She Was…Quirky
Huguette Clark inherited a virtually limitless fortune from her infamously unscrupulous father, William A Clark. But she was even more of a puzzling character than he was. From a curiously brief marriage to an eerie doll collection and empty mansions, she was definitely the quirkiest heiress of her era.
1. She Was Born In France
Huguette Marcelle Clark was born in June of 1906 as an American heiress, but she wasn’t born in America. At the time of her birth, her parents—William A Clark and Anna E Clark—were living in Paris, France. Growing up in Paris’s trendy sixteenth arrondissement was glamorous. It was also scandalous.
Unknown authorUnknown author, Wikimedia Commons
2. Her Father Had A Bad Reputation
Clark’s father, William, had made his fortune in copper mining and railroads in Montana and even served as a US Senator for the state. But with every dollar he made, he made his reputation worse. As one historian put it, Clark’s father “exploited the working class” and left Montana “an environmental wreck”.
Even her mother wasn’t free of controversy.
Andrew J. Russell (1830-1902), photographer, Wikimedia Commons
3. Her Parents Had A Controversial Marriage
Clark’s parents had a sordid love story. Her mother, Anna, had allegedly met her father when she was just a teenager. When they (allegedly) absconded to France to get married, Anna was 23 while William was 62. Little did they know, their own daughter would become something of a scandal-maker herself.
Harris & Ewing, photographer, Wikimedia Commons
4. She Was a Parisian-Turned-New Yorker
Little Huguette Clark spent her earliest years in France before jetting off (well, steamshipping off) to New York City at the age of five. And nothing but the most sophisticated lifestyle would do. In New York, Clark began her education at the prestigious Spence School—no word on whether she needed French classes.
She was certainly living in style.
United States Coast and Geodetic Survey, Wikimedia Commons
5. She Lived In A Manhattan Mansion
Clark’s family wealth might have been controversial, but their taste certainly wasn’t. When she arrived in New York, Clark and her family moved into what was, at the time, the largest mansion in all of Manhattan. With 121 rooms spread out across six floors, it was positively palatial.
6. She Shared A Bedroom
Despite having a literal palace for a home, Clark didn’t exactly have tons of space to herself. She shared a bedroom with her older sister, Andrée. Their sleeping arrangements weren’t a reflection of a lack of space, but rather a testament to their closeness—a closeness that would haunt Clark for the rest of her life.
7. She Lost Her Sister
For Clark, tragedy struck early and shattered her illusions of living in a fairy tale. Just as she was entering her teen years, her older sister and best friend, Andrée, contracted meningitis. Before long, the terrible illness claimed her sister’s life, leaving Clark with nothing but five half-siblings from her father’s first marriage.
Even more challenging times lay ahead.
8. She Lost A Father And Gained A Fortune
Just a few short years after losing her sister under terrible circumstances, Clark suffered another loss. In 1925, at the age of 86, Clark’s father, William, passed on. But, considering the fact that he left her and her mother millions in inheritance money, it’s not clear how heartbroken Clark really was.
Paul Thompson/FPG, Getty Images
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9. She “Downsized” To Upgrade
After her father passed on in 1925, Clark and her mother “downsized”. They packed up their modest 121-room pad and moved to a humble twelfth-floor apartment on Fifth Avenue. However, their “downsize” was definitely an upgrade. After making some adjustments to the apartment, contemporary news sources called it the “finest apartment in the world”.
This also made her one of the most eligible bachelorettes in the world.
The Washington Post, Getty Images
10. She Announced A High-Society Engagement
In 1927, Clark perked up the ears of society gossips when she announced her engagement to William MacDonald Gower. He was a law student and, more importantly, the son of one of her father’s former business colleagues. It wasn’t exactly a whirlwind romance, but she had enough money to make it look like one.
11. She Had A Picture-Perfect Wedding
In August of 1928, less than a year after announcing her engagement, Clark tied the knot with Gower—and did so in style. The happy couple said their “I dos” at her family's sprawling California estate, Bellosguardo. The setting was as picturesque as a postcard—and the marriage was just as fake.
