Wonderful tour at the Gracie Mansion today with a new friend, Ruth. More on her in a bit. Gracie Mansion has been the official residence of the mayor of New York City up until Mayor Bloomberg came along. It was built as a country home back in 1799 when the Upper East side was truly in the country. Very hard to imagine today!
The owner at the time, Archibald Gracie, sold it in 1823 to pay off debts brought on by family members. A number of years later the city of New York took ownership when the property was seized for non-payment of taxes. Hmm…some things don’t change after all these years! Going from room to room in the small mansion, I could only imagine the conversations between Rhudy Giuliani and Donna Hanover over Judith Nathan. Yikes!!
Can you imagine walking out this door and this is your view? Nice.
Now back to Ruth. I met her when several of us went to The Vibrator play a few weeks ago. Blind since a small child, she now has two grown sons, is a writer and periodically a professor at the University of Calgary where she lives part-time. She is so awesome and she certainly kept me on my toes as we maneuvered the bus system and city sidewalks. What an inspiration! A very fun day.
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