Mayor Bill de Blasio and his wife, Chirlane McCray, will welcome the public into their home next Wednesday with a holiday open house event at Gracie Mansion.
The open house will be an opportunity to see the mansion while its halls are decorated for the holidays, and a chance to sip apple cider and eat cookies at the official residence of the mayor.
Guests can also take self-guided tours of the Yorkville mansion, which is inside Carl Schurz Park at 88th Street, overlooking the Hell Gate channel of the East River. They can also view the “Windows on the City: Looking Out at Gracie’s New York” art installation, which was rolled out in 2015 and featured artwork and documents that were newly on display, focusing on works from the late Colonial, Revolutionary and Federal periods from 1763 to 1825.
The mayor has held open houses at Gracie before — including one after his inauguration, before he lived at the residence — as well as Halloween parties open to the public, but this will be the first open house during the holiday season.
The pale yellow Federal-style mansion was briefly closed to the public for asbestos removal and other renovations before reopening to tours in 2015. De Blasio is the first mayor since Rudy Giuliani to call the mansion home and has lived there since July 2014; his predecessor, Michael Bloomberg, opted to remain in his own town house nearby on the Upper East Side during his mayoralty. While he never lived there, Bloomberg did spend millions of his own dollars renovating the residence — which he believed future mayors should also avoid calling home, saying it was best left for the public to enjoy.
The open house will be Dec. 21 from 4 to 6 p.m., and guests must register for tickets online.
