Above: the Morris-Jumel Mansion (Postcard courtesy NYPL)
If we piqued your interest in last week’s episode on Gracie Mansion, this weekend is an excellent opportunity to check it out along with a couple dozen of the oldest and most famous homes in the New York City area.
The Historic House Festival is a weekend long welcome mat to how the other half used to live, with events planned in all five boroughs.
We’ve mentioned most of these places on this blog and on prior podcasts, and now’s your chance to check to them out for free.
Check out the official Historic House Trust website for events and times.
The special nighttime tour of Gracie Mansion is TONIGHT (Friday, Sept, 24) Make your reservation by contacting DToole@cityhall.nyc.gov.
If you can’t make that one, there are lots of other locations to recommend, including wine tasting at the Morris-Jumel Mansion and an old-time baseball game (played with 19th century rules) next to the Revolutionary War era Old Stone House.
A great many of these homes made my list A History of New York In 100 Buildings. Read up on the following homes, then go check them out for free this weekend. On top of the aforementioned houses, there’s also the Merchant’s House in Manhattan (home to a ghost), the Wyckoff Farmhouse in Brooklyn, the John Bowne House in Queens, the Voorlezer’s House (part of old Richmondtown) and the Conference House in Staten Island, and the Van Cortlandt House Museum in the Bronx.