The People’s House

Gracie Mansion has seen its share of ups and downs. The site of the mayor’s official residence has been bombed, foreclosed on, and used as an ice cream parlor. Mayor Bloomberg has never lived in the space. He refers to the building that overlooks Hell Gate, where the Harlem and East rivers meet, as “The People’s House,” and has increased accessibility to the public and to city agencies. Fittingly, the contents of the house reflect the varied history of the building — and the city.One of the oldest items in the mayoral residence is a cannonball that sits on the mantel of the patent-yellow parlor. The antique ammunition has been on the property longer than the mayoral residence. Found during the 1980s when the front porch was being restored, it is suspected to be a British cannonball that helped destroy the house Jacob Walton built on the property in 1776.Other reminders of the Revolution are two early-19th-century gilt mirrors that sit above fireplaces on the first floor. Similar in detail, the mirrors are capped with symbolic figures. The mirror in the drawing room is topped with two fish-like dolphins, while the mirror in the dining room has an eagle breaking free of its chains. The eagle symbolizes America breaking free of the English Crown’s oppression, an especially weighted metaphor considering that this symbol of American freedom was manufactured in Britain.The current building that occupies the north section of Carl Schurz Park was built by Archibald Gracie in 1799 as a country residence. It became public property in 1896, and has been used alternately as a public bathroom for park visitors and a full-time residence for mayors beginning with Fiorello LaGuardia, and as a space for public viewing.“The land and the house mirror New York City,” the director of the Gracie Mansion Conservancy, Susan Danilow, said.When Archibald Gracie first built this home, it was far north of the city’s downtown, and accessible only by water. But Gracie welcomed visitors, and expanded the space for that reason in 1809. Just a few years ago, the Gracie conservancy came to own a rendering of the original Walton House. Donated by a Walton descendent in 2002, the drawing reads that the building is the “Seat of Jacob Walton Esqr. At Horn’s Hook near the City of New York in North America.”The city has since grown up and around the space, but the tradition of hospitality has continued, with many mayors using the house for entertainment purposes. Mayor Bloomberg likes to say that each New Yorker owns one eight-millionth of the building.“More than a few city employees have looked confused when told they can sit on these chairs,” Diana Carroll, curator of the mansion, said, referring to the Neo-Classical upholstered-back mahogany Duncan Phyfe side chairs built in the city around 1820. Most chairs this old would be roped off from public use in such a space, but at Gracie, visitors are welcome to use the furniture.Other New York-based designers contributed pieces to the house, including a grandfather case clock, circa 1800, that sits atop the painted marble floors in the foyer, built by New York clockmaker Nathaniel Hawxhurst, and the Deming & Bulkley card tables and center table built by the New York City furniture maker between 1825-30 for a South Carolina family. This set, together with the Phyfe chairs, exemplifies the high style that was en vogue at the time, even in a more relaxed country setting like Gracie.Upstairs, shielded from some of the heavy traffic on the first floor, is a Dutch Kast cupboard, circa 1690-1720, on loan from the Art Commission. The pomegranates and lovebird designs on this chest suggest that it was a wedding gift.The hospitality of the space is once again exemplified in the dining room, where wallpaper depicting scenes of socializing in a park graces the walls. Donated in the 1980s, the 19th-century wallpaper — designed by the Alsatian firm Zuber — was printed in 1836, on blocks that no longer exist, and brings some of Gracie’s outdoor hospitality inside.In the next room, old and new New York coexist completely. A Prendergast painting on loan from the Whitney Museum sits above the fireplace in the library, while two renderings of John Quincy Adams Ward sculptures sit atop the mantel. (The full-size version of George Washington holds court outside Federal Hall on Wall Street, while Ward’s full-size Marquis de Lafayette presides over the campus of the University of Vermont.) Beneath the mantel are two modern couches wrapped in blue velvet, while an even more modern element sits on the adjacent wall — a flat-screen television.Visitors to Gracie are often surprised by the house’s small stature. If Mayor Bloomberg were to live there today, it would be quite a change from the luxury a billionaire might be accustomed to. But within the space, the Gracie Mansion Conservancy has packed a variety of old and new trinkets that exemplify the different aspects of the space and the city. And as Ms. Carroll puts it: “The star of the collection is the house.”Tours of Gracie Mansion can be arranged by calling 311 or 212-NEW-YORK.

The People’s House

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