Elbridge T. Gerry Mansion

The Elbridge T. Gerry Mansion was a lavish mansion built in 1895 and located at 2 East 61st Street, at the intersection of Fifth Avenue, in the Upper East Side of Manhattan, New York City. It was built for Commodore Elbridge Thomas Gerry, a grandson of statesman Elbridge Gerry.

Elbridge Gerry Mansion
The Elbridge Gerry Mansion in 1895, when newly built.
General information
Architectural styleFrench Renaissance
LocationManhattan, New York City
Completed1895
Opened1897
Demolished1929
Design and construction
Architect(s)Richard Morris Hunt

History

Elbridge Thomas Gerry (1837–1927) engaged architect Richard Morris Hunt to design an urban reinterpretation of a French Renaissance chateau, specifically requiring Hunt to provide space for his collection of 30,000 law books.[1]

Plans for the house were formally announced in The New York Times on May 15, 1892.[2] Construction began by 1895, and after a reported $3,000,000 in construction costs, the residence was opened officially in 1897.[3] The entrance of the structure, via an iron porte-cochère,[3] was based on the Louis XIII wing of the Château de Blois.[4]

The Gerry mansion became a center of cultivated and fashionable life, even as it came to be surrounded by skyscrapers.[5] Gerry owned sculptural spandrel figures Night and Day by Isidore Konti.[6] In his home, he displayed his extensive international art collection, which included such works as Jean-Léon Gérôme's "Plaza de Toros," a Jean-Jacques Henner bust portrait, Mihály Munkácsy's "Lac Chambre du Nourrisson" from 1884, Adolph Tidemand's "Sunday Morning in Norway," James Edward Freeman's "The Cave of Gasparoni" and "Study of a Young Girl," Jehan Georges Vibert's "The Cardinal's Nephew," Adolf Schreyer's "The Advance Guard," Achillo Guerra's "Absolution of Beatrice Cenci," Jean-Joseph Benjamin-Constant's "Venice: The Return of the Envoy," John Henry Dolph's "A Happy Family," Blackman's "Italian Kitchen," Edwin Lord Weeks' "Woodcarver's Shop: Delhi," Paul Jean Clays's "Port of Ostend," Mauritz de Haas' "Moonrise and Sunset," and Salvator Rosa's "The Revolt of the Tribe".[7] He also owned works by Italian painter Camillo Gioja Barbera, Belgian painter Cornelius Van Leemputten, Polish painter Alfred Kowalski, Austro-French painter Rudolf Ernst, French painter Claude Joseph Vernet, Norwegian painter Vincent Stoltenberg Lerche, and Dutch painter Jan de Baen.[8]

Demolition

Gerry's mansion survived for just 32 years.[9] His executors sold the house after his death in 1927, and in 1929 it was demolished to make way for The Pierre hotel.[3]

See also

References
  1. Robinson, Grace (November 1, 1925). "NEWS OF NEW YORK SOCIETY | Social Register at Gerry Wedding". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved 11 September 2016.
  2. "Mr. E. T. Gerry's New Mansion". The New York Times. 15 May 1892. Retrieved 19 July 2023.
  3. Tom Miller (June 11, 2012). "The Lost Elbridge T. Gerry Mansion -- Fifth Avenue and 61st Street".
  4. Stern, Robert A. M.; Gilmartin, Gregory; Massengale, John Montague (1983). New York 1900: Metropolitan Architecture and Urbanism, 1890–1915. New York: Rizzoli. p. 316. ISBN 0-8478-0511-5. OCLC 9829395.
  5. "COMMODORE ELBRIDGE T. GERRY | A SKETCH". The Tammany Times. Tammany Publishing Company. 1 January 1896. Retrieved 11 September 2016.
  6. Madigan, Mary Jean Smith, The Sculpture of Isidore Konti: 1862-1938, Hudson River Museum, 1975, number 10
  7. "PAINTINGS TO BE SOLD FOR GERRY ESTATE; Additions From the Collections of Mrs. J.B. Bloomingdale and Others Are Also Offered" (PDF). The New York Times. 29 January 1928. Retrieved 4 June 2019.
  8. Important paintings by Mauve, Sargent, Diaz, Hassam, Blakelock, Maufra, Inness, Davies, Twachtman, Hoppner, Lely, Bronzino and artists of like distinction; Oil paintings by representative European and American XVIII and XIX masters. New York: American Art Association. 1928. pp. 20, 28, 30, 42, 46, 54–56, 62, 64–65, 75, 110, 114–119. Retrieved 4 June 2019.
  9. Wos, Andy (January 2014). "GILDED AGE IN ANDES: HISTORY OF THE GERRY ESTATE — January 2014 | Andes Gazette". Andes Gazette. Retrieved 17 January 2018.

40.765547°N 73.971901°W / 40.765547; -73.971901

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