The Alfred McCune Home in Salt Lake City, Utah, USA, is considered one of the grandest homes ever built in the American West. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974. McCune was born in Calcutta, India, in 1849 to Mormon missionary parents. He grew up abroad, and his parents moved the family to Utah when he was in his mid-teens. He worked as a farmer, stock herder, and railroad laborer. In 1871, when the Utah Southern Railroad began construction, he and a partner opened a business selling hay, grain, and provisions (at high mark-up) to the railroad. He then opened a general store, made even more money, and was off and running. Over the next four decades, McCune supplied construction materials and helped grade six railroads in Utah, Oregon, and Colorado; owned mines in Montana and British Columbia; built the Montana Central Railway from Butte to Great Falls, Montana; owned one of the largest timber companies in America (with used a 25-mile long log flume to get products to market); built Salt Lakes streetcar system and founded the Utah Power Company; built two railroads in Peru; and owned the McCune Pit -- the largest copper mine in the world (at Cerro de Pasco, Peru). He ran for the U.S. Senate in 1898, but the Utah Legislature deadlocked for 121 ballots!!! The Senate seat remained empty for three years. He ran for governor of Utah in 1916. His Democratic primary opponent was Simon Bamberger, a millionaire, state senator, and a Jew. In a key event in Utah history, B.H. Roberts, then LDS Church historian and member of the First Council of the Seventy, delivered what historians have characterized as a brilliant speech declaring that voters should NOT select candidates on the basis of their religion. Bamberger was elected on the second ballot. In 1897, McCune hired Salt Lake City architect S.C. Dallas to build a home for them. They sent Dallas to Europe for two years to study architectural styles. The home Dallas designed was built in a combination of the Shingle and the Stick architectural styles, The exterior consists of Utah sandstone, red brick, and pine, and part of the exterior as well as the entire roof are covered in shingles manufactured in the Netherlands. The interior is lavishly decorated in South American blond mahogany, birds-eye maple, imported 400-year-old English oak. Sheets of Utah onyx, Nubian marble, Irish marble, and Russian leather are used throughout the interior. Much of the plaster molding is gilded in gold leaf. Exquisite hand-carved oak and mahogany moldings accent the fireplaces, mirrors, doorways, and roof beams and arches. The McCunes decorated their home with French tapestries, German mirrors, marble and iron statuary, murals, scagliola*, and European paintings. The McCune home was completed in June 1901. The cost was unclear; the McCunes stopped counting after they reached $500,000 (more than $17 million in 2014 inflation-adjusted dollars). The McCunes didnt live there long. In 1920, they moved to Los Angeles, California, for the milder climate and donated their Salt Lake City mansion to the LDS Church. Elizabeth McCune died on August 1, 1924. Grief-stricken Alfred left for Europe in November 1926 and never returned to the United States. He died on March 28, 1927, in Cannes, France. He was buried next to his wife in Utah. The McCarthey Family purchased the mansion in 1999. It is now used as a public events facility and museum home. * - Scagliola (from the Italian scaglia, meaning chips) is a technique for producing stucco columns, sculptures, and other decorative elements that resemble inlays. Scagliola is made from selenite, glue, and natural pigments. It can be veined with colors to imitate marble. Often, scagliola is laid down and then a pattern or artwork drawn in the wet mixture. Differently colored scagliola is then laid down in the indentations. Scagliola can be polished with flax oil or wax to make it shine. Scagliola can be used to create highly detailed pictures that look like mosaics or inlays, or can be as simple as veined marble.
Posted on: Sat, 12 Apr 2014 18:12:52 +0000
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