Daily News from New York, New York • 43

150 SUNDAY NEWS, FEBRUARY 1973 You've Come a Long Way, Gracie! occasions, the Gracies entertained as many as 50 guests, the elite of the day. In addition to Astor, the friendly nearby neighbor, Alexander Hamilton, authors James Fenimore Cooper and Washington Irving, Thomas Moore, the Marquis de Lafayette, President John Quincy Adams, Louis Phillippe, who later became King of France, Gen. Win-field Scott and Gov. DeWitt Clinton strolled on the veranda and partook of the lavish Gracie hospitality. Washington Irving came initially to the house out of love for Matilda Hoffman, a neighbor's daughter, but he continued to visit because he also fell in love with the estate and its owners.

In-1813, he wrote: ized" section of a place called Brooklyn. The Waltons built the first house on the site. The Waltons were fiercely loyal to the crown when the revolution broke out, so in 1776 the house and land were appropriated by the American forces, who set up a nine-gun battery on the strategic bluff overlooking the river. Their stay was short-lived, however, because on Sept. 15, 1776, the English fleet appeared in the river below and bombarded the encampment, driving off the defenders and setting fire to the house, which burned to the ground.

The Redcoats grabbed the area and -maintained a garrison there until the Like the city, the mayor's house has seen triumph, tragedy, tumult and, on occasion, even tranquillity By EDWARD O'NEILL STATELY old Gracie Mansion, the 174-year-old tradition that serves as the home of New York City mayors, stands majestically on a rocky promontory overlooking the East River at 88th St. and East End caressed by the winds of time, its wood seasoned by the sweep of history. Well befitting a dignified dowager of early American architecture, the mansion stands in proud arrogance, disdainful of the surrounding high-rise struct tures that threaten to smother her elegance. After nearly two centuries of joy, heartbreak, turbulence and challenge, the clean-lined FederalColonial style two-story frame house still remains the genteel, unquestioned mistress of the panoramic view she commands the river, Hellgate and a latter-day wonder of beauty and engineering called the Triborough Bridge. Generations of the world's great and.

near-great of the early 1800s salted the surrounding air with gentility, nobility and a kind of grandeur that has defied the ravages of time. Since 1942, when the mansion was given further immortality by farsighted New-Yorkers of yet another time, hundreds of distinguished visitors have stepped out of the history books to walk its grounds and breathe even more immortality into its timbers presidents, kings, queens, prime ministers, ambassadors, astronauts, poets, painters, authors. In the last 31 years, five mayors have lived in old Gracie Mansion, during which the aging landmark has been the center of dramatic events. A Stage for Political Drama The highly polished floors have resounded to the determined stomp of angry union leaders, mayors have pounded its tables and desks in frustration; centuries of speeches have bounced off the walls; outside, tens of thousands of pickets have surrounded the grounds on behalf of innumerable causes, assaulting the ears of those inside the mansion's protective walls. More than a dozen times, protestors have stormed the gates, only to be turned back by police.

Through it all, Gracie Mansion has remained imperturbably unassailable, playing out its role as a focal point through which historians can measure the history of New York City and, indeed, the nation. The mansion, tested by time, Is now bigger, better and more sure of a long future than any of the humans who enter its doors. No one can write the life story of a person until after he has died, but in the case of Gracie Mansion, the intriguing tale is worth telling even as the monument itself lives. The ground on which Gracie Mansion is built won a place in history long before the house was constructed. This hook of land which juts out into the East River was originally known as Horn's (or Hoorn's) Hook, named after Hoorn on the Zuyder Zee, Holland, the birthplace of the property's first owner, a farmer named Sibout Claessen.

The property changed hands several times until 1760 when it was purchased by a wealthy man named Jacob Walton, from far-off Flatbush, then the "civil upon hard times and began to bow to the debilitation of decay and neglect. And there didn't seem to be an agency, spiritual or temporal, that might save it, even though the City of New York acquired the property in 1891 and established East End there between East End Ave. and the river, from 84th to 89th Sts. The name was changed to Carl Schurz Park in 1911 to honor the German revolutionary who came to this country in the mid-1800s. Schurz, a founder of the Republican Party, wa3 a close friend of Abraham Lincoln.

The house, however, continued to decline in appearance as the paint peeled and the spacious porch sagged. Finally, the city stepped in again and made the old manse headquarters for the Museum of the City of New York. The Inside walls were gutted to provide more space for the exhibits, but the porch was repaired. Alas! New Yorkers stayed away in droves. Its most-used function was to serve as a public comfort station for park visitors.

