Out & About
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
If those in the know didn’t already know, the dinner Wednesday night made it official: The luxury high rises will rise and the brownstone lined blocks will gentrify, but no house in New York can match the elegance, charm, and political symbolism of the mayor’s official residence, Gracie Mansion.
It was clear to guests as they stepped onto the Federalist porch facing the East River, dreamed of sleeping in the bamboo bed upstairs, and swept through the rooms in rich tones of yellow, turquoise, and blue, some with marks of designers Albert Hadley and Mark Hampton.
The purpose of the event was to raise money for the Gracie Mansion Conservancy, the nonprofit founded in 1981 to oversee tours and restoration of the home, built in 1799 by the shipping magnate Archibald Gracie.
The budget has typically been modest, but Mayor Bloomberg has upped the ante considerably with his own support and vision for what he likes to call the People’s Mansion. He helped fund a $7 million restoration in 2002, overseen by his personal decorator, Jamie Drake. Working with his deputy, Patricia Harris, he has significantly increased public access to the house.
And now he and the conservancy are courting more financial supporters from the city’s high-powered social, cultural, and business circles.
There they were Wednesday, paying at least $1,000 for the privilege to eat Blue Ribbon oysters, Daniel short ribs, and Payard chocolate peanut butter Napoleons: the chief executive of Federated, Terry Lindgren; his predecessor, retailing icon Allen Questrom; the chief executive of Saks Fifth Avenue, Stephen Sadove, and its chief merchant, Ron Frasch; the founders of the Tribeca Film Festival, Jane Rosenthal and Craig Hatkoff; the Chelsea Piers developer Tom Bernstein; the real estate scion Daniel Rose, and the developer Orin Wilf, who is building a luxury residence across the street from the mansion on East End Avenue.
The board of the conservancy is none too shabby. Its members include the legendary Brooke Astor; lingerie empress Josie Natori, who at the event played “Happy Birthday” on the piano for Mayor Bloomberg; designer Oscar de la Renta; Diane Coffey, who as Mayor Koch’s chief of staff was one of the conservancy’s first board members, and writer Elizabeth Weymouth, daughter of the late Katharine Graham. Ms. Weymouth grew up in Washington and knows well how that city’s historic homes become stages for political and social theater.
Gracie Mansion became the mayor’s official residence in 1942. It has taken some time, but the current mayor has established the model for future stewardship, including how to entertain there: On Wednesday he brought in the city’s top chefs to prepare the meal, and Broadway darling Brian Stokes Mitchell to peform songs after dessert.
Because the mayor does not live at Gracie Mansion, all of the rooms remain open to the public. One wonders, though, if Mr. Bloomberg could resist the White House as a temporary residence.
