Heiress Who Owned New Canaan Mansion Dies

Huguette Clark, the mysterious heiress who owned a 22-room New Canaan mansion for almost 60 years but never lived in it, died Tuesday, according to a published report. She was two weeks shy of her 105th birthday.   

Clark, the daughter of copper magnate William A. Clark, had been a resident of Beth Israel Hospital for several years. Her 52-acre estate on Dan’s Highway has been unoccupied since she purchased it in 1952. According to published reports, the Manhattan district attorney’s office was investigating whether Clark’s lawyer, Wallace Bock, and her accountant, Irving Kamsler, had been mishandling Clark’s half-billion-dollar fortune.

The nine-bedroom mansion, "Le Beau Chateau," was built in 1937 by famed architectural firm Voorhees, Gmelin and Walker for U.S. Sen. David Aikeen Reed. It is listed as having 12,766 square feet, 11 fireplaces, 13-foot ceilings and herringbone floors. The estate includes a 10-lot subdivision.

Clark also owned a $100 million estate in Santa Barbara, Calif., and a $100 million, 42-room apartment on Fifth Avenue overlooking New York’s Central Park.

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