CelebrityNetWorth recently launched a newsletter called Deep Pockets. Every Saturday morning, we send an email that tells the story of a massive fortune being made (or lost). We especially like to tell stories of lesser-known fortunes from 100+ years ago that are still touching our world. For example, Levi Strauss, William Wrigley, and the guy who invented Capri Sun. If that sounds like something you'd enjoy reading, please consider subscribing by clicking this link or by entering your email in the form below. It's totally free and totally awesome:
I'm not exaggerating when I say that I was directly inspired to launch this newsletter because of a 19th-century copper magnate named William Andrews Clark. You've probably never heard of him. And that's weird because when he died in 1925 at the age of 86, William Clark was the third richest person in America (and likely the world), behind only John D. Rockefeller and Henry Ford. Clark's legacy absolutely still touches our world today. And not in subtle ways. A major American city (that you've probably been to numerous times) would not exist today without him. I tell the full story of William A. Clark in Deep Pockets #17. Subscribe and you'll receive it in a few weeks! Then there's the story of William's youngest child, Huguette Clark…
The Most Reclusive Reclusive Millionaire Ever
Huguette Clark was 19 when her father died in 1925. Amazingly, she lived to be 104! She died in 2011!
Huguette died in a hospital room. That's not particularly unusual for a person in their 100s, but Huguette had not been in that hospital room for a few days, weeks, or even months. She had been living in a modest, bland hospital room for the past TWENTY YEARS. She wasn't in a coma. She wasn't particularly sick. One day in March 1991, Huguette walked out of her 15,000-square-foot NYC apartment that overlooked Central Park, checked in to a hospital… and never left.
She hadn't blown the family fortune. Huguette was worth hundreds of millions of dollars.
Her multi-decade hospital stay was extremely expensive. And even during that two-decade hospitalization, she used her fortune to continue not only owning but also maintaining her various mansions around the United States. Most notably, a 15,000-square-foot Central Park apartment, a 22,000-square-foot estate in Santa Barbara set on 23 oceanfront acres, and a 14,000-square-foot New Canaan mansion. She spent hundreds of thousands of dollars every month on her various living expenses and property portfolio. Her houses were maintained as if she would show up unannounced at any time. But she never did.
For nearly her entire hospital stay, only a few nurses and doctors knew her story. She never met her lawyers or bankers in person. She stopped seeing family members. She spent her days watching cartoons and making phone calls to a caretaker who looked after her precious doll collection.
Huguette's bizarre, secret, reclusive life was accidentally exposed in 2009 because of the New Canaan mansion. Huguette bought the New Canaan mansion in 1951 after World War II out of fear that Russians would nuke New York City. For whatever reason, she never actually set foot in the home or on the property.
No one in New Canaan knew who owned the property. Considering the fact that a three-acre estate would be considered very large in the area, the mystery surrounding this 52-acre property that had been abandoned for SIX DECADES was irresistibly tantalizing.
In May 2009, 104 Dans Highway, in New Canaan, Connecticut, was listed for sale for the first time in 60 years. The asking price was $24 million.
Local intrigue exploded. An NBC investigative reporter named Bill Dedman (who lived in New Canaan) pulled on the string and ended up uncovering what is easily the most bizarre "reclusive millionaire" story of all time. Bill found Huguette in the hospital room and produced a story that became the most-viewed article on NBC's website for years. In 2013, Bill and one of Huguette's distant relatives released a best-selling book about her life called "Empty Mansions," which I highly recommend.
Three years after Huguette died, her executors sold this home for $14 million. It was just listed for sale again, this time for $25.5 million. I've embedded a video tour below:
If you'd like to know what happened to Huguette's New York City apartment, her sprawling Santa Barbara mansion, her priceless art collection, and her $300 million fortune, please subscribe to Deep Pockets, and you'll find out in a few weeks! In the meantime, you'll hear a bunch of other awesome stories of massive fortunes being made or squandered.
And here's one more little tease. On Saturday, I actually got to take a tour of Huguette's Santa Barbara estate 🙂 I wasn't allowed to take photos of the interior, and the exterior is so huge that photos don't even do it justice. Keep in mind it's 22,000 square feet set on 23 acres of oceanfront property. The front lawn is three acres. It's impossible to say what this home would be worth if it was ever available to buy. Literally hundreds of millions of dollars.
Huguette Clark's Santa Barbara estate "Bellosguardo" (Copyright Brian Warner)
