Wales House

Wales House is a secondary residence belonging to the British royal family. It is located in the upstate New York region and was constructed in 1939 by Charles III, then a Prince of Wales.

Constructed in 1939 by the orders of Charles III, then a Prince of Wales following his voluntary exile from the United Kingdom, it served as his principal residence and was initially registered as Clarke House, attributing to his assumed alias, Robert Clarke. By Charles's discretion, it was constructed in a moderately exclusive nature, owing both to Charles's preferred simplicity in living and his royal heritage.

For approximately five years after its completion, it was first occupied by Charles and his private entourage whom would serve as the principal communicator between Charles and the British government back in London. On March 1945, a 21-year old Lauren Bacall, Charles's then romantic interest moved in together with the former following the success of several movies in which both Charles and Bacall were involved in. Subsequently, the estate, now renamed to Wales House was quick to receive huge publicity and media coverage from both the American and the British press. Despite this, it would continue to serve as the couple's primary residence until their departure for London five years later in 1950. Consequently, in order to avoid the estate from being left unoccupied as a result of the couple's departure, Charles's cousin, the heir to the then Duke of Clarence and Avondale was invited to move in instead alongside his own wife to serve as the estate's new residents though both Charles and Bacall would retain their original ownership of the house.

Despite the couple's inability to frequently reside in their estate due to their royal obligations, it was however said to had been sparingly visited for more than a record of thirty times a year, a trend which continued until Charles's own death in 2011. Since then, the residence's primary ownership status, though legally being under the Crown Estate, has been traditionally inherited by the sovereigns of the United Kingdom, with both King William VI and Queen Alexandra being the eldest descendants of their respective predecessors. In 2014, the then Queen Mother Lauren passed away while staying at the residence with her granddaughter Alexandra. She was later transported back to the United Kingdom in an elaborate state funeral procession, before being interred at Westminster Abbey alongside her husband.

As of 2021, the Wales House residence is estimated to be worth approximately $125 million, or £91.4 million pounds, and has so far survived one attempted robbery which occurred in November 2020. Furthermore, since the 1950's, in addition to being a secondary residence of members of the British royal family, it has also unofficially been the primary residence for the family of Prince Charles, Duke of Clarence and Avondale and his descendants.