Historic buildings in northern part of Manhattan

We take the subway up almost to the northern tip of Manhattan – here we will go out and have a look at some of the old historic buildings of the island. The area at the northern end of Manhattan is very different from the southern part of the island. Up here are none of the skyscrapers of the southern bit and up here many older buildings has survived till this day.

Our first stop is the Morris-Jumel Mansion which is actually the oldest house which has survived on Manhattan. It is build back in 1765 and actually played a small part in the American revolution since George Washington used the house as his headquarter for a short while. Washington only used the house as his headquarter for a short while since he became concerned about getting isolated on the English navy on Manhattan – so the continental army retreated from Manhattan to fight on the continent instead where the English navy couldn’t cut off the route of supply. The house is interesting and fortunately we came during a special weekend where there was open house so the entrance was free.

Front of the house

People dancing in front

Old furniture inside

Old table

the bed

Just opposite the Morris-Jumel Mansion is a little row of old houses which is actually worth a photo stop as well if you have made it all the way up here – it is actually hard to miss the old row of houses if you find the mansion.

We continue our journey through the old quarters of Manhattan – the next little stop is Hamilton Grange which is the old home of Alexander Hamilton. We get off subway close to his old house and walk towards it. On the way to the house we walk by an interesting old church and along the road there are a lot of old brown stone houses which give a good indication of what Manhattan used to look like before the buildings grew in height. We accidently walk a bit too far down the road and end in New York City College which is houses in some nice buildings close to Hamilton’s old house. We walk back from the college and make the turn to the house. The building is pretty nice from the outside – but unfortunately there is only access on a tour. The tour is free but the next tour is fully booked and we don’t want to wait more than an hour for the next tour so we skip the inside of the house.

Row houses

Church

Row houses

Old gas lamppost

Hamilton house

New York City College

New York City College

New York City College

We wonder the neighborhood and get to a little park on the west side of Manhattan – here down close to the Hudson River is a special monument. It is the Grant Tomb which is the biggest mausoleum in USA and built for the former general and president. The tomb is a national monument and the entrance is free so we head inside and see the sarcophagus of General Grant and his wife.

Grant Mausoleum

Roof inside

The hall inside

We are done exploring the history of the northern end of Manhattan and decide we have to go inside Central Park – just because you can’t visit New York and not go inside Central Park. So we head to the Columbia Circle right at the corner of the park and on the way inside the park we accidently spot Trump Tower – I guess the guy like to set his name on stuff. We step inside the park and then walk right back out. We walk down Broadway towards Times Square for a New York moment and then on the way we walk by a Junior’s which specialize in cheese cake so we get a New York cheese cake to finish off the day.