36 Madison Avenue
Madison, NJ, USA

Mead Hall

Completed in 1836, for William Gibbons (1794-1852) and his wife, Abigail Louisa Taintor (1794-1844), after relocating from Savannah, Georgia, to run Gibbon's steamship enterprise between New Jersey and New York. This was the childhood home of Mrs McAllister, wife of the self-appointed arbiter of Gilded Age society who together with Lina Astor concocted the list of New York's old money elite, "The Four Hundred". In 1867, Mrs McAllister's brother, William Heyward Gibbons (1831-1887), sold the mansion they had called "The Forest" for $140,000 to restore their plantations in Savannah that were ruined during the Civi War. The new owner was Daniel Drew (1797-1879), a railroad magnate who at his peak was worth $13 million, but died bankrupt in 1879. Drew was a devout Methodist who bought the mansion to house a Methodist Seminary. It was named Drew Theological Seminary before becoming part of Drew University when it was renamed Mead Hall, for Drew's wife Roxanna Mead (1799-1866).