The Lost 1859 Leonard Jerome Mansion -- Madison Avenue at 26th Street

photo Library of Congress

The feisty and flamboyant Leonard Walter Jerome was born on a farm near Syracuse, New York in 1817, a drastically different environment from the one to which he would later become accustomed.  After practicing law in Rochester for a period, he moved to New York City where he speculated in stocks.

Jerome earned the title “The King of Wall Street” after making and losing fortunes in the market.  He increased his fortune by investing in several railroad companies and newspapers and by the age of 40 was among the wealthiest men in New York.

In 1859, Madison Square Park was lined with elegant brick and brownstone mansions of the well-to-do.  Jerome commissioned the British-born architect Thomas R. Jackson to design the largest and most opulent residence in the city.  Situated at the corner of Madison Avenue and 26th Street, it would be like nothing New York society had ever seen.

The Paris Exposition had opened seven years earlier, sparking a craze for the Second Empire style of architecture.  Jackson drew on the new style, putting the Jerome mansion on the cutting edge of architectural fashion.  While the millionaires of Fifth Avenue were building staid, Italianate brownstone residences, the Jerome mansion erupted with flair.

Six stories tall and costing $200,000, it featured a high slate-shingled mansard roof above two stories of brick and contrasting stone.  The first and second floors were clad in rusticated limestone.  A stone portico supported by four columns formed a balcony with a carved stone balustrade at the second floor.  Two elegant balconies on the Madison Avenue side extended the width of the façade.

The stables, separated from the house by a small lot, were built to match the mansion, including stained glass windows—extremely ritzy accommodations for Jerome’s horses.  In a somewhat unusual arrangement, the ballroom was originally installed in the second floor of the stables.  Late in 1866 or early 1867, Jerome had a private theater built in the space between the mansion and stables.

Jerome and his wife, Clara, entertained lavishly in the house.  The breakfast room could accommodate 70 guests and the white-and-gold ballroom boasted two fountains—one spouting champagne and the other cologne.  Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper noted, “The stairways are of oak…The balustrades are massive in proportions, and are capped with a handrail of black walnut.”

Leonard and Clara had three daughters, Jennie, Clarita and Leonie.  All three would later marry British suitors, but it is Jennie who is best remembered for become Lady Randolph Churchill, the mother of Winston Churchill.

In 1867, the family relocated to Brooklyn and Jerome leased the mansion to The Union League Club for $18,000 per year.  The New York Times reported on the renovations on April 1, 1868.  “Important alterations have been made to adapt this building to its present purposes,” it said.  Although the article stressed that the exterior was unchanged, “within, no expense has been spared in furniture and appropriate ornamentation.”

The first floor was dedicated to reception areas, a reading room, art gallery, billiard room, a bar and “the ten-pin alleys.”  The second floor had a lecture and meeting room and private dining rooms.  On the walls of the main parlor on the third floor were portraits of important Americans along with Cropsey’s painting, The Field of Gettysburg.  Here too were the library and trophy room.

Upstairs, the sleeping rooms were, “elegantly furnished, intended for the occasional accommodation of members and for the purposes of hospitality.”

The Club had spent $50,000 in renovating the mansion.

Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper commented on the opening festivities on May 9, 1868.  “The entire building, including the theatre, was thrown open to the guests, a band of music was in attendance, and every step was taken that would add success to the occasion.  The ladies, as usual, lent a very attractive air to the reception, and exhibited the most costly and superb toilets.”

The Club commissioned architect J. Morgan Slade in 1875 to remove the mansard roof and add a seventh floor.  The Department of Buildings approved the plans, which called for a flat tin roof with galvanized iron cornices and gutters, however the changes were never implemented.

When the Union League Club moved out in 1883, the house was leased to the University Club, which began its own alterations.  The theater was renovated into the “New Dining Room” by Charles C. Haight, and in 1889 McKim, Mead & White did some interior renovations.

On the floor by each table in the Cafe of the Manhattan Club was a brass spittoon in 1901.  The room was highly decorated for a patriotic event.  -- photo Library of Congress

In 1899, the University Club moved into its new Italian palazzo on Fifth Avenue.  The Manhattan Club, which had been using the Alexander T. Stewart mansion on Fifth Avenue as its clubhouse, took over the Jerome Mansion.  Over the decades, political fortunes were made and lost in the Squirrel Room on the sixth floor.  Among the politicians who gathered here were Grover Cleveland, Franklin D. Roosevelt, James Walker, Robert F. Wagner, Sr., and Alfred E. Smith.  It was in the bar of the Manhattan Club that the cocktail bearing the club’s name was invented.

The Madison Avenue corner in 1924, showing the elaborate cast iron fencing and the balconies -- photo NYPL Collection

On September 21, 1965, a year after the Club purchased the mansion from the Jerome estate, the Landmarks Preservation Commission designated it a landmark despite the Club’s opposition.  The designation noted that, aside from being a “distinguished and attractive example” of its architectural style, “the Jerome Mansion is a priceless link for New York City to one of the great men of this century and that the building should be preserved so that New Yorkers will always have this physical reminder of Winston Churchill.”

The following year, with membership declining and the organization running at a $10,000 to $20,000 deficit, the Manhattan Club put the building on the market for $600,000.  There were no buyers for the mansion and the Manhattan Club filed suit, maintaining it was deprived of the right to dispose of its property.  The Club’s definition of “dispose of,” in this case, was “demolish.”

In 1967 demolition had started.  The cast iron fencing is partially gone as are the balconies and scaffolding is being erected.  -- Library of Congress

Two years after the Landmarks Preservation Commission termed the Jerome Mansion “priceless,” it was bulldozed.  In its place a glass and steel, 42-floor skyscraper, the New York Merchandise Mart, was completed in 1974.