Clayton Closed Until Thursday, Jan. 16
Tours will not be available at Clayton until Thursday, January 16 due to the deinstallation of holiday decorations. Tickets for our signature Gilded, Not Golden tour are available now!
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Clayton Preservation Project

In August of 2024, The Frick Pittsburgh embarked upon the next phase of preservation work at Clayton, the historic home of Henry Clay Frick. This project will ensure that Clayton is protected and preserved for decades to come. Follow along on social media for periodic updates on the project!

Paint Removal Process

Learn more about the delicate process of removing nearly 20 layers and 150 years of paint off of Clayton!

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Frequently Asked Questions

We are embarking on a multi-year project to preserve the exterior of the historic home of the Henry Clay Frick family.

YES! Clayton will remain open to the public as a museum throughout the preservation project. Guided tours of Clayton are available Tuesdays through Sundays. Advance reservations are recommended.

While Clayton will remain open, please note that the exterior appearance will be impacted by scaffolding, fencing, and other contractor activity.

  1. Full-scale removal of all exterior paint.
  2. Repair, repointing, and restoration of the exterior brick and masonry.
  3. Application of a Keim mineral silicate coating — a breathable but waterproof, long-lasting historic preservation “paint.”
  4. Repair and restoration of the exterior metal and woodwork.
  5. Repair and restoration of exterior windows, including storm windows.
  6. Repair and restoration of areas of the slate roof and flat roof.

We are prioritizing major deficiencies over less urgent repairs. Available funding will guide each year’s scope of work.

As we embark on the project, we expect to conduct the project in four phases:

PHASE 1: Northeast section (exterior wall upper levels) and select roof areas
PHASE 2: Upper cornice and select roofs
PHASE 3: Remaining exterior walls, roofs and walking surfaces
PHASE 4: Wood window repair and storm window replacement

The Frick engaged preservation architects, Perspectus, to prepare a detailed condition assessment of Clayton. That 240-page report serves as our roadmap for the project. Perspectus, together with their consultants Barber & Hoffman, Inc. and Heritage Conservation Collective, undertook:

  • field investigation, testing, and analysis;
  • surveys conducted using a lift and images taken using a drone;
  • select sampling and material testing of the brick, mortar, and painted finishes;
  • select testing of paint removal methods; and
  • select roofing cores at low-slope "flat" roof areas based upon analysis of infrared imagery captured from a drone.

Our preliminary timeline is four years, 2024 to 2028. But, as with any old house restoration project, we are prepared for the unexpected, and will adapt the schedule if/as needed.

Following the preservation of Clayton’s exterior, we hope to make further exterior and interior improvements, including:

  • installing International Dark-Sky Association-compliant exterior lighting;
  • making enhancements to the lighting and accessibility of the adjacent Penn Avenue pedestrian entrance;
  • improving the interior lighting; and
  • restoring and reopening the blue bedroom on the second floor.

Previous Projects

Clayton, the home of the Frick family in Pittsburgh from 1883–1905, embodies the extravagant, eclectic fashion of the Gilded Age in America and the materials and craftsmanship that exemplify that era.   

In collaboration with the architectural firm MacLachlan Cornelius & Filoni and specialist contractors, the Frick is undertaking a large-scale conservation project addressing two prominent features of the facade of Clayton, which date to the 1892 renovation of the home by Pittsburgh architect Frederick J. Osterling: the Penn Avenue entrance area and the Enclosed Front Porch. 

The northern approach to the house features cascading sandstone staircases on the east and west sides and a brightly colored, ornamental terrazzo flooring panel at its landing. The stone railing is adorned with a quatrefoil motif that reoccurs throughout the facade of the building, as seen from Penn Avenue. The arcaded front porch, enclosed in 1899, contains an intricate coffered oak ceiling, Corinthian columns, and a marble mosaic floor designed with a fleur-de-lis pattern, attributed to the well-reputed, Pittsburgh-based mosaic artist Achille Giamartini. 

The overarching philosophy of this conservation effort is to minimize intervention into the historic surfaces and to employ a combination of historic masonry techniques, science, and innovation to preserve Clayton. The house itself is treated as an artifact, and our goal is to devise methods of treatment that counteract the effects of time and the environment on the structure and the inherent vice of the materials, systems, and techniques used in its construction. Inherent vice is a term conservators and preservationists use to describe the inevitable self-destruct mechanism in materials or combinations of materials in a system that causes them to deteriorate. To a degree, inherent vice is present in virtually all systems and materials and is a determining factor in approaches taken to maintain a building. 

Preliminary work includes removal of the stone steps and masonry at the entrance to the house, the addition of steel supports underneath the porch and attendant repairs to adjacent masonry elements. After these structural repairs are complete, the reassembly of the entry steps will be followed by conservation of the flooring surfaces. 

MBM Contracting will act as General Contractor for the project and Brace Engineering will provide structural engineering supervision. The historic terrazzo and mosaic flooring surfaces have undergone treatments by McKay Lodge (Oberlin, OH) and Materials Conservation (Philadelphia, PA), two conservation firms that specialize in the conservation of historic architecture. The terrazzo will be installed and restored by terrazzo restorer Stephen Malone (Harrisburg, PA). Mariani & Richards will perform masonry restoration of the historic stonework. They received a restoration and preservation award from the International Union of Bricklayers and Allied Craftworks (BAC) for their work on St. Paul’s Cathedral in Pittsburgh. 

This project is supported in part by the Allegheny Regional Asset District.

You will notice scaffolding around Clayton, the historic home of the Pittsburgh industrialist and internationally distinguished art collector Henry Clay Frick. From August 2022 through May 2023, all five chimneys will be repaired.

  • Masons will repoint the brick chimneys.
  • Architectural preservationists will take samples of the original paint.
  • Those samples will strengthen our understanding of the original paint colors.
  • The architectural preservationists will also test a new paint-like product and carefully monitor it over the course of the next year.
  • The results of that test will inform our future plans to repaint the entire exterior of Clayton.