Tag «Aaron Burr»

New York City’s Pristine Collect Pond Was a Fresh Water Source for New Yorkers for Nearly Two Hundred Years. What Happened to it?

Once, where now large buildings crowd downtown Manhattan, a substantial and beautiful pond spread out in a pristine valley between the forested countryside. Collect Pond, or Fresh Water Pond, was a body of fresh water near the southern tip of Manhattan in New York City, that covered approximately 48 acres (194,000 m²) and ran as …

Westchester County New York, Neutral Ground in the American Revolution Suffered Their Own Horrific War

At the start of the American Revolution, the county of Westchester was the richest and most populous of the rural counties of New York. By war’s end, most of the county, especially a twenty-mile-wide region labeled the neutral ground, would be totally devastated. Farms were abandoned and entire communities became ghost towns. Roads were vacant …

The Morris Jumel Mansion: Washington’s Headquarters at Harlem Heights, New York, 1776

The Colonel Roger Morris House is the oldest remaining residence in New York City, built in 1765. Compared to other major cities of the world, New York City ranks among the lowest in the preservation of its architectural culture. The Morris House, unlike the rest of the colonial estates that dotted Manhattan Island, survived for …