Jeffrey Epstein's Former NYC Town House Used To Be A School (5/21/26)

The Vault: The Epstein Files · May 21, 2026 · 14m · transcript

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…