The Jerome Mansion was a mansion on the corner of
East 26th Street and
Madison Avenue
Madison Avenue is a north-south avenue in the borough of Manhattan in New York City, United States, that carries northbound one-way traffic. It runs from Madison Square (at 23rd Street) to meet the southbound Harlem River Drive at 142nd Stre ...
, across from
Madison Square Park
Madison Square is a public square formed by the intersection of Fifth Avenue and Broadway at 23rd Street in the New York City borough of Manhattan. The square was named for Founding Father James Madison, fourth President of the United States. ...
, in the modern
NoMad
A nomad is a member of a community without fixed habitation who regularly moves to and from the same areas. Such groups include hunter-gatherers, pastoral nomads (owning livestock), tinkers and trader nomads. In the twentieth century, the popu ...
neighborhood of
Manhattan
Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...
in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
. It was the home of financier
Leonard Jerome
Leonard Walter Jerome (November 3, 1817 – March 3, 1891) was an American financier in Brooklyn, New York, and the maternal grandfather of Winston Churchill.
Early life
Leonard Jerome was born in Pompey in Onondaga County, New York, on Novembe ...
, one of the city's richest and most influential men in the middle- to late-19th century.
[Burrows & Wallace] It was built from 1859 to 1865 and demolished in 1967.
History
The six-story mansion featured a
mansard roof
A mansard or mansard roof (also called a French roof or curb roof) is a four-sided gambrel-style hip roof characterised by two slopes on each of its sides, with the lower slope, punctured by dormer windows, at a steeper angle than the upper. The ...
, which was fashionable at the time,
as well as a six hundred-seat theatre, a breakfast room which could serve up to seventy people, a white and gold ballroom with champagne and cologne fountains, and a "splendid" view of the park. Jerome's daughter
Jennie Jerome
Jennie Spencer-Churchill (; 9 January 1854 – 29 June 1921), known as Lady Randolph Churchill, was an American-born British socialite, the wife of Lord Randolph Churchill, and the mother of British prime minister Sir Winston Churchill.
Early ...
, who grew up in the mansion, was the mother of
Winston Churchill
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (30 November 187424 January 1965) was a British statesman, soldier, and writer who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom twice, from 1940 to 1945 Winston Churchill in the Second World War, dur ...
.
When Jerome moved uptown, the mansion was sold and housed a series of private clubs including the
Union League Club
The Union League Club is a private social club in New York City that was founded in 1863 in affiliation with the Union League. Its fourth and current clubhouse is located at 38 East 37th Street on the corner of Park Avenue, in the Murray Hill ...
from 1868 to 1881, the
University Club, and the Turf Club. From 1899, it housed the
Manhattan Club,
a bastion of
Democratic politicians such as
Samuel J. Tilden
Samuel Jones Tilden (February 9, 1814 – August 4, 1886) was an American politician who served as the 25th Governor of New York and was the Democratic candidate for president in the disputed 1876 United States presidential election. Tilden was ...
,
Grover Cleveland
Stephen Grover Cleveland (March 18, 1837June 24, 1908) was an American lawyer and politician who served as the 22nd and 24th president of the United States from 1885 to 1889 and from 1893 to 1897. Cleveland is the only president in American ...
,
Franklin Delano Roosevelt
Franklin Delano Roosevelt (; ; January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), often referred to by his initials FDR, was an American politician and attorney who served as the 32nd president of the United States from 1933 until his death in 1945. As the ...
and
Alfred E. Smith. On November 23, 1869, the Jerome Mansion was the site of the meeting that founded the
Metropolitan Museum of Art
The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...
.
The building was given landmark status in 1965, but when the owner was unable to find a buyer for it after two years, it was permitted to be torn down in 1967, to be replaced by the
New York Merchandise Mart
The New York Merchandise Mart, also known as 1 Madison Square Plaza, is a building in the Flatiron District of Manhattan, New York City, at 41 Madison Avenue at East 26th Street adjacent to Madison Square Park.[Rose Hill, Manhattan
Rose Hill is a neighborhood in the New York City borough (New York City), borough of Manhattan, between the neighborhoods of Murray Hill, Manhattan, Murray Hill to the north and Gramercy Park to the south, Kips Bay to the east, the Flatiron D ...]
*
Flatiron District
The Flatiron District is a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Manhattan, named after the Flatiron Building at 23rd Street, Broadway and Fifth Avenue. Generally, the Flatiron District is bounded by 14th Street, Union Square and Green ...
*
References
Notes
Bibliography
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External links
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{{Manhattan-struct-stub
1865 establishments in New York (state)
1967 disestablishments in New York (state)
Buildings and structures demolished in 1967
Demolished buildings and structures in Manhattan
Flatiron District
History of Manhattan
Houses completed in 1865
Madison Avenue
New York City Designated Landmarks in Manhattan
Former New York City Designated Landmarks