Clayton
The year 1881 was a significant one for Henry Clay Frick (1849-1919). In February, he made his first recorded purchase of a work of art: a wooded landscape by local artist George Hetzel. Then, in the spring, Frick met Adelaide Howard Childs (1859-1931) and they were married on December 15.
After returning from their wedding trip, the Fricks purchased "Homewood," an eleven-room, Italianate-style home located at the corner of Penn and South Homewood avenues in Pittsburgh’s residential East End neighborhood. Pittsburgh architect Andrew Peebles made interior and exterior modifications to the home, which was renamed "Clayton." The home would serve as the family’s primary residence from 1882 to 1905.
The Fricks moved into Clayon early in 1883. Their son, Childs (1883-1965), was born in March. Two years later a daughter, Martha, was born (1885-1891), followed by Helen Clay Frick (1888-1984), and a fourth child, Henry Clay Frick, Jr., who died shortly after birth in 1892.
By 1905, Henry Clay Frick’s business, social, and artistic interests had shifted from Pittsburgh to New York. The family moved to New York, and spent their first ten years living in a Vanderbilt mansion on Fifth Avenue.
They also began planning their New York residence at 1 East 70th Street, which was designed to accommodate Frick’s large art collection of growing international standing, The Frick residence, today known as The Frick Collection, was opened to the public as a museum in 1935.
In 1981, Helen returned to Clayton to live full time, and stayed there until her death in 1984. She left provisions for the family home to be restored and opened to the public. Following a four-year restoration project, Clayton was opened to the public in 1990. Today, the home provides visitors with an intimate glimpse into the life of the Frick family more than a century ago and insight into late-nineteenth-century life in general.
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