Photograph: Senta SundbergBR>
The Morris-Jumel Mansion, on West 160th Street and Edgecombe Avenue, is Manhattan's oldest house, built in 1765 by Lt. Col. Roger Morris. Morris had served in the French and Indian War and was a friend of George Washington. When the American Revolution broke out, Morris, a loyalist, returned to England. The commanding view of Manhattan, the harbor, and Long Island Sound made the mansion an ideal headquarters for General Washington, who occupied it from September 14 to October 21, 1776. When the Colonial army left Manhattan, British and Hessian soldiers moved in.

After the war, it became a tavern called Calumet Hall, where Washington, Thomas Jefferson, ... (more…)

Photo by Senta Sundberg

On Sunday evening, December 22, 1799, 22-year-old Gulielma Sands -- known as Elma Sands -- disappeared. That same evening, she had told her cousins, she was to wed a carpenter, Levi Weeks, who was boarding in the same house. Elma had been living in the home of her cousin Catherine Rings, along with Catherine's sister Hope Sands, for three years. Levi later denied the engagement, claiming he would never wed without his elder brother Ezra's permission.

On Christmas Eve day, two boys found Elma's muff floating in the Manhattan Well near Spring and Greene Streets. The well had been dug for Aaron Burr's Manhattan Company, to provide city water -- and challenge the ... (more…)