Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1885-06-04
THE WIDOWS PALACE.
Mrs. Mark Hopkins and Her New House
at Great harrington, Mass.

at Great Harrington, Mass
A paragraph was published some
days ago in which it was said that Mrs.
Mark Hopkins, of California, had de-
termined to build a $5,000,000 resi-
dence at Great harrington, Mass.
Previous TO that the Boston papers had
published the report that the house was
to cost only one-iifth that sum, and the
third and last report is that the amount
to be expended is only S500,00 1t is
true, indeed, that Mrs. Hopkins is 60
ing to build residence at Great Bar
| rington. 1t is furthermore true that it
/ is to be n very expensive Onc-the most
expensive probably in Massachusetts,
or even New England. 1t will not cost
50 much rs So, 00O 600, 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, and 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 was one of the
five men of California who built the
Central Pacific Railroad, and made
each n princely fortune out of it. The
others were Leland Stanford, G. p.
Huntington and the two Crockers.
Hopkins was the treasurer of the com
pauy from its organization in 1861, or
thereabouts, till his death, in 1873.
He Left an estate that was inventoried
at sol 100000
He died without having made q 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 executriX, and she took possession,
but the two brothers of her deceased
husband, Moses and Samuel, for the
latter had died, brought n 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 tho
sons of Samuel Hopkins being content
to receive together some S4,000,000 in
hard cash, Mrs. Hopkins got the re-
mainder, which, as already stated, now
amounts TO about $50 900, 600. Thus
do we come to know who Mrs. Mark
Hopkins is and how she became so rich.
Before Mark Hopkins died he built
the first 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. II was constructed OF wood
like all the others of its class, but had
about it all the elaborateness and ex-
trayagance OF some of the finest Eng
lish country houses. 1t was said to
have cost 81, 600, 600, and at that time
the Stewart residence in New York
City was the only dwelling house in
America that had cost that sum. IL
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 miilionaires have since built
there Since her husbands death Mrs
Hopkins has purchased Menlo Park,
Ralstons famous country place, and
there she has settled her adopted son, a
young man OF 20, who recently mar
ried a Miss Crittonden 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 husband native
town of Great Darlington, Mass. She
has always had an affection for the
place, and comes there because its peo-