Manhattan’s oldest house revived its tavern history for an America 250 fundraiser
The Morris-Jumel Mansion in Washington Heights held Tavern Night on July 25, an America 250 fundraiser celebrating the site's 18th-century tavern history.
Manhattan’s oldest house revived its tavern history for an America 250 fundraiser
The Morris-Jumel Mansion in Washington Heights held Tavern Night on July 25, an America 250 fundraiser celebrating the site's 18th-century tavern history.
The oldest house in Manhattan spent one night this summer doing what it did more than two centuries ago: pouring drinks for a crowd. On Saturday, July 25, the Morris-Jumel Mansion in Washington Heights held Tavern Night, an after-hours fundraiser built around the years when the historic house operated as a tavern, inn, and stagecoach stop.
The event, first reported by Harlem World Magazine, ran from 6 to 9 p.m. at 65 Jumel Terrace and kicked off the mansion’s America 250 programming, the nationwide run-up to the 250th anniversary of the country’s founding. Proceeds go to the mansion’s exhibitions, educational programming, and preservation.
After the Revolutionary War, the Morris-Jumel Mansion operated as a tavern, inn, and stagecoach stop between roughly 1783 and 1810, feeding and watering travelers moving through the top of Manhattan. One of those diners was George Washington, who came back to eat at the property in 1789 and 1790. That’s the same house that had served as Washington’s headquarters during the war itself, which makes it one of the few buildings in the country to have been both a general’s command post and, a few years later, the spot where he stopped for dinner.
Built in 1765, the mansion is Manhattan’s oldest surviving residence and has sat through more than 260 years of city history. Tavern Night leaned into…
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