Roger Morris Park

Roger Morris Park is a one-acre park in Washington Heights surrounding the Morris-Jumel Mansion, the oldest surviving house in Manhattan. The park is named for Colonel Roger Morris, the British military officer who built the mansion as a summer villa in 1765 on one of the highest points on the island.

Morris chose the hilltop site for its commanding views, which in the 18th century extended in every direction across Manhattan, the Hudson River, the Harlem River, and Long Island Sound. The strategic value of this elevated position was recognized during the Revolutionary War, when both American and British forces used the mansion as a headquarters.

The park grounds, though modest in size, provide a green setting for the mansion and preserve the sense of elevation that made the site significant. Mature trees and landscaped pathways surround the house, creating an atmosphere of 18th-century gentility in the heart of a 21st-century urban neighborhood.

The surrounding Washington Heights neighborhood is one of the most vibrant in upper Manhattan, with a predominantly Dominican-American population that has given the area a distinctive cultural energy. The park and mansion sit within this community as a connection to an earlier era of Manhattan history.

Roger Morris Park and the Morris-Jumel Mansion together form one of the most significant historic sites in Manhattan, connecting visitors to the colonial era, the Revolution, and the long arc of Manhattan's transformation from a rural landscape of estates and farms to the dense urban island of today.