 Built 1808, restored in 1936, additional alterations in the 60s and 80s. Gracie Mansion, the official residence of the Mayor of the City of New York since 1942, sits in Carl Schurz Park, which runs along the E. River from 84th to 90th Sts. Originally a remote country residence, renovations in the 60s and 80s provided amenities that allowed the house to function as an executive mansion. The house is open to the public on a restricted basis. 

A compass design exploding on the floor. It was painted there in 1981, when resident Ed Koch (the City&rsquo;s 105th&nbsp;mayor), launched the namesake conservancy to speculatively authenticate the interior.The experts engaged to create the compass design knew that the slave-empowered white upper class of that Federal era &mdash; like the Gracies with their neoclassical taste &mdash; always sought to decorate and thus conceal the plain pine planks of the actual floors. Options included mats, carpeting, and&nbsp;trompe l&rsquo;oiel: in this case, decorative painting disguised as marble tile. In that spirit, the Gracie Mansion compass rose as copied from surviving samples of such solutions in the late 1700s proved an ideal and far from merely decorative solution. William Waldron

Gracie Mansion (Archibald Gracie House)

In 1942, Robert Moses convinced Mayor Fiorello H. La Guardia to appropriate the house as a mayoral residence. Its main two floors are open to the public on a limited basis for guided tours and serve as a small museum.

 From 1924 until 1936, it housed the Museum of the City of New York

The wooden doors, are painted to resemble mahogany despite being made of cheaper wood. In the grand foyer, the wooden floors are painted to mimic black and white marble, as Archibald Gracie could not afford actual marble, and bare wood floors were considered unfashionable.

From 1936 until 1942, it was shown as a historical house.

The fireplace mantle where Hamilton died in front of in the home of the Bayard family (just below the present Gansevoort Street), was moved to Gracie Mansion as a centerpiece of the Susan B. Wagner Room where the mayor holds press conferences and social gatherings.

Jamie Drake of Drake Design Associates discusses his restoration and redecoration of the Gracie Mansion, the official residence of the Mayor of New York City. Jamie Drake focused on reestablishing both its original 18th Century Federal style and paying homage to the more recent renovations of the late 20th-century.

Susan Danilow, Executive Director of the Gracie Mansion Conservancy tells the history of the building.