Unknown Author, CC0, Wikimedia Commons
12. She Was The Talk Of The Town
Society pages in every newspaper across the country couldn’t help but celebrate the marriage of one of America’s wealthiest heiresses of all time. One newspaper even bet their credibility on the nuptials, gushing that “no married couple ever started married life under more brilliant auspices”... or brief, for that matter.
13. She Built A Lake
Shortly after her wedding, Clark moved into Bellosguardo with her new husband. But it wasn’t a home quite yet. To make the sprawling estate feel cozier, she decided to donate a cool $50,000 to dig up a salt pond and create a freshwater lake. However, it wasn’t just a pet project for a rich woman. The artificial lake had special significance.
Flying over Bellosguardo, aka the Clark Estate, Drone Flying with Uncle Bob
14. She Honored Her Sister
Even after a decade, Clark was still trying to process the loss of her older sister, Andrée. So, she built an entire lake to reflect the depth of her devotion. Clark donated the $50,000 for the lake on one condition: It had to bear her late sister’s name. And so, the Andrée Clark Bird Refuge was born—a serene tribute to a sibling she had never truly gotten over.
She was, however, very much over someone else.
A Quiet Walk by Andree Clark Bird Refuge in Santa Barbara, Roadside Discovery
15. She Had A Very Short Marriage
Just one year after her grand society wedding, Clark and Gower stunned high society when they called it quits. In 1930, Clark filed for divorce in Reno, Nevada, citing “desertion”. Gower, for his part, claimed the couple had never consummated their marriage. It was all over in a flash—and Clark would never be the same.
16. She Went Home
After the divorce, Clark didn’t choose to stay at her family’s sprawling Bellosguardo estate. Instead, she decided to return to New York, back to her much more bachelorette-appropriate Fifth Avenue apartment. However, she would have to make it her own.
Alfred Stieglitz, Wikimedia Commons
17. She Made Manhattan’s Biggest Apartment
Going from Bellosguardo to a Manhattan apartment wasn’t exactly an upgrade in Clark’s mind. So, she brought some Bellosguardo grandeur with her back to Manhattan. Clark renovated and expanded the Fifth Avenue apartment until it spanned 42 rooms, including a 30-foot library, a 40-foot drawing room, and a living room bigger than most other condos.
Her apartment became an architectural work of art.
Charles Latham (1847-1912), Wikimedia Commons
18. She Had The Best Views In New York
The architectural historian Andrew Alpern described Clark’s renovated apartment as if it were a feat of engineering and art, combined into one. “If you stood with your back to the fireplace in the library,” he said, “you could see out to Central Park through the living room window that is almost 110 feet (34 m) away!”
Surprisingly, that was the least of her architectural accomplishments.
Anthony Quintano from Hillsborough, NJ, United States, Wikimedia Commons
19. She Rebuilt A Mansion—Just Because
Even during the Great Depression, Clark was still rolling in more money than she knew what to do with. But she hated to see people struggling to make ends meet. So, along with her mother, she came up with a crazy idea. Clark paid workers to tear down Bellosguardo…then build it back up. She was just happy to give people jobs to do.
Plus, it kept them busy and out of her hair.
Bellosguardo, a reclusive heiress' fabled historic home, CBS Sunday Morning
20. She Preferred Her Own Company
Despite her wealth and popularity amongst high society figures, Clark wasn’t exactly a Gatsby-esque party hound. In fact, she was intensely private. Clark was known to keep a tight inner circle, rarely left her home, and had a reputation for being “skittish around strangers”. But, when she did make friends, she made them for life.
Bellosguardo, a reclusive heiress' historic home, CBS Sunday Morning
21. She Had Friends In Low Places
Despite her social awkwardness, Clark frequently visited her 23-acre Bellosguardo estate with family and friends. However, while there, she preferred the unlikeliest of peers. Instead of hobnobbing with her aristocratic counterparts, she made fast friends with Barbara Dorn, the daughter of Bellosguardo’s caretaker. They had an odd friendship.
