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 Str ...

, 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 S ...

, 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 po ...

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 ...

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. Th ...

, 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. Earl ...

, 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 during the Second World War, and again from ...

. When Jerome moved uptown, the mansion was sold and housed a series of private clubs including the Union League Club 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,

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 Alfred Emanuel Smith (December 30, 1873 – October 4, 1944) was an American politician who served four terms as Governor of New York and was the Democratic Party's candidate for president in 1928. The son of an Irish-American mother and a Ci ...

. 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.

References

Notes Bibliography *

External links

* * * {{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

History

See also

References

External links