Elbridge Thomas Gerry (1837–1927) engaged architect Richard Morris Hunt to design an urban reinterpretation of a French Renaissance chateau, specifically requiring Hunt to provide space for his collection of 30,000 law books.

[3] The entrance of the structure, via an iron porte-cochère,[3] was based on the Louis XIII wing of the Château de Blois.

[4] The Gerry mansion became a center of cultivated and fashionable life, even as it came to be surrounded by skyscrapers.

[5] Gerry owned sculptural spandrel figures Night and Day by Isidore Konti.

[6] In his home, he displayed his extensive international art collection, which included such works as Jean-Léon Gérôme's "Plaza de Toros," a Jean-Jacques Henner bust portrait, Mihály Munkácsy's "Lac Chambre du Nourrisson" from 1884, Adolph Tidemand's "Sunday Morning in Norway," James Edward Freeman's "The Cave of Gasparoni" and "Study of a Young Girl," Jehan Georges Vibert's "The Cardinal's Nephew," Adolf Schreyer's "The Advance Guard," Achillo Guerra's "Absolution of Beatrice Cenci," Jean-Joseph Benjamin-Constant's "Venice: The Return of the Envoy," John Henry Dolph's "A Happy Family," Blackman's "Italian Kitchen," Edwin Lord Weeks' "Woodcarver's Shop: Delhi," Paul Jean Clays's "Port of Ostend," Mauritz de Haas' "Moonrise and Sunset," and Salvator Rosa's "The Revolt of the Tribe".