The century-old mansion that Arnold and Linda Rinker saved from the wrecking ball, has been a labor of love to preserve for this working-class couple.

The 16-room mansion, designed for the multi-millionaire publisher of the Hazleton Sentinel by the architect of the 1890s Madison Square Garden building, entertained guests at the Weatherly estate with a grassed tennis court, a 150-seat theater featuring Miss Lillian Russell, and gambling on horse races on the estate.

The Mansion, the name people in Weatherly have always called the property, is becoming increasingly famous as the home of primitive artist Justin McCarthy, who now thirty years after his death, is having his art exhibited in major shows.

The story covers over a century and could well be the basis for a novel. For our readers, it has been condensed to a three-part series.

Part 1 - The Richest of the Rich

The Mansion was built in Weatherly in 1905 as a summer home for Hazleton Sentinel publisher John McCarthy, his wife the former Floretta Musselman of Weatherly, and their sons Justin and John Jr. John McCarthy was a member of the super-rich with an estimated $28 million in investments chiefly in landholdings and lumber in the south and west.

The Mansion, which served as the estate house was built three stories high, 34-ft wide, and 104-ft long, with first floor stone walls measuring 28-inches thick and eight-feet high windows.

The ceilings are 12-ft high on the first story, 10-ft high on the second story, and for the third floor 150-seat theater, the cathedral ceiling is 16-ft high.

Current Mansion owner, Arnold Rinker, learned about the home from Casper Musselman, a cousin on his mother's side to former owner, artist Justin McCarthy. "The theater was was built for performances by the greatest actress of the time—Lillian Russell." said Rinker. He explained that Russell and her long time escort, James Buchanan 'Diamond Jim' Brady, were frequent guests of John McCarthy."

Rinker said that Musselman told him that enormous Diamond Jim loved to bellied up to the pool table—so much so that he carved his name into it. When the Mansion was last sold in 1984, the pool table fetched $50,000—more that the $45,000 selling price of the Mansion itself, which was then in nearly unsalvageable condition.

The estate contained a lake, boathouse, a grass tennis court, a carriage house with a connecting underground tunnel, and a race course. McCarthy organized horse races with heavy gambling on the outcome. Young Justin McCarthy would remember those halcyon days in a series of paintings in his later life.

Stanford White, architect for the rich and the very rich—the Astors and the Vanderbilts, designed John McCarthy's Mansion. White is best known for his 1890s Madison Square Garden, a 8,000-seat arena, a 1,500-seat concert hall, and a 1,200-seat theatre with the world's largest indoor swimming pool.

White crowned his Madison Square building it all with a roof garden—hence the name of the building - Madison Square Garden. His being shot to death in that same roof garden by a rival in love became what the William Randolph Hearst newspapers called "the Trail of the Century," and became the basis for the novel and movie, Ragtime.

John McCarthy, a skillful amateur artist, painted murals on the plaster walls of the Mansion. Rinker said that a Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs design once ran along the stairway from the first floor past the second floor landing.

The story begins a century ago. The Mansion is completed and the McCarthys—John Sr., Floretta, Justin 16, and John Jr. 10—move in. Justin had grown into a withdrawn 16-year-old, while John Jr. was an outgoing ten year old—his father's favored of the two.

And then John Jr. died. It was an early spring day in March and the McCarthy boys, Justin and John Jr. wanted to to take a boat on the lake behind the Mansion. John Jr. fell into the frigid water, caught pneumonia and died. John Sr. blamed Justin for his death.

Continued in Part 2 - The Poorest of the Poor