GRACIE MANSION

 

88th Street and East End Avenue
(212) 570-4751.

This white frame colonial house has been the home of New York City’s mayor since Fiorello LaGuardia moved in in 1942. Not surprisingly, the house has a history every bit as combative as its current occupant Rudy Giuliani. The land was purchased by Jacob Walton, a merchant from Flatbush, who built a home there for his new bride. In 1776, the George Washington and the American Army appropriated the site and built a fort to ward off the redcoats. However, in September of that same year, English battleships razed the fort to the ground. After the war Walton's heirs reclaimed the property, and in 1798 they sold it for $5,625.00 to Archibald Gracie. Gracie, a successful merchant of Scottish descent, built his home there in 1799. Gracie hosted many luminaries of the time at his mansion including Louis Phillipe (who would become King of France), John Quincy Adams, and James Fennimore Cooper.

In 1896 the City of New York commandeered the property and incorporated the eleven acres of the former Gracie estate into East End Park, extending along the East River from Eighty-fourth Street to Ninetieth Street. The park was later named for Carl Schurz, a German immigrant who served as Minister to Spain, United States Senator and a member of the Cabinet of Rutherford B. Hayes.

The mansion fell into disrepair until it was refurbished by the Parks Department in 1927 when it served as the Museum of the City of New York. That museum moved to Fifth Avenue in 1932, and the house remained vacant until then-Parks Commissioner Robert Moses convinced the City that the property should be used as the Mayor’s official residence.