Site Gracie Mansion is located in Carl Schurz Park in the Yorkville neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City. The mansion faces northeast toward Hell Gate, a channel in the East River. By the early 21st century, it was the only remaining country estate in Yorkville. Gracie Mansion sits atop Carl Schurz Park's highest point. Previous site usage The Europeans established their first settlements in modern-day New York City in the 17th century. From that point until the end of the 19th century, only six men owned the site. The first European owner of Gracie Mansion's site was Sybout Claessan, who received either 30 acres or 106 acres from the Dutch West India Company in 1646. Claessan's land, which includes Carl Schurz Park, was initially known as Hoorn's Hook or Horn's Hook, after the city of Hoorn in North Holland. The site was alternately known as Horen Hook, Harris' Hook, or Harris' Point. Dutch immigrant Resolved Waldron obtained the land in 1690 after Claessan died; it passed through three other members of the Waldron family over the next eight decades and was subdivided after William Waldron's death in 1769.

Jacob Walton, a merchant from what is now Flatbush in Brooklyn, obtained 11 acres around Hoorn's Hook and built a house, Belview Mansion, on the site in 1770. He moved into the house with his wife Polly Cruger. Drawings indicate that the earlier mansion was composed of a two-story central section and one-story wings on either side. Ornamentation on that house included quoins at its corners; keystones above the windows; a weather vane and finials at the roof; and a triple bay of windows at the end of each wing. The Waltons were forced to leave the house in February 1776, during the American Revolutionary War, and the site became a Continental Army fort, which was completed in April 1776. The house was severely damaged by cannonball fire on September 8 or September 15, 1776. British troops controlled the site until 1783.

The Waltons never went back to Belview; their four children did not receive the land until 1791. Belview Mansion included a hidden tunnel to the East River, which still existed when Gracie Mansion was developed on the same site. The brick tunnel ran north from the mansion's basement and then turned east toward the river. It is not known why the tunnel was built, but one newspaper said the tunnel could have been used as an escape route during the American Revolution or as a secret lover's entrance. For more than two centuries, there was little documentation on Belview Mansion's existence. One of the cannonballs that destroyed the mansion was later displayed.

Early history Gracie occupancy The merchant Archibald Gracie, at the time one of New York City's richest men, bought Walton's land in two phases in December 1798 and January 1799. At the time, the Gracies' city residence was a house that they rented from New York City mayor Richard Varick. Gracie built a new country estate on the Walton site in 1799, though there is disagreement over whether Gracie destroyed or reused the remains of Belview Mansion. In either case, Gracie removed the Revolutionary War-era earthworks and landscaped the gardens. Gracie's mansion was abutted to the west by the house of banker Nathaniel Prime, which later became St. Joseph's Orphan Asylum. Other houses along the East River included those of the Rhinelander family, Alexander Hamilton, John Jacob Astor, and Isaac Chauncey, which have long since been demolished. Gracie Mansion, at the time, was accessible only via the East River and was several miles from the developed parts of Lower Manhattan. There was a dock and a stone stable just south of the house.

In 1801, Gracie hosted a meeting of New York Federalists at the mansion to raise funds for the establishment of the New York Evening Post, which eventually became the New York Post. During the city's 1803 yellow fever epidemic, the house's isolated position allowed Gracie to avoid infected people in the city. Although the house originally faced southeast, it was expanded in 1804 to face northeast toward Hell Gate. The mansion was valued at $5,200 by 1809. Further expansions were completed in 1811; the work included relocating the main entrance, adding a pantry and parlor at ground level, and adding two bedrooms upstairs. Cannons were installed during the War of 1812 to defend the house's elevated site, and the house itself may have served as a military post.

