East 88^th Street and East End Avenue
Ezra Weeks
1799-1804
NYC Individual Landmark, National Register of Historic Places

Most New Yorkers know Gracie Mansion as the home of New York City’s mayors, and indeed it has served as the official abode since 1942, when Mayor Fiorello H. LaGuardia first took up residence there. The stately Federal-style mansion was originally built as the country estate of merchant Archibald Gracie, who in 1798 purchased the land from British loyalists. The site’s naturally high topography offered strategic advantages, and by the 1770s Gracie Point—as it was then called—was the scene of military activity and fortifications. Over the centuries since then, Gracie Mansion has been many things: country seat, first home of the Museum of the City of New York and ice cream parlor. The elegant frame building with its wide porch now sits quietly within the picturesque landscape of Carl Schurz Park, overlooking the East River, and is maintained by the New York City Parks Department. It was also among the first New York City Landmarks, designated in 1966. The only mayor not to have lived at Gracie Mansion full time was Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who felt that the house should be fully open to the public (and that mayors should pay for their own housing).

photo credit nyc.gov