The first woman in America to be made a papal countess.
Countess Annie Leary was the daughter of a hatter named James Leary, whose shop was downtown at the corner of Broadway and Vesey Streets. He was hatter to John Jacob Astor, from whom he bought a lot of beaver pelts. Mr. Leary made more money than one might think possible in the chapeau business.
Countess Annie (her title was papal, a testament to her many philanthropies) was one of Mr. Leary's six children and a very big spender. She lived in a grand limestone mansion at 1032 Fifth Avenue and had a summer residence in Newport, RI (now an Elks Lodge). She gave spectacular parties and was crazy about gilt-framed mirrors. She owned 68 of them, each more enormous than the last. Her closest friend appears to have been miser/millionaire Hetty Green, from whom she once borrowed $350,000 and to whom she paid arm-and-a-leg interest. The Countess was a good sport, however, and later arranged the debut of Mrs. Green's daughter, Sylvia.
Countess Annie Leary gave New York the Christopher Columbus monument at Columbus Circle, and spent $1 million on a chapel in the courtyard of old Bellevue Hospital. It was named after her brother, Arthur.
When she died, in 1919, she left $200,000 to the Archbishop of New York for the building of a sacristy connected with St. Patrick's Cathedral, and a vault beneath its altar. The vault was to accommodate eight: Countess Annie and her family.
The executor of Countess Annie's will, a niece who didn't like her very much, was up to dealing with the minutiae of the estate - getting the mansion cleaned and the clocks wound and the snow shoveled - but not the big matters, like selling the property and cashing and investing dividend checks.
Lawsuits followed, and by the time the estate was settled in 1926, there was no money left for the sacristy and the vault that was to house the Learys. And that is why Countess Annie is still entombed in the basement of Old St. Patrick's, with only a name to mark her dwelling place.
Countess Annie Leary was the daughter of a hatter named James Leary, whose shop was downtown at the corner of Broadway and Vesey Streets. He was hatter to John Jacob Astor, from whom he bought a lot of beaver pelts. Mr. Leary made more money than one might think possible in the chapeau business.
Countess Annie (her title was papal, a testament to her many philanthropies) was one of Mr. Leary's six children and a very big spender. She lived in a grand limestone mansion at 1032 Fifth Avenue and had a summer residence in Newport, RI (now an Elks Lodge). She gave spectacular parties and was crazy about gilt-framed mirrors. She owned 68 of them, each more enormous than the last. Her closest friend appears to have been miser/millionaire Hetty Green, from whom she once borrowed $350,000 and to whom she paid arm-and-a-leg interest. The Countess was a good sport, however, and later arranged the debut of Mrs. Green's daughter, Sylvia.
Countess Annie Leary gave New York the Christopher Columbus monument at Columbus Circle, and spent $1 million on a chapel in the courtyard of old Bellevue Hospital. It was named after her brother, Arthur.
When she died, in 1919, she left $200,000 to the Archbishop of New York for the building of a sacristy connected with St. Patrick's Cathedral, and a vault beneath its altar. The vault was to accommodate eight: Countess Annie and her family.
The executor of Countess Annie's will, a niece who didn't like her very much, was up to dealing with the minutiae of the estate - getting the mansion cleaned and the clocks wound and the snow shoveled - but not the big matters, like selling the property and cashing and investing dividend checks.
Lawsuits followed, and by the time the estate was settled in 1926, there was no money left for the sacristy and the vault that was to house the Learys. And that is why Countess Annie is still entombed in the basement of Old St. Patrick's, with only a name to mark her dwelling place.
The first woman in America to be made a papal countess.
Countess Annie Leary was the daughter of a hatter named James Leary, whose shop was downtown at the corner of Broadway and Vesey Streets. He was hatter to John Jacob Astor, from whom he bought a lot of beaver pelts. Mr. Leary made more money than one might think possible in the chapeau business.
Countess Annie (her title was papal, a testament to her many philanthropies) was one of Mr. Leary's six children and a very big spender. She lived in a grand limestone mansion at 1032 Fifth Avenue and had a summer residence in Newport, RI (now an Elks Lodge). She gave spectacular parties and was crazy about gilt-framed mirrors. She owned 68 of them, each more enormous than the last. Her closest friend appears to have been miser/millionaire Hetty Green, from whom she once borrowed $350,000 and to whom she paid arm-and-a-leg interest. The Countess was a good sport, however, and later arranged the debut of Mrs. Green's daughter, Sylvia.
Countess Annie Leary gave New York the Christopher Columbus monument at Columbus Circle, and spent $1 million on a chapel in the courtyard of old Bellevue Hospital. It was named after her brother, Arthur.
When she died, in 1919, she left $200,000 to the Archbishop of New York for the building of a sacristy connected with St. Patrick's Cathedral, and a vault beneath its altar. The vault was to accommodate eight: Countess Annie and her family.
The executor of Countess Annie's will, a niece who didn't like her very much, was up to dealing with the minutiae of the estate - getting the mansion cleaned and the clocks wound and the snow shoveled - but not the big matters, like selling the property and cashing and investing dividend checks.
Lawsuits followed, and by the time the estate was settled in 1926, there was no money left for the sacristy and the vault that was to house the Learys. And that is why Countess Annie is still entombed in the basement of Old St. Patrick's, with only a name to mark her dwelling place.
Countess Annie Leary was the daughter of a hatter named James Leary, whose shop was downtown at the corner of Broadway and Vesey Streets. He was hatter to John Jacob Astor, from whom he bought a lot of beaver pelts. Mr. Leary made more money than one might think possible in the chapeau business.
Countess Annie (her title was papal, a testament to her many philanthropies) was one of Mr. Leary's six children and a very big spender. She lived in a grand limestone mansion at 1032 Fifth Avenue and had a summer residence in Newport, RI (now an Elks Lodge). She gave spectacular parties and was crazy about gilt-framed mirrors. She owned 68 of them, each more enormous than the last. Her closest friend appears to have been miser/millionaire Hetty Green, from whom she once borrowed $350,000 and to whom she paid arm-and-a-leg interest. The Countess was a good sport, however, and later arranged the debut of Mrs. Green's daughter, Sylvia.
Countess Annie Leary gave New York the Christopher Columbus monument at Columbus Circle, and spent $1 million on a chapel in the courtyard of old Bellevue Hospital. It was named after her brother, Arthur.
When she died, in 1919, she left $200,000 to the Archbishop of New York for the building of a sacristy connected with St. Patrick's Cathedral, and a vault beneath its altar. The vault was to accommodate eight: Countess Annie and her family.
The executor of Countess Annie's will, a niece who didn't like her very much, was up to dealing with the minutiae of the estate - getting the mansion cleaned and the clocks wound and the snow shoveled - but not the big matters, like selling the property and cashing and investing dividend checks.
Lawsuits followed, and by the time the estate was settled in 1926, there was no money left for the sacristy and the vault that was to house the Learys. And that is why Countess Annie is still entombed in the basement of Old St. Patrick's, with only a name to mark her dwelling place.
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