Clark Chateau Museum:

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May – September

Sunday – Saturday: 12 p.m. –5 p.m.

Tours are offered during the winter by appointment only.
321 W. Broadway
Butte, MT 59701
406–723–7600

When James E. Murray owned this property in 1926, Marshall Field of Chicago was engaged to redecorate and to furnish the lower floors for the Murrays. The blue satin damask draperies, hand painted French wallpaper, hand–woven Belgian carpet (reported to be Aubusson) in the first floor drawing room, and Louis XVI wall sconces are evidence of the splendor of that time. Aubusson is a market town in central France, famous for its manufacture of tapestries and carpets since the sixteenth century. They had an imposing grand piano in the first floor circular room, along with a large marble–topped table, and two Aubusson chairs near the fireplace.

It is probable the stairwell, spirals, and ground floor entry and reception room may have been re–painted in the redecoration from creme to white. The inside narrow concealed stairway originally for guards (or servants) to pass unnoticed from the ground floor to the first floor servant's dining room (or guards' sentry post) was blocked by the installation of linoleum flooring.

The home was constructed originally using wood from each continent. Satinwood from India is in the large reception room on the first floor; the painted area may have some teak because one time the furniture for that area was teak with an Oriental decor and wallpaper of Oriental motif. The wainscoting was antiqued ivory and gold–leaf. There is bird's–eye maple in the library; the stair banister is of South American or African mahogany; cross–cut English oak is in the main dining room (or banquet room) with an oak ceiling, and in the adjoining petit salon with stained glass windows with copper, not lead, framing. The front entrance and ceiling are oak. The oak may have been obtained from select logs in the Midwest. Most floors are oak with pine or fir in less important rooms on the fourth floor. Hand–planed redwood paneling and beams are in the ballroom. Circassian walnut is of a dark variety from the northeastern area of the Black Sea. Some of it may have been used in the furnishings in the Chateau.

The craftsmanship and design in the interior of the Chateau are of outstanding quality, the circular stairway being its most prominent interior architectural feature. The hand rail was carved in place. Decorated brass doorknobs, keyhole covers, and other artistic details abound. Some cornices and fireplace mantles are moulded plaster and wood. Each piece of the wood cornice in the room off the Washington Street entrance is hand cut, and custom fitted, with each nail hole meticulously filled. Butterfly joints are evident in the banquet room. Protruding wood trims of shell shape and ornate clusters were purchased pre–cut as stock items carried in stores of that day.

Original scenic painted murals in the ballroom depict the story of Pocahontas and hunting scenes. Pictures concerned with sports, especially horse–racing and fox–hunting, enjoyed great popularity, particularly on the continent of Europe and in England, in the early 20th century.

No lawn surrounds the house because it was built when green vegetation would not grow in Butte, inside or out, because of sulphur fumes of smelter emissions. The newlyweds had the yard flagged with cobblestones. Later owners cemented this over inside the iron fence, The sidewalk is still primarily the original two–tone stepping stones. Copper rain gutters and spouts, now greenish–blue against the antique cast brick and grey stone windowsills, were uniquely fitting for the son of a copper king.

Near the end of the Victorian era, an American inventor came up with a speedy economical solution for time–consuming architectural embellishments: to cast decorations in iron, then bolt them together. Foundries turned out hundreds of different pieces. These elements were available through catalogs. It was the beginning of prefabrication, a technique Henry Ford soon applied to automobiles. The Butte Ornamental Iron Works used this technique constructing the fence in 1901.

Off the Washington Street entrance is a closet lined with white tile on wainscot and floor, complete with drain, to accommodate wet and muddy outerwear. A similar one on the fourth floor, for house servants, has its own interior side window to admit daytime natural light.

George W. Dairs in "Sketches of Butte" called the "rise of ground", in which the Chateau and three houses nearby of Spanish architecture were built, the Hibernian Terrace. He wrote that the house originally had, among other embellishments, authentic Oriental rugs. The floors, laid with a border, provide for rugs, not carpeting. According to Dairs, an owner with an Irish brogue, claimed her husband and she both slid across the floor "on one o' thim Sherooks" so she "wint downtown" and had a "foine round carpet made" for the drawing room which the Clarks had had furnished in Louis XIV and XVI furniture. For comparative value, a Louis XV desk was auctioned recently in England in the de Rothschild collection. The desk was declared "of pre–eminent value". The owner refused to sell it for less than half a million dollars, the highest price ever paid previously for a piece of furniture.

At the same time the Oriental rugs were replaced, the library was stained mahogany to keep up with the style of that day, and probably held some Empire mahogany furniture. Its windows are of small leaded panes with one large window in which there is an unsigned reproduction of a Whistler sailing scene.

Oriental and French motifs on the backs of the fireboxes of the fireplaces are evidences of Americans' being enamored with those countries' objects d'art in the early 29th century. Each of the seven fireplaces has tiles or marble imported from a different country in the world.

In 1899, electricity came to Butte, one of the first cities in the world to be so–lighted, with power brought from the Big Hole River near Divide. The Chateau, then, was wired for electricity from the beginning. Due to the unreliability of continuous electric power, which might have been off for several hours or days at a time, some of the same fixtures were also gas lights. The small coffee room with the copper–stained–glass windows still has original brass fixtures providing for both services.

For more information on the Charles W. Clark Chateau Click here

All information was taken from:
"The Butte Arts Chateau Chronicle and Conjecture" by Vernetta R. Kommers (1977)