Bellosguardo, a reclusive heiress' fabled historic home, CBS Sunday Morning
22. She Had A Need For Speed—Sort Of
While Clark’s fellow trust fund friends lived life on the edge, she preferred the quiet and seclusion of her less well-heeled acquaintances. According to one of her contemporaries, Clark spent a fair amount of time “with rich daredevils who drove fast cars and flew rickety planes”. However, she clearly preferred to spend most of her time with Dorn, hidden away amongst the foliage of Bellosguardo’s quiet grounds.
She was, after all, a gentler soul.
Unknown Author, Wikimedia Commons
23. She Had An Artistic Side
Clark had always preferred seclusion. But that didn’t mean she was idle. For someone so private, she was actually quite effusive—with a paintbrush. She threw herself into art, becoming an avid painter. In 1929, she displayed seven of her paintings at the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, DC. It was a rare glimpse into her often private mind.
The Washington Post, Getty Images
24. She Was A Doll Collector
Clark’s love for art didn’t stop at painting. With her father’s vast and limitless fortune, she built an enviable collection of visual art, antique toys, and—most famously—dolls. Lots of dolls. Her taste may have been exquisite, but her shelves definitely leaned toward the “spooky chic”.
gaelx from Madrid / A Coruña, Wikimedia Commons
25. She Went To Fashion Shows—For Her Dolls
As her reclusive personality began to take over, Clark attended fewer and fewer society events. However, she was only too happy to leave her isolation to attend Christian Dior fashion shows. Funny enough, she wasn’t looking at clothes for herself, but instead for her dolls. Of course, dolls need a dollhouse—or a château, as the case may be.
Dior 'circus' Comes To Town (1950), British Pathe
26. She Bought A Château And Ghosted It
In 1952, Clark made another real estate acquisition that had all of high society abuzz. The notoriously quixotic heiress purchased a sprawling Connecticut estate dubbed “Le Beau Château”. The New Canaan property was lovely, grand, and totally uninhabited. After her mother passed on in 1963, Clark became so reclusive that she never actually moved into the property.
Discovering The Abandoned Chateau Plans | French Chateau Renovations #38, The Beau Chateau
27. She Maintained Mansions She Never Visited
With a vast fortune, Clark was not your average recluse. Her many opulent properties didn’t fall into disrepair. Quite the opposite, in fact. Though she hadn’t visited Bellosguardo since the 1950s, she kept it unbelievably pristine—for a jaw-dropping $40,000 per month. But that wasn’t the strangest part of her behavior.
Bellosguardo, a reclusive heiress' historic home, CBS Sunday Morning
28. She Distrusted Everyone
As she aged, Clark’s quirks crossed over into borderline paranoia. She began eyeing everyone—especially her relatives—with fear, believing they wanted to get their hands on her fortune. Her solution to this problem was to speak in French so that people were unlikely to discern the details of her conversations. However, her mistrust eventually turned dangerous.
29. She Avoided Doctors—Until She Couldn't
By 1991, Clark had faded from the public’s view—and when she resurfaced, her condition was shocking. Her health had taken a turn for the worse, leaving her face covered in lesions and her eyesight failing. When she checked into Doctors Hospital in Manhattan, it was the first time in over 20 years that she’d seen a physician.
She was utterly unrecognizable.
M. Sand, D. Sand, C. Thrandorf, V. Paech, P. Altmeyer, F. G. Bechara, CC BY 2.0, Wikimedia Commons
30. She Was “An Apparition”
When Clark stumbled into the Upper East Side hospital, she left quite the impression. One of the first nurses reported that the heiress looked like “an apparition” and behaved “like a homeless person”. She hadn’t bathed, had no clothes with her, and kicked everyone out of her hospital room. But she desperately needed their help.
31. She Got Some Work Done
Usually, when heiresses undergo plastic surgery, it’s out of vanity—but, for Clark, it was out of necessity. After years of medical neglect, Clark had developed a set of cancerous tumors on her face and had to undergo intensive surgery to remove them. The doctors had to cut out so many tumors that, after tending to them, they performed reconstructive surgery on her parts of her face.
She clearly liked the job they did.