Then, in late 1941, then-Parks Commissioner Robert Moses with backing: from City Council President Newbold Morris proposed that Gracie Mansion be designated as a home for New York City mayors. The Board of Estimate okayed the idea in January of 1942 and 300 WPA workmen, at a cost of restored the mansion's grandeur. LaOuardia Was Testy Tenant Mayor Fiorello H. LaGuardia was the first tenant a reluctant one because he didn't think he should be living on city property. The Little Flower, with his wife, Marie, and their two children, shied away from the main floor, which was decorated with furniture from three city museums.

Instead, they lived mostly on the second floor, where Fiorello is said to have delighted in cooking his own batches of spaghetti. In addition, Marie would sometimes hang the family wash from the back of the mansion, to the chagrin of museum officials. On many occasions, LaGuardia, uncomfortable in the museum atmosphere, was heard to complain: "What is Bob Moses trying to do to me?" Looking at the imposing figures depicted in the paintino-s on the wall, he would quip: "At least, I know who my own ancestors are." Oddly enough, the next tenant, Mayor William O'Dwyer, also was reluctant to move into the imposing structure and leave his comfortable Bay Ridge home. It was only after much prodding by who insisted the mansion was better suited for security reasons, that O'Dwyer consented to make the move. Ironically, O'Dwyer was awakened at 6 a.m.

one morning in 1950 by an 18-year-old youth who had climbed a rear fence, out of view of the police booth in front, and entered the mayor's bedroom to "talk about juvenile delinquency." After engaging the youngster end of the Revolution in 1783, when they returned to England with the defeated English forces. George Washington, who is said to have slept in every old house on the East coast during the war years (how did he get enough waking hours to fight the is also reputed to have used the old Walton house for a billet before it was leveled by the enemy. The land remained untended until 1798 when a square-jawed Scottish sea merchant, Archibald Gracie one of the 50 richest men in old New York bought the 11-acre property for $3,700 as a site for a summer home for his bride. The merchant prince, who also owned a showcase home at 15 State St. known as "The Pillars," represented the cream of the era's society.

Palatial for Its Times In 1799, Gracie began construction of his mansion, a sumptuous building of 14 rooms and eight bathrooms, replete with hand-carved fireplaces and priceless furniture. There was a large dining room and a broad, white-pillared porch that overlooked the river in all ways, an ideal site for holding large receptions. Many times, Gracie and his family would sail up the East River from the Battery, an all-day trip then, to his summer retreat. And he entertained royally in that home, which is said to have been designed by Pierre L'Enfant, the French architect who was a friend of George Washington and helped lay out the original street plan of Washington, D.C. At this point, Gracie Mansion entered an era of glory, situated as it was amid estates of the landed gentry the John Jacob Astors, the Rikers, the Rhineland-ers and the Schermerhorns.

On many "1 cannot tell you how sweet and delightful I found this retreat, pure air, agreeable scenery and profound quiet," His admiration for the Gracies was boundless. He also penned in his diary: "Their country seat was one of my strongholds last summer, as I lived in its vicinity. It is a charming, warmhearted family and the old gentleman has the soul of a prince." In those days, the outstanding landmark on the grounds was a giant cotton-wood tree reputed to be the tallest in New York which stood on the edge of the estate, overlooking the river. According to the chroniclers of the day, the men who sailed their ships through Hellgate on the way down the East River or out to sea, used the tree to navigate their course. Through all that golden period, the friendly spirit of Archibald Gracie presided in dignity over all he surveyed his land, his river, his Hellgate, his legion of guests, his children.

Regrettably, Gracie's year of plenty ended between 1812 and 1819 when the Embargo Act, decreed by Napoleon during the War of 1812 in addition to other financial setbacks wiped out a good portion of his fortune. During that time, Gracie spent more and more time at the mansion and eventually recovered a good part of his lost wealth. The craggy-faced Scot died in 1829 at age 94. His children made their marks in New York and Boston society. Two of the Gracie daughters married of industrialist Ruf us King, who later bought Gracie Mansion.

It was sold to insurance magrtate Joseph Foulke in 1823: Foulka lived in the house until his death in 1852 and left the property to his seven children, who subdivided it into lots. At this point, Gracie Mansion came.