Mayor De Blasio and the first family start move to Gracie Mansion

NEW YORK CITY (WABC) -- One of Brooklyn's most famous families: Mayor De Blasio and the first family have started the move to Gracie Mansion, their fancy new Manhattan home.

First lady Chirlane McCray announced the move through her blog #FLONYC writing "Today marks a very important day for our family-the move to Gracie Mansion has begun!"

Among the items being moved is a rocking chair originally owned by Mayor de Blasio's mother, Maria Wilhelm, given to the couple before the birth of Chiara and McCray's mother's sewing table. Both items have special significance to the First Lady:

"When I was a little girl, my mother lamented that there were so few Black dolls available for us. She was determined to do something about it. It took time, but later in her life, undeterred, she sat down at this sewing machine (where she had sewn many of our clothes) and created dolls that reflected what my sisters and I saw in the mirror every day," writes McCray. The First Lady used that same sewing table to make quilts for her family.

The First Lady wrote this about the rocking chair: "Maria spent hours in this chair, rocking and reading to Bill when he was a baby. Chiara and Dante were also soothed by the rocking and the warmth of listening to stories in my lap."

Tours at Gracie will be put on hold next week and resume in September, once the family is settled into the mansion.