Docteur Spitalier Philippe, CC BY-SA 2.0, Wikimedia Commons
32. She Turned A Hospital Into A Hotel
Once her treatments were done, Clark got the “all-clear” from her doctors to return home. Instead, she decided to stay—forever. Even after her doctor “strongly urged that she go home," he reported that the quirky heiress was “perfectly happy, content, to remain in the situation she was in”. And so, despite owning several stunning properties, Beth Israel Medical Center eventually became her new home.
33. She Paid Rent Like A Rockefeller
Clark might have opted to stay in the hospital, but she wasn’t exactly roughing it. Accustomed to the luxury of Manhattan apartments, California estates, and New England retreats, she turned her hospital into another luxurious pad. And she only had to pay a modest $829 a day for the privilege.
Her stay even came with entertainment.
34. She Talked To The Smurfs
For the most part, Clark’s nurses and doctors reported that she was in good spirits and good health. Even if, at times, she seemed a little…well, off. One of her more puzzling habits was the sharp turns in her conversations. In the middle of a regular interaction, she’d abruptly start chatting about The Smurfs or The Flintstones, her two favorite cartoons.
She clearly didn’t mean any harm by it.
The Wise Grandpa Smurf! 🤗🤗🤗 • The Smurfs • Cartoons for Kids by The Smurfs • Official Channel!
35. She Was A Generous Tipper
By staying in the hospital, Clark may have been trying to protect her fortune from the greedy, grubby hands of her extended family. But, with those around her, she was generous—to a fault. She infamously gave her private nurse, Hadassah Peri, and her family over $30 million in homes, cars, grants, and more. She was, allegedly, the perfect patient.
Huguette Clark's nurse, 7 of 8, I don't know why we buy this stupidity., Bill Dedman
36. She Was Still A Sweetheart
In 2006, when Clark officially became a centenarian, a neurologist visited her expecting the worst. Certainly, the 100-year-old heiress living in the hospital should have been crazy. But he was pleasantly surprised. After his tests, he described Clark as “cute as pie” and “perfectly content,” showing no signs of mental decline.
Clark hadn’t lost her marbles. But she could still lose her fortune.
KatarzynaBialasiewicz, Getty Images
37. She Was Cash Poor
Despite her nine-figure net worth, Clark ran low on funds late in life. But that didn’t stop her from giving out gifts like party favors. Whenever she needed cash, she simply sold off assets and continued giving her money away as she pleased. She once gave $10 million to her best friend and $25,000 to the workers who repaired her TV.
In spite of her generosity, she was determined to maintain her anonymity.
Photo By: Kaboompics.com, Pexels
38. She Had A Secret Identity
Clark’s hospital life was one long game of hide-and-seek from the media. Desperate to remain out of public view, she lived in the hospital under aliases, such as “Harriet Chase,” and went so far as to plaster a fake room number over her real one. But one intrepid journalist had something to say about it.
39. Her Whereabouts Were A Mystery
In 2010, NBC reporter Bill Dedman launched an investigation into Clark’s whereabouts. But he found more questions than answers. When he arrived at Clark’s New Canaan home, the property’s caretaker asked after his employer, “Do you think she's still alive?” All Dedman found were palatial homes meticulously maintained—but no Huguette Clark.
Discovering The Abandoned Chateau Plans | French Chateau Renovations #38, The Beau Chateau
40. She Sold Priceless Treasures
While Clark may have vanished from society, some of her most sought-after belongings started to reappear. From the comfort of her hospital, Clark quietly sold off masterpieces, including a 1709 Stradivarius violin and a Renoir painting. The heiress who had everything was slowly letting go—one priceless artifact at a time.
Her own reappearance was a scandal.
Håkan Svensson (Xauxa), Wikimedia Commons
41. She Sparked A Scandal
In 2010, partly prompted by the reporting from Bill Dedman, the New York District Attorney launched an investigation into Clark’s affairs. Not because they thought she was doing anything wrong, but because they suspected the worst. With Dedman’s reporting, rumors began to circulate that the missing heiress’s lawyer and accountant had taken a few too many liberties with her massive fortune.
They may have been onto something.
