Rosecliff

Theresa Oelrichs was born in Virginia City, NV to a family of ordinary means. In a partnership with three other young Irishmen her father James began mining in western Nevada and eventually made a strike that surpassed earlier ones that became known as The Comstock Lode, the country's largest known silver deposit. Her parents divorced in 1883 and her mother was awarded the largest divorce settlement the country had ever witnessed: $5,000,000. Theresa had access to a fortune that few could match. On her mother's death she inherited a substantial fortune and three years later her father died leaving the bulk of his enormous wealth to his two daughter. She was an ambitious, energetic woman whose intelligence and drive were channeled into the avenue of High Society - her niece wrote that Theresa "was strongly addicted to Society as a business." Rosecliff was created as a showcase for extravagant summer entertainments. The last family to call Rosecliff home was Mr. and Mrs. J. Edgar Monroe of New Orleans. Rosecliff was used as a setting for scenes in "The Great Gatsby".