Schuyler Mansion - History

History

Schuyler began acquiring the land around the mansion site by 1760. Most of the house's construction took place while he was in England at the behest of his mentor John Bradstreet. Schuyler called the home "The Pasture" because of the pasture view towards the Hudson River. Schuyler and his wife raised eight of their eleven children in the house which originally included 80 acres (32 ha) of land. The house was visited by several notable figures including George Washington and served as a host and prison to British General John Burgoyne for several days after his defeat at the Battle of Saratoga. On December 14, 1780, the mansion was the site of the marriage between Alexander Hamilton and Schuyler's daughter Elizabeth. On August 7, 1781, Native Americans raided the mansion in an unsuccessful Loyalist attempt to kidnap Schuyler.

After Philip Schuyler's death in 1804, the land comprised over one hundred building lots which were divided among his numerous children. From 1886 to 1913, the mansion served as an orphanage until the state assumed ownership.

It was restored and dedicated as an historic monument on October 17, 1917.

Read more about this topic:  Schuyler Mansion

Famous quotes containing the word history:

    The visual is sorely undervalued in modern scholarship. Art history has attained only a fraction of the conceptual sophistication of literary criticism.... Drunk with self-love, criticism has hugely overestimated the centrality of language to western culture. It has failed to see the electrifying sign language of images.
    Camille Paglia (b. 1947)

    There is no example in history of a revolutionary movement involving such gigantic masses being so bloodless.
    Leon Trotsky (1879–1940)

    Most events recorded in history are more remarkable than important, like eclipses of the sun and moon, by which all are attracted, but whose effects no one takes the trouble to calculate.
    Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)