The house entertained up to fifty guests at a time. Gracie hosted guests such as Hamilton, Astor, future French king Louis Philippe I, U.S. president John Quincy Adams, and writers James Fenimore Cooper and Washington Irving. The Riker, Rhinelander, and Schermerhorn families were also guests, as were the poet Thomas Moore, U.S. Army general Winfield Scott, and New York governor DeWitt Clinton. Future Boston mayor Josiah Quincy III, who also stopped by the mansion, described the house as "elegant" and the grounds as having a tasteful layout. Irving may have written part of his novel Astoria while at the house, and he wrote in 1813 that "I cannot tell you how sweet and delightful I found this retreat, pure air, agreeable scenery and profound quiet."

Gracie continued to maintain a residence in Lower Manhattan; he bought a new city residence at 1 State Street in 1805 and moved to another house at 15 State Street in 1813. Gracie was so wealthy that, when he lost $1 million in 1807 due to naval blockades, his net worth was unaffected. Although Gracie's firm lost more than $1 million during the War of 1812, he used the house as his country home until 1823. Ultimately, the aftermath of the war depleted his finances. Two of U.S. Founding Father Rufus King's sons married two of Gracie's daughters, and King bought the mansion prior to 1823. King placed the mansion for sale in April 1823, and Gracie's company, Archibald Gracie & Son, was dissolved the next month.

Foulke use 

The same year as Gracie's firm was dissolved, the house was sold to Joseph Foulke, a merchant who had gained his wealth from trading largely in Central America and the Caribbean. Foulke paid $20,500 for the house and about 11 acres of land, which became known as Foulke's Point. Initially, the Foulke family used Gracie Mansion only as a summer mansion, but they eventually used the house as their primary residence. The Foulkes added a fireplace mantel in the parlor but are not known to have made any other modifications. When Foulke died in 1852, the mansion and estate were passed to his seven children, and the land was subsequently divided.

Wheaton's family sold the house in 1857 to a builder named Noah Wheaton, who also purchased 12 adjacent lots. By then, many of the estates on the East River were being replaced with industrial development. Wheaton added a two-story brick stable north of the mansion, built a kitchen in the mansion itself, and added gas lighting. One of the Wheatons' guests wrote that they used to swim at Gracie's old mansion, where "there was comparatively deep water on the North side."

Wheaton declared bankruptcy in 1859, and the house went into foreclosure two years later, although the family was allowed to remain there. The Great Western Insurance Company, who had foreclosed on the house, resold it to Wheaton in 1870. The 1870 census describes Wheaton as living in the house with his wife, their three daughters, and two servants; by then, his affluent neighbors had moved toward the middle of Manhattan. Wheaton's daughter Alice Hermione Wheaton Quackenbush and her husband Lambert S. Quackenbush lived in the mansion for five years in the 1870s; the Quackenbushes' two oldest children, Amalie and Daniel, were also born in the mansion.

Wheaton took out several mortgages on the house and frequently encountered business troubles. His entire family may have left the house for a short time in the 1870s during one such business failure. Wheaton established a business on Broadway in 1878, but the business is not listed in an 1879 directory. In directories for subsequent years, listings for Wheaton mention only that he lived at Gracie Mansion, although he is recorded as being a "merchant" in 1882 and 1883. The house continued to be affected by Wheaton's business failures until his youngest daughter, Jane, married the lawyer Hamlin Babcock in 1884. Babcock moved into the house and remained there until 1896.

Use as mayor's residence Robert Moses had first proposed acquiring an official New York City mayoral residence in 1935. At the time, the city's mayors typically lived in their own houses after they were elected; the only indication that a building served as a mayor's residence was a special streetlight outside the home. In 1936, Mayor Fiorello H. La Guardia rejected the idea of acquiring the Charles M. Schwab House as a mayoral residence. In June 1941, Moses received a letter offering to furnish Gracie Mansion as a historic house museum. Moses opposed this proposal and instead suggested this site as a mayoral residence to La Guardia, to which the latter eventually agreed. Moses, in a November 1941 letter to La Guardia, predicted it would cost $25,000 to rebuild the mansion for the mayor.

