Jeffrey Epstein's Former NYC Town House Used To Be A School

Originally known as the Herbert N. Straus House, this imposing Upper East Side mansion was designed by architect Horace Trumbauer and completed in 1932. Although commissioned for Herbert Straus—the son of Macy’s co-owners—he never lived in it. In 1944, Straus’s heirs, facing prohibitive property costs, donated the unfinished building to the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York, which initially used it as a hospital. Later, from 1962 to 1989, the mansion served as the location for the Birch Wathen School, a private K–12 academy, before being sold to retailer Leslie Wexner (for $13.2 million), who renovated the opulent interior. Eventually, Jeffrey Epstein came to reside in the mansion from the mid-1990s until his death.


Over the decades, the building transformed dramatically—from a rare, institutional-like school and hospital to one of Manhattan’s largest private residences (estimated at over 20,000 sq ft and spanning nine lavish floors). Under Epstein, it took on a darker reputation, becoming the site of serious criminal investigations into underage sex trafficking. After his death, the townhouse was sold in 2021 for around $51 million, though its legacy—rooted in education and later tainted by abuse—remains a deeply complex chapter in New York’s architectural and social history.


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