I love the Daly Mansion. For those of you not familiar with my hometown of Hamilton, the Daly Mansion was built by Marcus Daly in the late 1800s. Marcus Daly was the founder of our town; he established Hamilton because of the abundant lumber in the area and used it to support his mining endeavors in neighboring Montana cities. (No wonder I insist on having trees nearby and complain about the natural lack of them where we currently live.) The Daly family wintered in Manhattan and summered in the Bitterroot. (Funny how I, too, find my heart drawn to both of those places.) The mansion was remodeled three times over the course of the years, and Mr. Daly passed before he could see the completion of the final remodel. However, his family continued to spend time at the Mansion in the years following his death and Mrs. Daly actually died in her room at the mansion some years later. The Daly family referred to the estate as 'Riverside'. After our last visit to Hamilton and the mansion, I was inspired to reread the book 'Riverside' by Myriam Poe. It is a wonderful story about Marcus Daly's life, love and legacy. Growing up, I remember looking east on our way back home from town trying to get a glimpse of the mansion along the way. It was easier to see the mansion itself in the winter when the trees had dropped their leaves, but I loved the way the estate looked during the summer when the trees sheltered the mansion from view. That is what the mansion was for the Daly family-- a shelter from the stressors of big city society life and Mr. Daly's complicated business endeavors. Riverside was a social gathering place for family and friends who visited every summer from around the country. It was the start of our little town. It's neat to think that the beauty the Daly family yearned for surrounded me every day of my childhood. I'd say we were all lucky to have the Bitterroot be a part of our lives.
In the later years of the mansion's history, the Daly descendants couldn't afford the inheritance taxes of the mansion after the death of the final granddaughter (some crazy amount like $600,000). The state recommended auctioning off items from the mansion to help pay this substantial amount. My family, having a long history in the auctioneering business, was brought in to conduct this auction. After being boarded up for 40 years, my grandfather and uncles were among the first people to gain entrance to the mansion. As you can imagine, the community had quite mixed emotions about this auction-- excitement to come and see the possessions for sale and resentment at seeing these items leave the mansion and transfer into public hands. I was 12 at the time and I distinctly remember my cousins and I being brought in to help keep an eye on the rooms in the mansion during the sale-- underage security guards, you might say. I knew I was witnessing a large part of our town's history that day, but not until I became an adult did I realize just to what extent. If only I could go back to that day with the knowledge and maturity I have now--- if only!
During our recent trip back home, I really wanted to revisit the mansion. During one of the tours I overheard the guide speaking quite frankly and negatively about the auction that had been held. I wonder if he would have held his tongue had he known that my family was the auctioneers. It felt like his anger was directly targeted towards us but it has to be remembered that my family was hired to do a job. It was not their decision to liquidate the mansion's possessions and it would have been accomplished whether it had been done by my family or another auctioneer. Still, the guide's words were biting and harsh and it took my self-control to bite my tongue and not speak my own mind in return. But, to come full circle after the passage of the 30 years since the auction, the mansion is well-maintained and many of the articles that had been auctioned off have since been returned back to their rightful home. Through this tour, I didn't photograph the interior of the mansion, but instead the beautiful grounds that it sits on. Enjoy these images of Riverside!
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| This is one of the only photos I took inside the mansion. The doorway to the sewing room had a sign that talked about how often this room was used and the clothing and curtains that had been made in it (they found matching fabric in the drawers). I found it quite humorous that the sign also told about how this dresser is the only piece of furniture that had not been removed from the mansion for the auction-- because they couldn't get it out of the room! They believe it must have been built in the room because it was too large to be removed from it. If my hefty uncles couldn't get it out, then that says a lot! |
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| "The Plunge"..... a swim anyone? |
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| Look at these luxuries they had-- I find it so intriguing! |
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| I think this photo will go down in history as one of my favorites because of who is in it and where it was taken. |
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| I wish I lived in Hamilton again so I could use this old shed as a backdrop for some photo shoots! |
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| The arbor on the south side of the mansion. |
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| What a view the Daly family had! Can you imagine what it looked like before the town got 'so big'? |
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| Every time I visit the mansion, I feel like I'm stepping back in time and getting just a glimpse of what life had been like then and there. |
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| The third remodel was to this Georgian Revival version. Isn't it beautiful? |
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| And to think that these trees were planted by the Daly Family. Even in my lifetime I've seen how much they have grown. It's incredible. |
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| The mile-long tree-lined lane to the mansion has a grand gate whether entering or exiting. |
