Gracie Mansion : A Celebration of New York City's Mayoral Residence Ellen Stern

Gracie Mansion has been the official residence of New York"s mayors since 1942. This exquisite political showcase is where visiting dignitaries occupy rooms once familiar to Alexander Hamilton, Washington Irving, and John Quincy Adams. Lavishly illustrated with 150 images, including paintings and watercolors, menus and maps, invitations and elevations-and enhanced by domestic memories from Ed Koch, Mary Lindsay, and other former tenants-the book documents over 200 years of colorful life in this historic house. Through designers" sketches and before-and-after photos, the book explores the changing interior, from original furnishings to the individual tastes of many mayoral first ladies, and the splendid restoration of 2002.

Written with the full cooperation of the Gracie Mansion Conservancy, this is the first anecdotal history of the house, its gardens and ghosts, and the mayors who have lived there, from Fiorello La Guardia to Rudolph Giuliani and Michael Bloomberg.