Morris-Jumel Mansion
65 Jumel Terrace | Washington Heights | built 1765
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The city photographed every building for its tax records around 1940 and again in the 1980s. NYC Municipal Archives.
Written with AI from the source each entry cites, then fact-checked.
- 1765
British officer Roger Morris builds a country house on the heights
Roger Morris, a British army officer and member of New York's colonial legislative council, built the house in 1765 atop what is now Coogan's Bluff, with views reaching to the Hudson, the Harlem River and Long Island Sound. He lived there with his wife, Mary Philipse, until 1775, when he left for England at the start of the war. New York confiscated the property in 1779.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1776
George Washington makes the mansion his headquarters
George Washington entered the house on the night of September 14–15, 1776, choosing it because its height let him watch for approaching enemy troops. It served as his headquarters until late October, with about 8,000 soldiers camped nearby. British forces captured the mansion on November 16, 1776, and held it until they evacuated New York in 1783.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1785
The confiscated Morris house becomes a stagecoach tavern called Calumet Hall
After the Revolution the house passed through several owners, and in 1785 Talmage Hall began running it as a tavern called Calumet Hall. It was the first tavern travelers met after leaving the city on the Albany Post Road, so its advertisements stressed that it was the old Morris house and promised stagecoach travel north into upstate New York and New England. One visitor judged the octagonal parlor well suited to a turtle party. Hall had to sell the tavern by June 1788.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1790
President Washington returns to his old headquarters for a dinner with his cabinet
On July 10, 1790, George Washington came back to the house where he had made his headquarters in 1776. By then it was a tavern, and he dined there with members of his cabinet. Untapped New York names Thomas Jefferson, John Adams and Alexander Hamilton among the guests.
Source: Untapped New York
- 1810
Stephen Jumel buys the former Morris estate
In 1810, French wine merchant Stephen Jumel buys the former Morris estate for $10,000 and in 1825 deeds it to his wife, Eliza. Stephen dies in 1832 after a carriage accident, and Eliza and her family keep the house until 1887, after which it changes hands twice more before the city buys it in 1903.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1833
Eliza Jumel marries Aaron Burr in the mansion's parlor
Merchant Stephen Jumel bought the house in 1810 for $10,000. His widow, Eliza Jumel, married Aaron Burr in the parlor on July 3, 1833; the marriage was short, ending in divorce in 1836. Eliza stayed in the house with one servant until her death in 1865. The city bought it in 1903, and it opened as a museum in 1907.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1862
The Chase family leaves the mansion after Eliza Jumel's great-nephew hurls an inkstand at her portrait
The Chase family, who had been living in the mansion with the aging Eliza Jumel, left in 1862 after a quarrel in which her great-nephew hurled an inkstand at her portrait. Eliza and a single male servant stayed on until her death in 1865. Few visitors came and the house began to decay, and the historian William Henry Shelton wrote that she was often seen in tattered dresses, entertaining imaginary visitors.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1903
Patriotic women petition the city to buy the old mansion, and the city does
When the mansion went on the market in 1903, a group of patriotic women asked New York City to purchase the house and its grounds so they would be preserved. The city agreed and bought the property. A special act of the legislature gave custody to the Washington Headquarters Association, an organization founded by the Daughters of the American Revolution, which restored the house and ran it as a museum. The city still owns it through the Parks Department.
- 1907
The mansion opens to the public as a city museum
New York City buys the mansion and its grounds for $235,000 in 1903, creating Roger Morris Park the same year. The Washington Headquarters Association, formed in March 1904, oversees the site, and on May 29, 1907, opens the house to the public as a museum with Civil War veteran Kady Brownell as its first custodian. A colonial-style gateway matching the original is added in 1913.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1967
The Landmarks Commission designates the mansion and calls it one of the few 18th-century houses left in the city
On July 12, 1967, the Landmarks Preservation Commission designated the Morris-Jumel Mansion, then listed at West 160th Street and Edgecombe Avenue, as a city landmark. Its report called the house a superb example of Georgian architecture and one of the finest historic house-museum shrines in America. It also noted that the columned portico, though it looks Federal in style, belongs to the original house, and that the mansion holds belongings of Morris, Washington, Madame Jumel and Aaron Burr.
“…the Morris-Jumel Mansion is a superb example of Georgian architecture, that it is one of the few Eighteenth Century houses left in New York City…”
- 1976
Queen Elizabeth II tours the mansion's grounds during the Bicentennial
In July 1976, as the United States marked its Bicentennial, Queen Elizabeth II visited the Morris-Jumel Mansion and toured its grounds and historic gardens. The visit carried some irony: the house was built in 1765 by a British colonel, Roger Morris, and British and Hessian officers occupied it after George Washington left in late 1776.
Source: Untapped New York
- 2013
A draft of the Olive Branch Petition turns up in the attic
In 2013, an intern finds a manuscript draft of the 1775 Olive Branch Petition, the colonies' last formal appeal to King George III before independence, while cleaning out the mansion's attic. The museum's executive director has it sold at auction for more than $912,500 to help fund an endowment. The discovery comes more than two centuries after George Washington used the house as his wartime headquarters and renews interest in its Revolutionary history.
Source: Wikipedia
- 2015
Lin-Manuel Miranda writes parts of Hamilton at the mansion where Aaron Burr married
Lin-Manuel Miranda wrote portions of the musical Hamilton at the Morris-Jumel Mansion in 2015, in the house where Aaron Burr had married Eliza Jumel in 1833. The museum's director, Carol Ward, estimated that the show may have lifted attendance by 75 percent in 2016.
“Lin-Manuel Miranda wrote portions of Hamilton at the Morris–Jumel Mansion in 2015…”
Source: Wikipedia
Further reading
- Morris–Jumel MansionWikipedia
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