Early days
Industrialist and art collector Henry Clay Frick (1849-1919) was born in West Overton, Pennsylvania, a rural village settled by Mennonites forty miles southeast of Pittsburgh. His grandfather, Abraham Overholt, was the village patriarch. Henry's rise to prominence and prosperity began close to home, when as a young man, he realized the potential of local bituminous coal. At the age of 21, he borrowed money and formed a partnership, Frick & Co, with two cousins and a friend. The newly-formed business used beehive ovens to turn coal into coke, a fuel in great demand by the burgeoning steel industry in Pittsburgh.

Rising Industrialist
Frick prospered at a time when heavy industries and private fortunes were growing to unprecedented sizes. By the late 1870s, Frick bought out his partners. The company, now known as H.C. Frick and Company, had nearly 1,000 employees, and Frick was a millionaire by the time he was 30. His first recorded purchase of a painting, a wooded landscape by local artist George Hetzel, was made in February 1881. Frick also met his wife, Adelaide Howard Childs (1859-1931), in 1881, and they were married December 15 of that year. While staying in New York City on their wedding trip, the Fricks were guests at a luncheon hosted by Andrew Carnegie at the Windsor Hotel. It was then that the partnership between H.C. Frick and Company and Carnegie Steel was officially announced. The union of the two men insured their dominance over the Pittsburgh steel industry, and the eventual formation of United States Steel. In 1882, after returning to Pittsburgh, the Fricks bought Clayton, moving there early in 1883. Their son, Childs, was born in March, and two years later a daughter, Martha, was born but died in 1891. The Fricks' third child, Helen Clay Frick, was born in 1888. A fourth child, Henry Clay Frick, Jr. died shortly after birth in 1892.

The Frick Collection
The Fricks raised their children at Clayton, leaving daughter Helen with fond memories of an idyllic childhood. However, by 1905, Henry Clay Frick's business, social, and artistic interests had shifted from Pittsburgh to New York. At first the family occupied a Vanderbilt mansion on Fifth Avenue. Then, in 1910 Frick purchased property at Fifth Avenue and 70th Street and began construction of the magnificent mansion now known as The Frick Collection. The residence was designed to accommodate his large art collection of growing international standing. The Frick residence was opened to the public as a museum in 1935.