The Magnolia Palace

The Magnolia Palace is one of several books by Fiona Davis in which she focuses on historical New York City structures, people, and events. The novel is set in the Henry Clay Frick House, which contains the Frick Collection and the Frick Art Reference Library. The Frick House, built between 1912 and 1914, was designed by Thomas Hastings, an architect whose firm designed prominent buildings, such as the iconic New York Public Library.

When Henry Clay Frick commissioned the mansion, his plan was to live there with his family until his death, at which point it would become a museum featuring his extensive art collection. The family lived surrounded by the collection, which was displayed throughout their home. After Frick’s death in 1919, his family continued to live there until his wife Adelaide’s death in 1931. After her death, the house was modified, and the Frick Collection opened in 1935. The facility houses the Frick Art Reference Library, which is also mentioned in the novel and was founded in 1920 by Helen Clay Frick.

Because the novel is set in the Frick House, Davis takes pains to describe the interior, both in 1919 as a personal residence and in1966 as a museum. The house was, and the museum is, filled with Frick’s fine art collection, which features art from European masters, including Rembrandt, Gainsborough, and Vermeer. Frick’s collection is recognized as a major contribution to the fine arts in New York City.

The historical Henry Clay Frick, as the novel reports, was born just south of Pittsburgh in 1949 and made his fortune in the steel industry. Lauded as an American success story, Frick occupies a prominent place in the pantheon of American business magnates of the era.

Although Frick made huge contributions to American art and industry, the novel points out that his legacy has a dark side. He was known as a union-buster and was responsible for incidents surrounding the Homestead Steel Strike when he hired 300 Pinkerton officers to attack the strikers, resulting in a riot. During the strike, worker Alexander Berkman broke into Frick’s office and shot and stabbed him to support the workers’ cause. Frick survived, though the wounds impacted his health throughout his life.

Frick also bears responsibility, along with his fellow South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club members, for the Johnstown Flood in 1889. As a result of the club’s neglect of a dam north of Johnstown, the town was flooded, and over 2,200 people died. As Joshua points out in the novel, historical accounts often gloss over these facts to maintain a rosier mythology of Frick’s entrepreneurship. Davis has found the Frick family legacy to be a rich backdrop for exploration of entrepreneurship (and its darker sides), class, family dynamics, and the arts.