| Elbridge Gerry Mansion | |
| Location: | Manhattan, New York City |
| Completion Date: | 1895 |
| Opened Date: | 1897 |
| Demolition Date: | 1929 |
| Architect: | Richard Morris Hunt |
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 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. The entrance of the structure, via an iron porte-cochère, was based on the Louis XIII wing of the Château de Blois.[3]
The Gerry mansion became a center of cultivated and fashionable life, even as it came to be surrounded by skyscrapers.[4] Gerry owned sculptural spandrel figures Night and Day by Isidore Konti.[5] 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".[6] 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.[7]
Gerry's mansion survived for just 32 years.[8] His executors sold the house after his death in 1927, and in 1929 it was demolished to make way for The Pierre hotel.[9]