Empty Mansions is a book about wealth and the eccentricity wealth enabled.  Bill Dedman became interested in this story when he learned of a mansion in Connecticut kept in pristine condition by a staff that had never seen their employer.  He learned this was not the only magnificent home kept, but never visited, by this particular heir.  His research led him to one of her relatives, co-author Paul Clark Newell, Jr., who provided his twenty years of research into the family:  documents, stories, and many pictures that fill the book.  (The EPUB book is 13,229 KB.)

My favorite part of the book is the story of the founder of the fortune; a short, slender man who joined America’s 1800s gold rush.  Tales from his life offer a view of business on the frontier.  For example:

• Once, while riding, he broke through ice on a river and nearly died.  Luckily some locals heard his calls and saved him, his saddlebag of money, and the horse.  A meticulous record-keeper, he recorded the cost:  $4.00 for rescuing the horse.
• Mining towns were dangerous places.  Arsenic-laden smoke from metal smelting could be so thick pedestrians bumped into each other on the sidewalks.  Crime could be rampant, but the vigilantes held elections and trials:  however imperfect, they echoed eastern justice.

Other parts of the book became repetitious for me:   Yet another mansion full of furniture, art, and staff but empty of owners.  Yet another fabulous art collection never visited.  Yet another story of wealth given away.  The heir’s eccentric, increasingly cloistered life is interesting in a voyeuristic way.  It reminds me of the recent spat of “the real Downton Abby” books, where the message seems to be “can you believe anyone has enough money to be this weird.”

While the story is interesting on its own, there is no historical legacy.  You may recognize other names of wealthy families from the era:  Rockefeller, Carnegie, or Vanderbilt.  Empty Mansions is about W.A. Clark and his last direct heir, daughter Huguette.  I had not heard of the Clark family.  They left no dynasty of politicians, no buildings carry their name, and none of their mansions are museums today.  You won’t see their descendants on a tabloid cover.  They simply slipped from public view as W.A.’s fortune was dispersed.