Leonard Jerome

Leonard Walter Jerome (November 3, 1817 – March 3, 1891) was an American financier active in Brooklyn, New York. He was born in Pompey, Onondaga County, New York, the son of Aurora (née Murray) Jerome and Isaac Jerome. He was one of nine sons and one daughter in the family. His father, Isaac, was a descendant of Timothy Jerome, a French Huguenot immigrant who arrived in the New York Colony in 1717. Leonard Jerome's paternal grandmother was Betsy Ball, a relative of George Washington, and his maternal ancestry was Scottish.

Jerome initially enrolled at Princeton University, then known as the College of New Jersey, as a member of the Class of 1839, but later transferred to Union College. There, he studied law with his uncle, known as Judge Jerome, and established a legal practice in Rochester, New York. Subsequently, he moved to New York City where he engaged in stock speculation and investment activities.

As a stock speculator, Jerome achieved considerable success, earning the nickname "The King of Wall Street." He held interests in various railroad companies and frequently partnered with noted financier Cornelius Vanderbilt. Jerome also supported the arts; he participated in founding the Academy of Music, an early opera house in New York City. During the New York Draft Riots of 1863, Jerome defended the New York Times office building with a Gatling Gun. Although he held significant holdings in the newspaper, he was not the majority shareholder.

Jerome’s residence, known as the Jerome Mansion, was located at the corner of Madison Avenue and 26th Street. The mansion featured a theater with 600 seats, a breakfast room for seventy, and a ballroom with fountains that discharged champagne and cologne. It offered a view of Madison Square Park and was demolished in 1967. The mansion was later used by private clubs.

He was an avid sportsman, engaging in yachting with William K. Vanderbilt and supporting thoroughbred horse racing; he was among the founders of the American Jockey Club and was involved in the establishment of Jerome Park Racetrack in Westchester County, where the first Belmont Stakes took place in 1867. He purchased the estate and mansion of James Bathgate near Old Fordham Village in 1866, and with August Belmont Sr., built Jerome Park Racetrack.

Jerome became a Brooklyn resident, and along with Vanderbilt and other investors, founded the Coney Island Jockey Club, which built the Sheepshead Bay Race Track in 1884. The race track was later replaced by the Kingsbridge Armory after the original estate and mansion were razed.

In his personal life, Jerome married Clarissa Hall on April 5, 1849. The couple had four daughters: Camille (who died young), Jeanette, Clarita, and Leonie. His daughters married into prominent families; notably, Jeanette married Lord Randolph Churchill, becoming Winston Churchill's mother. Clarita married Moreton Frewen, and Leonie married Sir John Leslie. Jerome’s family spent considerable time in Europe, where his daughters mingled with aristocracy.

It has been rumored that Jerome was the father of operatic singer Minnie Hauk. In the 1860s, he had an affair with Fanny Ronalds, with whom he later maintained a friendship. Leonard Jerome died in Brighton, England, at age 73, in 1891. He was initially buried at Kensal Green Cemetery in London, later reinterred at Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn.

Multiple landmarks are named after Jerome, including Jerome Avenue in the Bronx and Brooklyn, the Jerome Park Reservoir, and the Jerome Stakes. In 2023, he was posthumously inducted into the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame as a Pillar of the Turf for his contributions to thoroughbred racing.