Gracie Mansion is the official residence of the Mayor of New York City.
It was built in 1799 on East 88th
Street, on the shore of the East River.
The home was designed by its original occupant, Archibald Gracie, a
Scottish-born shipping magnate and early American businessman with an excellent mustache. Gracie built his mansion on the site formerly
occupied by Belview Mansion, which George Washington had commandeered during
the American Revolutionary War, and the British Army subsequently destroyed. Gracie’s new two-storey country home quickly
became a hub of the New York social scene, attracting both political and actual royalty – from US Presidents to
the future King of France, Louis Philippe.
Gracie sold the mansion in 1823 to pay off his mounting debts, and the
house changed hands multiple times until 1896 when the City of New York
acquired it as part of the adjacent Carl Schurz Park, named for the Civil War Union Army General and former Secretary of the Interior (who also, incidentally, sported some impressive facial hair).
From 1924 to 1936 it was the Museum of the
City of New York, and was then shown as an historical house until 1942 when Mayor
La Guardia was persuaded to use it as a taxpayer-funded official
residence.
While public tours are
allowed, strict city laws mean Grace Mansion must only be used for official
city business, and only visiting public officials and the Mayor’s immediate family may
reside there, even for a single overnight stay.
This meant that when Mayor Giuliani was in office, his girlfriend wasn’t
allowed to live there with him – so they co-habitated elsewhere (aww!).
When billionaire Michael Bloomberg was Mayor,
he had a much fancier private residence of his own, so he didn’t live at Gracie
Mansion either. But that didn’t stop him
initiating (and some say personally bankrolling) a major restoration of the
house and grounds.
