“A Pleasant situated Farm, on the Road leading to King’s Bridge, in the Township of Harlem, on YorkIsland, containing about 100 acres, near 30 acres of which is Wood-land, a fine piece of Meadow Ground, and more easily be made: and commands the finest Prospect in the whole Country: the Land runs from River to River: there is Fishing, Oystering, and Claming at either end. …”

When, in 1765, Roger Morris, whose city house was at the corner of Whitehall and Stone streets, saw this advertisement in the New York Mercury, he hungered for the country. So he bought the offered land, and by the summer of 1766 he had completed the sturdy Georgian house that, after a century and a half, looks down on the city that has grown to it and beyond it.

In an advertisement published in 1792, in the New York Daily Advertiser, a pleasing description of the mansion of Roger Morris was given:

“On the premises is a large dwelling-house, built in modern style and taste and elegance. It has … a large hall through the centre; a spacious dining room on the right. … On the left is a handsome parlor and a large back room. … On the second floor are seven bedchambers. … On the upper floor are five lodging rooms … and at the top of the house is affixed an electric conducter. Underneath the building are a large, commodious kitchen and laundry and wine cellar, storeroom, kitchen pantry, sleeping apartments for servants, and a most complete dairy room. …”