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:
“Throughout the history of commercial life nobody has ever quite liked the commission man. His function is too vague, his presence always seems one too many, his profit looks too easy, and even when you admit that he has a necessary function, you feel that this function is, as it were, a personification of something that in an ethical society would not need to exist. If people could deal with one another honestly, they would not need agents.”
—Raymond Chandler (1888–1959)
“The reverence for the Scriptures is an element of civilization, for thus has the history of the world been preserved, and is preserved.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“I saw the Arab map.
It resembled a mare shuffling on,
dragging its history like saddlebags,
nearing its tomb and the pitch of hell.”
—Adonis [Ali Ahmed Said] (b. 1930)