The Jerome Mansion was the home of financier Leonard Jerome, one of the richest and most influential men in New York City in the middle- to late-19th century, and a frequent business partner of Cornelius Vanderbilt.[1] The mansion was located on the corner of East 26th Street and Madison Avenue, across from Madison Square Park. It was built in 1859.
The six-story mansion featured a mansard roof, which was all the rage at the time,[2] 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,[3] and a "splendid" view of the park. Jerome's daughter, Jennie Jerome, who grew up in the mansion, later became Lady Randolph Churchill, the mother of Winston Churchill.
When Jerome moved uptown, the mansion was sold and housed a series of private clubs including the Manhattan Club, a bastion of Democratic politicians such as Grover Cleveland, Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Alfred E. Smith. 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.[4]