Henry Brevoort, Jr. (1782-1848)

He was a lifelong friend of both Washington Irving and Philip Hone. In 1834, he built a mansion (see images) at 24 Fifth Avenue (which back then was still unpaved) on the corner of 9th Street, setting a trend that led to Fifth becoming New York's most fashionable - and most expensive - thoroughfare. Designed by Ithiel Town and Alexander Jackson Davis, his home became well-known as the scene for many elaborate balls and his wife's fancy dress ball held there in 1840 was billed as, "the most splendid social affair of the first half of the 19th century in New York." Hone wrote down his memory of that night: "The mansion of our entertainers, Mr. and Mrs. Brevoort, is better calculated for such display than any other in the city. Mrs. Brevoort, in particular, by her kind and courteous deportment, threw a charm over the splendid pageant, which would have been incomplete without it. Never before has New York witnessed a fancy ball so splendidly gotten up, in better taste, or more successfully carried through.”

An adventurous traveller, he accompanied Lewis & Clark on their expedition to the Pacific Northwest (1803 to 1806) and spent a great deal of time in the North American wilderness working for John Jacob Astor's American Fur Company. By 1846, his fortune was estimated at $1-million and he built up a private library of 8,000 rare books which he left to his son, James. He kept up a correspondence with many of the leading artists, writers, and politicians of his day in North America that in addition to Irving and Hone included Rembrandt Peale (who painted his portrait), Alexander Hamilton, James Fenimore Cooper, Charles Carroll of Carrolton, the Marquis de Lafayette, and Simon McTavish. In 1817, he married Laura Carson of Charleston, South Carolina - sister-in-law of Mrs. Caroline Carson of Rome, Italy - and they were the parents of eight children (listed).