Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1885-05-07
THE WIDOWS PALACE.
Mrs Mark Hopkins and Her New House
at Great harrington. Mass.

| y
| days ago in which it was said that Mrs.
Mark Hopkins. of California, had de-
terrnined to build a $4,000, 600 resi-
dence at Great Darlington, Mass.
Previous to that the Boston papers had
! published the report that the house was
to cost only one-tifth that sum, and the
third and last report is that the amount
to be expended is only 100000. 1t is
true, indeed, that Mrs. Hopkins is 90
! ing to build a residence at Great Bar
rington. 1t is furthermore true that ii
is to be a very expensive one-the most
expensive probably in Massachusetts,
or even New England. 1t will not cost
so much as 50, 900, 900, but it will cost
more than 81, 100000. The plans are
completed and have been accepted.
They now rest IN the hands of New
York architects, aid will not be made
public for some time. Work on the
foundation of the building will be
commenced the coming Spring, and
Mrs. Hopkins expects to see it ready
for occupancy three years hence.
There is some interesting history
woven in and about the life of Mrs
Mark Hopkins. She is the widow of
Mark Hopkins, who w5s one of the
five men of California who built the
Central Pacific Railroad, and made
each princely fortune out of it. The
others were Leland Stanford, c. z.
Huntington and the two Crockers.
Hopkins was the treasurer of the COM
pany from its organization in 1861, or
thereabouts, till his death, in 1873.
He left an estate that was inyentCried
at S21, 100000.
He died without having made a will
and without children. By the COM
mon law Mrs. Hopkins would have
been entitled to only one-third of the
immense estate. The courts made her
the eXecutriN, and she took possession,
but the two brothers of her deceased
husband, Moses and Samuel, for the
latter had died, brought 4 suit against
her, and secured her removal from the
eXecutOrship Of the estate, and an ac-
counting of it. The matter was finally
compromised, Moses Hopkins, and the
sons of Samuel Hopkins being content
to receive together some 4,0O0,00 in
hard cash. Mrs. Hopkins got the re-
mainder which, rs already stated, now
amounts to about $50, 100000. Thus
do we come to know who Mrs. Mark
Hopkins is and now she became so rich.
Before Mark Hopkins died he built
the nrSt of those palatial residences
that have since excited the wonder and
admiration of all who have in the past
ten years visited the city of San Fran
cisco. 1t was constructed of wood,
like all the others of its class, but had
about it all the elaborateness and eX-
travagance of some of the finest Eng
lsh country houses. 1t was said to
have cost 81, 900, 900, and at that time
the Stewart residence in New York
City was the only dwelling house in
America that had cost that sum. 1t
was the Hopkins mansion that made
Mob Hill the fashionable quarter of San
Francisco. All have heard of the
splendid residences that Governor
Stanford, James Flood and other Cali
fornia millionaires have since built
there. Since her husband S death Mrs.
Hopkins has purchased Menlo Park,
Ralston's famous country place, and
there she has settled her adopted son, q
young man of 26, who recently mar
ried Miss Crittenden of California,
niece of Mrs. Hopkins.
Notwithstanding all these large pos
sessions, not to speak of others on the
Pacific coast, Mrs. Hopkins proposes to
make her home in her husbands native
town of Great Darlington, Mass. She
has always had an affection for the
place, and comes there because its peO-
pie and surroundings are congenial to
her taste. During recent years Mrs.
Hopkins has come here to spend her
Summers. 1t was there that she lived
when young girl, and there that she
was married. When she grew rich she
added the porticoes, put colored glass
in some of the windows, and furnished
it luxuriantly. The carpets in every
room are IS soft as down, the chairs
are of antique mahogany upholstered
in yellow silk plush. Every bit of pot
terry, every bit of bronze, every foot
stool, every sofa, lounge, chair, stand,
vase or whatever it may be, bears evil
dence of having been selected with
cultivated taste.
The new building that is to supplant
the old will be 178 by 14S feet, and will
be built of blue dolomite 1t is very
hard stone, of finer grain than granite,
and is obtained from a neighboring
quarry owned by Mrs. Hopkins herself.
The exterior walls are to show the stone
in rough surface, with cut seams. The
stables and the coachman's cottage are
already built. They are of the same
dolomite to be employed in the con-
struction of the residence, and look as
though they would endure through all
the ages to come. I can not give a
description of the residence for the ex-
cellent reason that l have not seen the
drawings.
The ground upon which Mrs. Hop
kins is to build her castle extends a
hundred yards along the principal
streets, and back of it, to the south
little, is a level meadow valley that
runs off along the shore Of the Housa-
tonic and to the foot of the picturesque
Berkshire hills on the other side. In
the midst of this smooth meadow field
is an artificial basin in which is foun-
tain from which in Summer springs a