5. An 18th Century Mile Marker Stands on the Property
A mile marker on the north-east side of the property dates to 1769. The stone was once located on Kingsbridge Road, a road that stretched all the way up to Albany, and what we know today as St. Nicholas Road by the mansion. The mile marking system measured the distance from downtown New York starting at City Hall in Lower Manhattan. This particular marker once sat at the 11th-mile mark. A plaque was added to the marker in 1912 by The City History Club and it was relocated to the grounds of the Morris-Jumel mansion for safekeeping. The plaque notes a shift in the mile mark’s location after City Hall was moved.
After the American Revolution, the mansion was briefly turned into a tavern. On July 10th, 1790, George Washington returned to the mansion, then a tavern, for a celebratory dinner with his cabinet Secretaries and their spouses. Future presidents John Adams and Thomas Jefferson were all in attendance, as well as Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton.