It was the home of financier Leonard Jerome, one of the city's richest and most influential men in the middle- to late-19th century.

[1] The six-story mansion featured a mansard roof, which was fashionable at the time,[2] as well as 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.

From 1899, it housed the Manhattan Club,[4] a bastion of Democratic politicians such as Samuel J. Tilden, Grover Cleveland, Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Alfred E.

[5] On November 23, 1869, the Jerome Mansion was the site of the meeting that founded the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

[6] 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.