Henry Clay Frick preferred New York City to Pittsburgh and wanted his only daughter, Helen, to make her society debut in that glittering venue among the Astors and the Vanderbilts.
But Helen Clay Frick, who possessed the same iron will as her industrialist father, thought differently.
One day in 1908, after her formidable father left for work, she slipped away from New York with her mother aboard a train to Pittsburgh. Their mission was to plan her debut at Clayton, the family’s Point Breeze home and the place that held the 20-year-old woman’s childhood memories. She adored it.
And so, on Dec. 16, 1908, Clayton was the place where Miss Frick greeted the leading members of Pittsburgh society and her friends from New York. The Pittsburgh season for debutantes consisted of a dizzying round of luncheons, teas, dinners, dances and bridge parties.
On this memorable occasion, Mr. Frick asked his daughter what she wanted as a gift. She asked that a park be established for the children of Pittsburgh. Today, Frick Park is made up of 644 acres and plenty of youngsters — as well as joggers, cyclists, dog walkers, geocache enthusiasts, lawn bowlers and nature lovers — visit it daily. It began when Mr. Frick, in his will, left 151 acres to the city of Pittsburgh.
Making her debut was was an important social passage. It meant that Helen Clay Frick could host her own social events, be the guest of honor at parties hosted by friends or family, pay and return calls and also travel alone. Free to create her own social circle, she made and kept lifelong friends, including Katherine McCook of New York, a classmate from the Spence School in Manhattan, who came to Pittsburgh and stayed at Clayton for her friend’s debut.
Miss Frick’s choice of Pittsburgh as the place to be a debutante set the tone for the rest of her life — social and otherwise. Clayton remained her permanent legal residence until her death at age 96 on Nov. 9, 1984.
Of course, her family had other homes. In November 1910, the 22-year-old Miss Frick was staying at Eagle Rock, a mansion that overlooked the Atlantic Ocean in Prides Crossing, Mass. She wrote to her personal secretary, Frank McElroy, and asked him to have invitations sent out for a holiday party at the Pittsburgh Golf Club. In a Dec. 3 letter to Miss Frick, Mr. McElroy described some of the addresses as “doubtful.”
“We have taken some liberties with your list, endeavoring to harmonize addresses with Blue Book and Directories,” he wrote.
This meant that the diligent secretary had doublechecked addresses in a directory of society members originally called “The Pittsburgh and Allegheny Blue Book,” Western Pennsylvania’s version of the Social Register. He also sent Miss Frick a 1911 edition of the publication. By the 1880s, Mrs. M.W. Brown Haven had started compiling this directory of elite families who lived in Pittsburgh, Sewickley, Edgewood and Allegheny City, now the North Side. Society women read it “to know that Mrs. R.H. Boggs of West North Avenue received guests on Mondays,” according to “Allegheny City: A History of Pittsburgh’s North Side” by Dan Rooney and Carol Peterson.
In a report published Dec. 27, 1910, the Pittsburgh Gazette described the Fricks’ party the day after Christmas as “a beautifully appointed event.” Among the guests were Mr. and Mrs. Harry Darlington Jr., Mr. and Mrs. James H. Reed Jr., Mr. and Mrs. Henry Phipps, Mr. George Westinghouse Jr., Mr. and Mrs. William B. Scaife and Harmar D. Denny Jr.
That’s Reed as in James H. Reed, co-founder of Reed Smith law firm, Westinghouse as in the inventor and electrical pioneer, Scaife as in the family that, decades later, funded a major addition to the Carnegie Museum of Art, and Denny as in the family that produced the city’s first mayor, Ebenezer Denny. His descendant, Harmar D. Denny Jr., was a Republican who represented Pittsburgh in the U.S. House of Representatives.
At the party held at the Pittsburgh Golf Club on Dec. 26, Miss Frick and her brother, Childs, hosted a dinner in the ballroom for more than 70 of their friends. Their parents gathered in a separate room with 17 of their friends. Tall, crystal vases held pink Killarney roses and white lilacs. The Farley maidenhair ferns that decorated the tables and Cibotium tree ferns that banked the fireplace and balcony made the room look like a conservatory.
On Christmas Day, the Fricks often celebrated at home with Mrs. Frick’s siblings, Martha Childs, known as Aunt Attie to her niece and nephew, and her brother, Jamie Childs.
Books were a popular gift, even then. Mr. Frick often gave jewelry to his wife and daughter at Christmas. When her children were young, Mrs. Frick purchased their toys at F.A.O. Schwartz.
This year, The Frick Pittsburgh is offering a “Home for the Holidays” tour that focuses on the period from 1905 to 1913, when the Frick children were grown but returned to Pittsburgh to see friends and extended family.
Tours of The Frick Pittsburgh run through Jan. 11. Reservations, which are strongly suggested, are available by calling 412-371-0600. General Admission is $12; students and seniors are $10; active military are $10 and children 16 and under are $6.
Marylynne Pitz: mpitz@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1648.
Correction (posted Dec. 17, 2015): An earlier version of this story misstated one of the legacies of the Darlington family.
First Published: December 16, 2014, 5:00 a.m.
