They lost it
through their allegiance to the royal cause, all their American real
estate being confiscated by the New York assembly. The mansion became
in time the residence of that remarkable woman who, from a barefoot
girl in Providence, R.I., had grown up to be the wife of a Frenchman
named Jumel; and to be the object of much admiration, and the subject
of some scandal. In her widowhood she received under this roof Aaron
Burr, after his duel with Hamilton (whose neighbouring country-house
still exists, in Convent Avenue), and under this roof she and
Burr--both in their old age--were united in marriage. I imagine that
some of the ghosts that haunt this mansion, if they might be got in a
corner, would yield their interviewers a quaint reminiscence or two.
The grounds appertaining to the house have been sadly diminished by
the opening of new streets; yet it is still a fine, striking landmark,
perched to be seen afar, as from the railroad trains that follow the
East bank of the Harlem, or, better, from West 155th Street at and
about its junction with St. Nicholas Place and the Speedway. At the
time when I left New York for a temporary residence in the Old World,
there was talk of moving the house to a less commanding, but still
eminent, height that crowns the bluff rising from the Speedway: the
owner was compelled, it was said, to avail himself of the increased
value of the land whereon it stood.
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