Herbert N. Straus House
9 East 71st Street | Upper East Side | built 1930
Open on the map15 entries
The city photographed every building for its tax records around 1940 and again in the 1980s. NYC Municipal Archives.
Written with AI from the source each entry cites, then fact-checked.
- 1928
A syndicate buys the Van Ingen mansion at No. 9 and five neighbors for an apartment building that never rises
On February 3, 1928, it was announced that a syndicate had bought six houses along East 71st Street, including the Edward H. Van Ingen mansion at No. 9, to be replaced by a $5 million apartment building. The Van Ingens had owned the house for decades. The apartment plan fell through, and the property became available to Herbert Straus.
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan
- 1931
Herbert Straus orders work stopped on his unfinished 40-room Trumbauer mansion
Herbert Straus, a son of Macy's co-owners Isidor and Ida Straus, hired the Philadelphia architect Horace Trumbauer to design a 40-room French Renaissance house here, and entire 18th-century rooms were bought in Europe for it. After the October 1929 stock market crash he pressed on for a time, but in 1931 he stopped the work when the house was 90 percent complete, having spent about $600,000. He died in 1933 without ever living in it.
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan
- 1945
The Archdiocese turns the unfinished house into a fifty-bed St. Clare's hospital extension
Facing years of property taxes on an empty house, the Straus family donated it to the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York in 1944. The Archdiocese converted it into an extension of St. Clare's Hospital, a fifty-bed convalescent institution that opened on September 8, 1945, with a chapel on the ground floor and a roof terrace overlooking Central Park. Two of the house's 18th-century French interiors were later moved to the Metropolitan Museum of Art's period rooms.
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan
- 1961
St. Clare's closes its extension and the Birch Wathen School buys the mansion
St. Clare's shut its doors on July 24, 1961, ending 16 years in the Straus mansion. The Birch Wathen School, a coeducational college-prep day school running from kindergarten to 12th grade, bought the building and stayed for over two decades before moving uptown.
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan
- 1989
Leslie Wexner buys the mansion for $13.2 million and converts it back to a private home
In 1989 Limited founder Leslie H. Wexner bought No. 9 East 71st Street for $13.2 million and spent tens of millions of dollars restoring and decorating it, so that the 21,000-square-foot mansion was once more a private residence, for the first time in about fifty years. An advisor told the New York Times in 1996 that Wexner spent no more than two months in the house.
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan
- 1995
Architectural Digest shows the Wexner redesign of the former school building
Leslie Wexner bought the mansion in 1989 and turned it back into a private home, with interiors by the decorator John Stefanidis and a remodeling by the architect Thierry Despont. The result appeared in the December 1995 issue of Architectural Digest. The house had earlier served as a hospital annex and then as a school.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1999
Prince Andrew stays with Ghislaine Maxwell at Epstein's mansion, a biography says
Julie Brown's 2021 book on Jeffrey Epstein says that in 1999 Maxwell invited Britain's Prince Andrew, newly divorced from Sarah Ferguson, to Manhattan. According to the book, he agreed to leave Britain and stay with her at Epstein's Upper East Side mansion at 9 East 71st Street, and soon went to social events and dinner parties around the city with her.
Source: foxnews.com
- 2003
Jeffrey Epstein lives in the house, which Vicky Ward describes in a 2003 Vanity Fair profile
Jeffrey Epstein moved into the house in 1995 and claimed to own it, though registered ownership passed to a trust he controlled only in 2011. Vicky Ward visited for her 2003 Vanity Fair profile and wrote that it felt like someone's private Xanadu. The entrance hall held rows of individually framed eyeballs made for injured English soldiers, and a large office had a desk that once belonged to J. P. Morgan.
Source: Wikipedia
- 2011
Ownership of the mansion moves from a Wexner-linked trust to one controlled by Epstein
Jeffrey Epstein moved into the house in 1995 and claimed to own it, though the registered owner was a trust tied to both him and Leslie Wexner. In 2011 the registered ownership shifted to a trust controlled by Epstein. The change came sixteen years after he moved in and more than two decades after Wexner bought the house for $13.2 million.
Source: Wikipedia
- 2019
Prosecutors value the townhouse at $77 million, while the city assesses it at $56 million
In 2019 the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York valued the mansion at $77 million, while the city's Department of Finance put it at $56 million. The tax bill had drawn notice earlier: its 2008 bill ranked fourth among single residences citywide.
“…valued at $77 million by the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York and at $56 million by the New York City Department of Finance…”
Source: Wikipedia
- 2019
FBI agents search the house over two days in 2019 and saw open a safe
An FBI team led by special agent Kelly Maguire searched the forty-room house on July 6 and 7, 2019, in connection with Jeffrey Epstein's arrest on sex trafficking charges. Agents forced their way in when no one answered, and the search took about 12 hours. On the fifth floor they found a locked safe and opened it with a saw. Maguire testified in December 2021 that it contained 48 unmounted diamonds, $70,000 in cash, more jewelry, and a foreign passport with Epstein's photo under another name.
Source: yahoo.com
- 2020
The mansion goes on the market at $88 million, and the asking price later drops to $65 million
The house hit the market in July 2020 at an asking price of $88 million, about a year after Epstein's death. In January 2021 the price was cut to $65 million.
Source: eastsidefeed.com
- 2021
Michael Daffey buys the house for $51 million, with the money going to Epstein's victims
In March 2021 former Goldman Sachs executive Michael Daffey bought the house for $51 million; the money went to the Epstein Victims' Compensation Program. He took a $30.6 million loan from Citigroup to buy it and announced plans to renovate. The renovation was completed in 2025.
“…former Goldman Sachs executive Michael Daffey purchased the building for $51 million, with proceeds from the sale going to the Epstein Victims' Compensation Program…”
Source: Wikipedia
- 2024
Vandals spray-paint pro-Luigi Mangione slogans on the former Epstein mansion
In December 2024 vandals identified with support for Luigi Mangione, the accused killer of a health-insurance chief executive, defaced the exterior of the house at 9 East 71st Street. Red spray paint on the limestone facade spelled out phrases including Free Luigi.
Source: eastsidefeed.com
- 2025
A renovation of the house for its new owner is completed
After buying the house in 2021, the former Goldman Sachs executive Michael Daffey took out a $30.6 million loan from Citigroup and announced plans to renovate it. The renovation was completed in 2025.
Source: Wikipedia
Further reading
- Herbert N. Straus HouseWikipedia
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