Gibbons Mansion, currently known as Mead Hall, is a historical mansion on

Drew University Drew University is a private university in Madison, New Jersey. Drew has been nicknamed the "University in the Forest" because of its wooded campus. As of fall 2020, more than 2,200 students were pursuing degrees at the university's three scho ...

campus in

Madison Madison may refer to: People * Madison (name), a given name and a surname * James Madison (1751–1836), fourth president of the United States Place names * Madison, Wisconsin, the state capital of Wisconsin and the largest city known by this ...

, Morris County,

New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...

, United States. It houses the university's administrative offices today.

History

It was built by William Gibbons beginning in 1833 in the heart of his 96-acre property; it was first occupied in 1836. Gibbons was the son of Thomas Gibbons, a prominent politician, lawyer and steamboat operator originally from the South. Gibbons’ only son,

William Heyward Gibbons William is a male given name of Germanic origin.Hanks, Hardcastle and Hodges, ''Oxford Dictionary of First Names'', Oxford University Press, 2nd edition, , p. 276. It became very popular in the English language after the Norman conquest of Eng ...

, sold the vacant mansion and estate to

Daniel Drew Daniel Drew (July 29, 1797 – September 18, 1879) was an American businessman, steamship and railroad developer, and financier. Summarizing his life, Henry Clews wrote: "Of all the great operators of Wall Street ... Daniel Drew furnishes th ...

in 1867 for $140,000. Drew, in turn, the

Drew Theological Seminary Drew University is a private university in Madison, New Jersey. Drew has been nicknamed the "University in the Forest" because of its wooded campus. As of fall 2020, more than 2,200 students were pursuing degrees at the university's three scho ...

, named in his honor. The Gibbons mansion was renamed Mead Hall, in honor of Drew's wife,

Roxanna Mead Roxanna may refer to: * Roxanna, Ohio, US, an unincorporated community * Roxanne (given name), a feminine given name * Roxanna (crater), a crater on Venus See also * Roxana (disambiguation) * Roxanne (disambiguation) Roxanne may refer to: *R ...

. The sister of William Heyward Gibbons, Sarah Taintor Gibbons, was Mrs.

Ward McAllister Samuel Ward McAllister (December 28, 1827 – January 31, 1895) was a popular arbiter of social taste in the Gilded Age of late 19th-century America. He was widely accepted as the authority as to which families could be classified as the cream o ...

1989 fire

Mead Hall was devastated by a fire in 1989, reopened in 1993, and despite the damage, is still “considered the finest example of

Greek Revival architecture The Greek Revival was an architectural movement which began in the middle of the 18th century but which particularly flourished in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, predominantly in northern Europe and the United States and Canada, but ...

north of the Mason-Dixon line."

References

Drew University Houses completed in 1836 Houses in Morris County, New Jersey National Register of Historic Places in Morris County, New Jersey New Jersey Register of Historic Places Madison, New Jersey {{NewJersey-NRHP-stub