Morris Mansion and Mill

Transcription

In Roger Morris Park, high on a hilltop in Northern Manhattan, sits the Morris Jumel Mansion, the borough’s oldest surviving house. In 1776, George Washington and the Continental Army commandeered the Georgian mansion, which had been built as a summer home by loyalist Roger Morris a decade prior. Since the revolution, the city has enveloped this once rural estate both notable and notorious Americans once called home. Now the historic house is a museum. Its doors are open to visitors and its grounds are a respite from modern urban life. The minute you step foot in this park, it’s totally quiet and peaceful. It’s just my favorite spot in New York. You can step into this space and feel like you’re being transported back to another time. I walked into the house and was shocked that a house as beautiful as this and as old as this would still be in existence in the middle of Washington Heights. I think it’s great it’s still here. You know, a lot of things have been knocked down around the city, and I think it’s terrific that we can still enjoy it. It’s a great treasure for New York and one that we could never afford to lose. The trees are older than we are. So if trees could talk, if this house could talk… On the tour, we had an excellent docent who gave us the history of the house: the original owners, how and why they built it, how this was a summer home because they lived in downtown Manhattan. And then they sold it, and it went back to England because of the revolution. A second owner bought it was French and his wife was a notorious woman who eventually married Aaron Burr. So there’s so much history here it’s mind-boggling to me. This place is full of spirits. You have spirits of present and you have the spirits of the past. Washington sat at the table with Jefferson, Adams, John Quincy Adams, Alexander Hamilton, Henry Knox. This is quite a significant gathering of men. Morris Jumel Mansion does a great deal of programming for both children and for adults. Today, we’re going to have our annual jazz festival, which is sponsored by Parlor Entertainment. Every year, we bring a group of musicians here to share the love of African American classical musi, and we have our friends and neighbors, old people and new people, locals, our friends here in Harlem and basically people from all over the world. My friends and I thought it would be lovely to come up here and have a picnic and listen to some jazz. And there’s no place more fitting than here, right in the area where most of the jazz musicians live from here on down to 110th street. This is just a great place to play. We have a nice little breeze. Some people like to sit in the grass in this park and bring their picnic lunch and bring the kids. The beauty of the ambiance and being around the other musicians and fellowshipping. All of that is electrifying. The city has a great bunch of free stuff that you just need to find out about and then you can make use of it. We’re just really glad to be here. It’s just a wonderful treasure in New York City and this park. My name is Rudel Dreres and Roger Morris Park is my park.