Archibald Gracie built the two-story wooden house in the Federal style. The design of the structure has been variously attributed to Pierre Charles L'Enfant, the French engineer responsible for the L'Enfant Plan in Washington, D.C.; Ezra Weeks, a prominent builder; or John McComb Jr., who had designed Hamilton Grange and New York City Hall. A 1959 news article described the house as originally measuring 50 by 65 feet (15 by 20 m) across. Ellen Stern wrote that "calling this clapboard country house a mansion—rather than a manor house or villa—might seem an urban affectation when applied to so quaint a dwelling", but that its early occupants definitely considered it a mansion. There is a separate two-story wing next to the mansion, designed by Mott B. Schmidt; the wing is designed in a neo-Georgian style and has its own entrance. The new wing is known as the Susan B. Wagner Wing.

Facade 

The original mansion's facade initially consisted of cream-colored clapboard panels and white trim, and there were green shutters flanking each window. Repainted several times over the years, the siding was painted ocher in 2002, and the trim and shutters were repainted in their original colors. The windows on the first and second floors are stacked atop each other in a manner that appears symmetrical. The eastern and western elevations of the facade are slightly asymmetrical because the house was expanded to the north in 1811. In addition, part of the basement is visible due to the slope of the site.

There is a porch around the southern and eastern elevations and on part of the northern elevation. The original porch around the mansion had a Chinese Chippendale–style balustrade; the current porch dates to 1984 and is of largely similar design. The balustrade is interspersed with Tuscan-style columns. On the eastern facade, the porch is accessed by a short stoop with two tall windows on either side. As built, the main doorway is divided into six panels and is topped by a fanlight and flanked by sidelights. The semicircular fanlight is decorated with rosettes, while the sidelights are separated by pilasters. The doorway, attributed to L'Enfant, was originally on the north or south elevation but was placed on the east side of the house by 1811. The top of the main roof is surmounted by a Chinese Chippendale–style balustrade. There are four chimneys on the roof: two larger chimneys above the original 1799 structure and two smaller ones above the 1811 expansion.

The original house's southern elevation is placed behind the porch and contains four windows on each story. There is a narrow gap between the original house and the wing to the southwest. The western elevation of the original house was built with four windows on either story, but one of the first-story windows was replaced with a connection to the wing. On the northern elevation, the original house is designed symmetrically around a protruding central bay with rectangular windows on the first and second floors and a lunette window at the attic. The section of the porch to the left (east) of this bay is open-air, while the section of the porch to the right (west) is enclosed with glass. The northern elevation of the wing has its own entrance from the mansion's driveway and has a clapboard facade. The entrance has a portico with hand-carved columns, which was based on a similar portico designed for the Tichnor family in Boston. Except for the portico columns, which are designed in the composite order, the wing largely duplicates the design details of the original house.

Interior Main house The rooms of the main house retain the same layout as in 1811, although the designs of each room have been changed over the years. Before 1942, the house was used as a museum and had a restroom in the basement, a museum curator's office on the first floor, and a park supervisor's apartment on the second floor. Following the 1980s renovation, the mansion was redecorated with 19th-century chandeliers, mirrors, and other artifacts. The mansion includes around 14 rooms and eight bathrooms. In general, the rooms have wall dados, fireplaces, plain cornices, and high ceilings. The fireplaces in the house largely have classical designs with a mantelpiece shelf supported by tapering vertical pilasters.

First floor As built, an entrance hall ran through the original house's first floor from north to south, flanked by two rooms on either side. A parlor and pantry were added to the north in an 1811 renovation. When the mansion was converted into the mayor's residence in 1942, the present-day living room, library, and dining room were preserved, and a new pantry, dining room, and kitchen were built on the first floor. Over the years, all of these rooms have had several different names.

There is a foyer with a black-and-white trompe-l'œil pattern on the floor, which in turn surrounds a compass rose. This foyer, designed by Stephen Gemberling, dates to an 1980s renovation and is based on the original design of the foyer's floor. Although the trompe-l'œil pattern was reportedly cheaper than importing real marble, Koch claimed it would have been cheaper to just install real marble. The foyer also has a fireplace with decorations that resemble those at the main entrance. A Sheraton settee was installed in the foyer during the renovation.

