Henry Clay Frick, Andrew Carnegie’s right-hand man who ran Carnegie Steel and called out Pinkerton Guards to enforce his lockout of striking steelworkers in 1892, was known as "a mean man," responsible for deaths of Pinkertons and workers and for setting back the union effort 30 years in this country. He handled the difficulties while Carnegie, afraid of disputes, escaped to Scotland. Nobody who tours his home can think of him as mean. Photos of his family and stories about his love of his wife and children present him as an endearing family man determined to be rich for love of them. And rich he was--a millionaire before age 30.
I called a few days in advance. Reservations are necessary to tour the perfectly restored mansion or for high tea at 2:30pm in the café. We couldn’t get reservations for tea (booked solid), but we toured the mansion.
(I had enjoyed French fruit tarts in the café a few years before--scrumptious!) The Frick
Art and Historical Center offers much more than the mansion tour ($10), and everything else is free. I visit often to see changing exhibits in the Frick Art Museum, and the
Victorian greenhouse and Frick Carriage and Car Museum are always delightful. Free concerts on the grounds and lectures, concerts, and readings in the art museum’s auditorium bring more than 1 million visitors each year. Find more, including events schedules, here.
Kay had seen The Frick Collection in New York, and I had visited the birthplace near
Pittsburgh at West Overton, a Mennonite utopian industrial village created by Frick’s grandfather, Abraham Overholt. So, both of us were already on the trail of Henry Clay Frick and the Gilded Age. The Pittsburgh Frick Center is a good place to learn about life in the era outside of Newport. I learned as much about high society at the turn of the century in the Car and Carriage Museum as I did on the mansion tour, so don’t pass up a visit even if you can’t get reservations for Clayton.
The greenhouse is kept as it was in Victorian days. Three rooms display palms and Amaryllis, complete with cats sleeping in the pots. Gardeners were growing flowers and getting ready to make plantings on the lawn.
We visited the art museum built by Frick’s daughter, Helen Clay Frick, to house her personal art collection.
The featured collection was from the Corcoran, an exhibit of majolica. The permanent collection includes Rubens’ portrait of Charlotte-Maguerite de Montmorency and many others, plus fine furnishings and Brussels tapestries.
We weren’t allowed to take photos in the mansion. As a matter of fact, I was told to put away my pen and not take notes unless I had a pencil. Everything in the mansion is exactly as it was when Frick lived here. His receipts enabled restorers to order duplicated Turkish carpets and wall coverings from the same companies where Frick had shopped. For this reason, the home is a special jewel.