This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1879 Excerpt: ...While Gouverneur Morris was building his home in Morrisania, Alexander Hamilton was planning and projecting a country seat on the upper part of Manhattan Island, which he called " The Grange," from the ancestral seat of his grandfather in Ayrshire, Scotland. The house is situated upon an elevation of nearly two hundred ...
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This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1879 Excerpt: ...While Gouverneur Morris was building his home in Morrisania, Alexander Hamilton was planning and projecting a country seat on the upper part of Manhattan Island, which he called " The Grange," from the ancestral seat of his grandfather in Ayrshire, Scotland. The house is situated upon an elevation of nearly two hundred feet above and about half way between the Hudson and Harlem Rivers, on what is now known as Washington Heights. It commands, through vistas, delightful views of Harlem River and Plains, East River, Long Island, and the fertile fields of Morrisania. It is just within the outer lines of the intrenchments thrown up by the Americans in 1776. At the time of its erection it was completely in the country, some eight miles north from the city limits. Hamilton completed and removed his family to this mansion in 1802. It stands now, in an architectural point of view, precisely as he left it on that fatal morning when he went to Weehawken to meet Aaron Burr, with the exception of the wear of Time's bleak winds for three fourths of a century. It is a square wooden structure of two stories, with large, roomy basement, ornamental balustrades, and immense chimney-stacks. The timber for the house is said to have been a present from Mrs. Hamilton's father, General Philip Schuyler, whose Albany home has been illustrated on a former page. It is constructed in a style befitting the character of the illustrious man who was to dwell under its broad roof, its rooms spacious and numerous, and its workmanship solid and substantial. The doors of the drawing-rooms were mirrors; and until recently a quaint, old-fashioned, round dining-table, which was made for the dining-room by order of Hamilton, has remained as one of the fixtures of the house. While living ...
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