Bill Dedman - Journalism and Civil Rights in Georgia and the South, Russell Library Oral History
42. She Funded Shelters—Not The Good Kind
According to one whistleblower, Clark’s attorney, Wallace Bock, had been playing fast and loose with his client’s money. In addition to “lavish gifts," he allegedly sent $1.5 million of Clark’s money to his daughter in Israel so she could build a fallout shelter in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks. His other actions also raised eyebrows.
Huguette Clark's attorney, 2 of 4, Oh, I'll pay for it., Bill Dedman
43. She Refused To Sign
The investigation uncovered further questionable acts by Clark’s lawyer, Wallace Bock. According to the same whistleblower, a paralegal in the law firm, Bock had pushed Clark to sign multiple wills. But that wasn't the most horrifying part. Some of these wills named him as a beneficiary of her massive fortune. His spokesperson didn’t exactly deny this, confirming only that Clark had a will.
Thankfully, Clark refused to sign any of the wills that Bock put in front of her. But she wasn’t out of the woods yet.
44. She Fought Off Her Family
As Clark pushed past 100, Bock wasn’t the only one trying to get his hands on her fortune. In 2010, three of Clark’s distant relatives also tried to wrest control of her assets from her. They petitioned the courts to appoint a guardian over her affairs. However, the judge shut down the blatant money grab with a one-paragraph ruling.
So, the question remained: Who would inherit her fortune?
45. She Had One Last Visitor
In May 2011, just two weeks shy of her 105th birthday, Clark’s health began to fail. Medical staff moved her to intensive care, and eventually, seeing her condition decline, placed her in hospice. At the very end, just as she drew her last breath, Clark had but one friend at her side; her loyal nurse, Hadassah Peri. It was as clear a sign as any who her beneficiary would be.
Huguette Clark's nurse, 8 of 8, Good night, Hadassah., Bill Dedman
46. She Left Millions Behind
Despite her lawyer’s best efforts to get Clark to sign a will that he drafted, her 2005 will was the official one. And it was every bit as quirky as Clark herself had been. The bulk of her $300 million fortune, she gave to charity. Another $12 million to her goddaughter, and $8 million to start the Bellosguardo Foundation. The single largest beneficiary? Her nurse, Peri, who walked away with $30 million... if she could keep it.
Inside Huguette Clark's Estate: Bellosguardo, Christie's
47. She Had Another Will
Just when everyone thought that the Clark family saga had come to an end, another twist in the narrative appeared. This time, NBC revealed that Clark had signed a second will six weeks prior to the 2005 will that the authorities had carried out. This earlier will gave her entire fortune to her extended family. The fight was on.
48. Her Family Fought Dirty
With news of this second will, 19 of Clark’s distant relatives—most of whom hadn’t seen her since the 1950s—came out of the woodwork to claim what they believed was theirs. Their assertion was that Clark hadn’t just been quirky, but mentally unwell. Their evidence? Her obsession with dolls and cartoons, as well as the ease with which she gave away monetary gifts.
It was a weak case—but money corrupts.
Dobrila Vignjevic, Getty Images
49. She Left Them With Something
The judge presiding over the case ruled that the competing parties would have to settle without a jury trial. While the decision prevented turning Clark’s final years into a media circus, it didn’t prevent a dramatic outcome. When the parties announced their agreement, Clark’s distant relatives walked away with a whopping $34.5 million. Her nurse, Peri, got the shortest end of the stick possible.
She wouldn't be receiving a single cent. Not only that, but she also gave back the $5 million already paid out to her. The rest went to the arts, and to Bellosguardo—the Clark family’s only lasting legacy.
Flying over Bellosguardo, aka the Clark Estate, Drone Flying with Uncle Bob
50. She Wrote Her Own Ending
Clark’s final will described her as a “reluctant heiress," a woman who chose privacy over parties and art over extravagance. In part, it read, “Given the world we inhabit today, it's hard for most of us to comprehend the choices Mrs Clark made...”, and paid tribute to her character as “a person who knew what she owned, who cherished her privacy and intimate kinship, and who knew that this Will would be a statement of her love of the fine arts and her Santa Barbara home, and her attachment to those special people".
Bellosguardo, a reclusive heiress' historic home, CBS Sunday Morning
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