The consulate’s mission is to provide protection and administrative services to French citizens living or traveling in the district. Under the authority of the French Embassy in the United States, its consular district extends across three states (New York, Connecticut, and New Jersey), as well as the British Overseas Territory of Bermuda.
Currently housing the consulate general of France, 934 Fifth Avenue was the residence of Charles E. Mitchell, President of the National City Bank (now Citibank). Anne-Claire Legendre has been the consul general since August 2016.
While residing at 934 Fifth Avenue, from 1925 to 1933, Mitchell served as informal advisor to American Presidents Warren G. Harding and Herbert Hoover. But the prestige of this address owed in great part to his wife, Elizabeth Mitchell, who hosted numerous musical evenings at the house. Musicians such as George Gershwin, Fritz Kreisler, Rudolph Ganz, Ignay Padrewski, or José Iturbi regularly gave recitals in the “Pink Room” at 934 Fifth Avenue.
In the early 1930s, following the stock exchange crash and investigations on his financial activities, Charles E. Mitchell lost most of his fortune and had to give up his residence. Number 934 is the only survivor of the seven townhouses that formerly lined this block. Within 50 years, the first houses built in the 1880s were replaced by equally luxurious large apartment buildings. The Charles E. Mitchell House was preserved thanks to the decision of the French government, which acquired it in 1942 and made it the official consulate general building.
Before the consulate
As historic partners, France and the United States have maintained ties of friendship and cooperation since the first days of the American nation. The first French consular representation was established in Philadelphia in 1778. As soon as 1783, a French consulate was founded in New York, the first consulate to be established in this city. Saint John de Crèvecoeur became the first consul. However, very little information is available on the buildings that housed the consulate over the 18th centuries.
During the First World War, the French consulate general in New York City was located at 8 Bridge Street, Manhattan.[1]
From 1933 to 1942, the consulate general of France was located at Rockefeller Center, at 640 Fifth Avenue. As prestigious as this address was, it was decided, in 1941, to acquire another building that could house the offices and residence of the consul. In 1942, 934 Fifth Avenue became French property. But it wasn’t until 1943, after Franco-American relationships were reestablished (following an interruption under the Vichy regime), that consular affairs resumed with the French resistance representatives.
In keeping with the spirit of its founders, Charles E. Mitchell and his wife, who conceived the 934 as a place for culture, with an emphasis on literature and music, the consulate has perpetuated this tradition and welcomes, every year, numerous receptions involving the French community. The consulate hosts up to 150 events every year, including the monthly Conferences@934, which bring together French and American speakers.
List of the consuls general of France in New York City
The successive consuls have been:
Consul general
Decree of nomination
J. Hector St John de Crèvecoeur
1783
Antoine-René-Charles-Mathurin de La Forest (interim)
Anne-Claire Legendre took up the position of consul general of France in New York on August 29, 2016. She is the first woman to hold this position. As consul general, Legendre is in charge of promoting the influence and appeal of France across the tri-state area of New York, Connecticut, and New Jersey, as well as Bermuda. She serves a community of 80,000 French citizens, whose vitality actively contributes to the visibility of France in the United States.
A native of Brittany, Legendre is 37 years old. She graduated from the Institut d’Etudes Politiques in Paris, and holds degrees from Institut National des Langues et Civilisations Orientales (in Arabic) and the University of Sorbonne-Nouvelle in Paris (in modern languages and literature).
Legendre previously served at the French embassy in Yemen in 2005-2006, before joining the Direction of the French Abroad at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, where she contributed to develop consular cooperation between member states from the European Union.
From 2008 to 2010, she was in charge of bilateral relations with Algeria as part of the Direction of North Africa and the Middle East. She was then appointed to the Permanent Mission of France to the United Nations, where she served under the current French Ambassador to the United States, Gérard Araud, until 2013. As the Arab Spring upheavals placed the Middle East at the center of attention, she supervised negotiations on Syria, Lebanon, Israel and the Palestinian Territories, and Iraq, at the Security Council of the United Nations.
In 2013, she was called to the cabinet of the Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Development, Laurent Fabius, where she served as Advisor on North Africa and the Middle East.
Honorary consulates
The consulate general of France supervises four honorary consuls located respectively in the following towns:
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↑ (en) Abraham Phineas Nasatir et Gary Elwyn Monell, French Consuls in the United States: A Calendar of Their Correspondence in the Archives Nationales, Washington, Bibliothèque du Congrès, 1967, in-8°, XII-606 p.
Bibliography
Anthony W. Robins et Cécile Girardeau (trad. Lynda Stringer, photogr. Gary Landsman), Consulat général de France à New York, Paris, Éditions internationales du patrimoine, coll. «Résidences de France», 2013, 175 p. ( ISBN979-10-90756-07-6)
(en) Michael C. Kathrens, Great Houses of New York: 1880-1930, Acanthus Press, coll. «Urban Domestic Architecture Series», 2005 ( ISBN0-926494-34-1), p.371–372
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