Harley Clarke built his rock pile on the lakefront in the mid-1920s -- the twilight of the last gilded age. Clarke was a second-tier player in an internet mania of its time -- the utilities industry -- who went on to lose most of his money in the depression.
The house and outbuildings, with over 20,000 square feet of space -- a wildly excessive amount for any single family home -- were built in a style variously described as Châteauesque, French Chateau, French Eclectic or even English Tudor.