THE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY OF NEW YORK 



the grounds, which were highly cultivated. In later years, the 

 country seats of Peter G. Stuyvesant and Nicholas W. Stuyvesant 

 were located on the same property, the former east of ist Avenue, 

 between 8th and 9th Streets, and the latter between 13th and i6th 

 Streets and Avenue A and ist Avenue (in 1816). This part of 

 the island was long known as Stuyvesant Village. 



In 1747, John Watts, son of Robert Watts, purchased a farm of 

 130 acres which he named "Rosehill," after the ancestral seat of 

 Watts in Scotland. The property was bounded by 21st Street on 

 the south, the East River on the east, and stretched along the Post 

 Road to a considerable distance to the north. A broad avenue 

 from the mansion lined with beautiful Elms, extended from the 

 Post Road, the entrance gateway being about the present corner of 

 28th Street and 4th Avenue. 



The district of Murray Hill is named after the Colonial estate 

 of Robert Murray. The mansion faced Kingsbridge Road and 

 commanded a fine view of Kip's Bay and Turtle Bay and the East 

 River. The lawn contained beautiful trees and an avenue of 

 graceful Elms lined the driveway approach to the house. The 

 mansion was burned in 1835. John Murray, son of Robert, 

 maintained a country home on a part of his father's estate in later 

 years, and in 1876, the house was still standing on the southeast 

 corner of 37th Street and 5th Avenue. Lindley Murray, the 

 grammarian, another son, built a country seat soon after the 

 Revolution on the shores of the East River, which he named 

 "Bellevue," and which is now the site of Bellevue Hospital. This 

 was a very beautiful estate, the following being an extract from a 

 description : "At the back of the mansion is a large garden, and be- 

 yond this, pleasant and fertile fields which aft'ord pasturage for the 

 cattle." 



Not far above Murray Hill was the seat of William Beekman, 

 the mansion near the present corner of ist Avenue and 50th 

 Street. 



Much further to the north and far up in Harlem near i6oth 

 Street and Edgecombe Avenue was the Roger Morris mansion, 

 later known as the Jumel Mansion. This house was built by Lt. 

 Col. Roger Morris, Loyalist, for his wife Mary Philipse about 

 1765. Morris was an officer in the British Army and had been 



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