. Hi. Hi. I was just wondering if you guys could... As I walked through its doors, I couldn't help but marvel at the hand-carved woodwork and the vibrant frescoes adorning the ceilings. You know, step inside and you're greeted by hand-carved staircases, intricate parquet flooring made from imported woods, Persian carpets, and be sure to look up at the intricate and oh so beautiful frescoed ceilings painted by European-trained artisans. Aren't these ceilings simply amazing? Each room was a testament to Clark's refined taste and limitless resources and each door had custom etched paintings above and each design was different. The house's design reflected the Victorian Romanesque revival star and that kind of blended grandeur with just detailed and wonderful craftsmanship. A team of living French artists actually carved all the amazing woodwork which was made up of oak and mahogany, bird's-eye maple, I mean a lot a lot of different imported woods. But the mansion wasn't just beautiful, it was actually ahead of its time technologically. For instance, it featured dual gas and electric lighting systems which was ensuring reliability during an era when electric wasn't too reliable. The mansion also boasted indoor plumbing and that was a rarity believe me in the 1880s. Just look at this amazing 360 degree shower that sprays water from a number of different directions around the body. The hot and cold water was fed through the house via a 1500 gallon tank that was actually hidden under the slate in the roof and the house had an advanced heating system to combat Montana's very harsh winters and they even had a telephone with a direct line to both the police and the fire department. Just look at these beautiful stained glass windows. In fact, the house has 639 individual panes of stained glass and they were possibly designed by Louis Comfort Timpani. No expense was spared in this construction. Nine fireplaces were imported from France and you have to look at this staircase. It's known as the Staircase of All Nations. It was carved in Europe, designed with birds and flowers symbolizing different nations and it took four years to complete and was actually dismantled to be displayed at the St. Louis World Fair in 1909. At the top of the mansion, it had a grand ballroom where the Clarks hosted the High Society of Montana. Later, the Catholic Church owned this property and they made it a convent and a girls school and the ballroom was transferred into more of a chapel. Now, it's more of a mini museum containing a lot of different artifacts and outfits of times gone by. In some of the bedrooms, there are different collections like this penguin collection and a very creepy, I thought, doll collection. All of them start talking all of a sudden. Isn't it? Yeah, most of the time there is a lot of talking. Yeah, yeah. Because they're just creepy. This one would start talking right here. I can see it. Or like one of them. Yeah, oh yeah, that's right. Yeah, yeah, Annabelle, you got it. So, this room was mainly all of Erin's dolls. Erin is our recurrent owner. She's the one celebrating her anniversary. Now, when you take the tour, you're going to learn a little bit of the history of the original owner, William Andrews Clark. He was born in 1839 in rural Pennsylvania. From humble beginnings, he worked his way west during the Pikes Peak gold rush of 1860, but he did not make his fortune in gold. Rather, it was copper. Because around this time, Butte was transforming into a bustling mining boomtown and copper was essential for the new electrical industry. So, settling in Montana, Clark tapped into the state's rich copper deposits, which made him a very, very wealthy man. And he went on to build an empire that extended from copper to railroads, banking, and real estate. Adjusted for inflation, Clark's fortune would rate him as one of the richest people in history with over three billion dollars. Now, by the late 19th century, Clark was only one of the three copper kings. We had Marcus Daly, F. Augustus Hines, and William Clark. And they competed fiercely over control for Montana's copper reserves. And Butte, Montana, was the center of that battle. Now, Clark's ambition also extended to politics. In 1899, he notoriously actually bribed Montana legislators to secure himself a U.S. Senate seat. And Mark Twain had this to say about it, he is as rotten a human being as can be found anywhere under the flag. He's a shame to the and no one has helped to send him to the Senate who did not know that his proper place was the penitentiary with a ball and chain on his legs. To my mind, he is the most disgusting creature that the republic has produced since Tweed's time. Wow. I think we know how Mark Twain really felt. And Clark had this to say, quote, I never bought a man who wasn't for sale. Unquote. And this copper king mansion is just one of many of Clark's homes. He also owned a 121 room mansion on Fifth Avenue in New York City that at the time cost seven million. So it would be a lot, a lot of money today. It included 31 baths, four art galleries, a swimming pool, a concealed garage, and a private underground rail line to bring in coal for heat. And he also had the Belascardo Estate in Santa Barbara, California. Yet, the copper king mansion is still standing, unlike his big mansion in New York, which was only standing for 30 years. And his roots really started for his fortune in Butte, Montana. So after Clark's death in 1925, his son Charles inherited the copper king mansion. And Charles had a gambling problem, and he lost the house to pay for his debts because of gambling. And the house had many other owners. You know, I mentioned the Catholic church owned it for a while when it was a girl's school. And the present owners who have owned it for many, many years have made it also into a bed and breakfast. Now I should mention, not all the furnishings that I'm showing you are original, but they are characteristic of the period. So today the copper king mansion operates as a bed and breakfast, allowing visitors to step back in time and take a tour like we did, or actually spend the night in a luxurious Victorian bedroom. Tours during the winter require a reservation at least seven days in advance. You can call or see what's already been scheduled using the book a tour button. And from May 1st to September 30th, walk-in tours are available at 10am, 12pm, 2pm, and 3.30pm. And tours cost $20 a person. So the copper king mansion is more than just a home. It's a symbol of ambition and such beautiful, beautiful artistry and a complicated legacy. It stands as a reminder of the excess of the gilded age as well as the enduring craftsmanship of the workers who helped make the copper king mansion as beautiful as it is. So if this journey back to the gilded age interests you, I hope you tap that like button and that subscribe button so you don't miss out on any more amazing adventures. Remember, adventure awaits!