To the right of the main foyer is the parlor, also known as the living room or drawing room, with a large marble fireplace. The parlor, added during the expansion of 1811, has full-height windows that face the house's porch. Compared with the other rooms in the mansion, the drawing room has deeper windows; its marble fireplace mantel is decorated with plain columns and a linear relief pattern. There are also a service door to the north and windows to the east.

To the left of the foyer, at the rear of the house, is a dining room that seats 22 people. After the 1980s renovation, it included a French Empire sideboard made in the U.S. and 1830s French wallpaper that depicted rustic and classical scenes. The wallpaper was salvaged from a house in Albany, New York. There is also a fireplace that is placed off-center along one wall. The dining table itself, made in 1815 for the Gracies, is constructed of marble and oak wood. The library—also known as the small parlor, study, and sitting room is next to the dining room and in front of it. The library's windows include etchings of the names of Gracie's granddaughter Millie; John Lindsay's daughter Margi; Caroline Giuliani; and Donna Hanover. Bloomberg's daughters Georgina and Emma also etched their names into the window. Both the library and the dining room date from the house's 1799 completion.

Other floors  

A curving staircase, at the rear of the house, leads from the first floor to the second. As built, the second floor had three bedrooms accessed by a central hallway, as well as two smaller rooms that were probably used for storage. The second floor was refitted with four bedrooms (each with a private bathroom), as well as a sitting room, in 1942. One of the bedrooms is a guest bedroom, while the others are used by the mayor's family. The master bedroom and the adjacent sitting room occupy the former site of the park supervisor's apartment. When Koch was mayor, a secure bunker was installed in the bathroom adjoining the mayor's bedroom. The basement originally contained the kitchen and may have also included staff quarters. The 1942 renovation added four servants' rooms, an office for the park's caretaker, and an office for the mayor's bodyguards to the basement. There is a gift shop in the basement.

Annex  

When the Wagner wing was built, it nearly doubled the mansion's size. The annex could seat up to 150 people at once. An open terrace, extending off the wing, could fit another 150 guests. The Wagner wing has a Federal-style mirror, as well as four fireplace mantels and hearths, salvaged from other 18th-century houses in the city. Various pieces of antique furniture were loaned, donated, or purchased for the Wagner wing, including an 1820s Duncan Phyfe table built for Joseph Bonaparte. Although the annex was finished in 1966, it was not connected to the main house for over two decades, as Susan Wagner had wanted the two structures to be separate. A hall, sometimes known as the hyphen, was constructed between the main house and annex in the 1980s, requiring the relocation of the mansion's original main stairway.

The wing is accessed by a hallway with a marble floor and a 17.25-foot-high ceiling. Inside the main level of the wing is a ballroom (originally known as the Susan Edwards Wagner Ballroom), the design of which is based on that of the Lyman Estate in Waltham, Massachusetts. Gracie Mansion's ballroom measures either 48 ft × 25 ft or 50 ft × 24 ft across and has a coved ceiling measuring 18 feet high. The walls of the ballroom were originally decorated with French windows and gray-blue walls, topped by a frieze with garlands and fruit bowls. There are also 12 neoclassical columns throughout the ballroom. A chandelier from 1783 hangs from the ceiling, and eight lighting sconces are mounted onto the walls. A portrait of Susan Wagner, painted by Willy Pogany, was also displayed in the ballroom. The ballroom's Adam style mantel was salvaged from the James Watson House, the residence of Archibald Gracie's brother-in-law Moses Rogers.

Flanking the ballroom are two smaller rooms: a dining room and a reception room. There is also a serving pantry on the ballroom level. The dining room's mantel was salvaged from a house on Greenwich Street. Mark Hampton redecorated the ballroom, dining room, and reception room in the Federal style during the 1980s. The basement was constructed with a conference room, an office for the mayor, and another office for the mayor's secretary. The conference room was designed to fit at least 30 people, and press offices also occupied the basement.