History
Roger Morris and Mary Philipse lived in the mansion for ten years. It was from 1765 to 1775, when the war started. They got married in the parlor, which can be seen today.
Between September 14 and October 20, 1776, General George Washington used the mansion as his temporary headquarters after he and his army were forced to evacuate Brooklyn Heights following their loss to the British Army under the command of General William Howe in the Battle of Long Island.
This house is one of the major remaining landmarks of Battle of Harlem Heights, after which it became the headquarters of British Lieutenant General Sir Henry Clinton, and the Hessian commander Baron Wilhelm von Knyphausen. The Morris-Jumel Mansion later hosted many other distinguished visitors, including dinner guests John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton and John Quincy Adams.
Stephen Jumel and his wife Eliza Jumel purchased the house in 1810. After Stephen's death, Eliza married the controversial ex-vice president Aaron Burr who lived at the house briefly in the 1830s. After Burr's death in 1836, Eliza lived in the house alone until she died in 1865. In 1882, the Morris heirs broke up the 115 acres (0.47 km2) of the estate into 1058 lots.
On a rocky eminence overlooking one of the rivers, Fitz-Greene Halleck wrote his famous lines on the Greek patriot “Marco Bozzaris.”
The house was purchased by New York City in 1903.
The house was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1961.
Read more about this topic: Morris-Jumel Mansion
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