Richmond Hill (Manhattan)

The house stood southeast of the modern intersection of Varick and Charlton Streets and some 100 to 150 yards west of the informal footpath that crossed the ditch in Lispenard's Meadows with a plank, and connected the city with Greenwich Village, which lay north and east of Richmond Hill.

[3] The estate served for a time following April 13, 1776, as the headquarters of George Washington, until the retreat of the Continental army from New York after the battle of Long Island, August 27.

The house stands upon an eminence: at an agreeable distance flows the noble Hudson, bearing upon its bosom innumerable small vessels laden with the fruitful productions of the adjacent country.

He has daughters—if you could think of some little present to send to one of them (a pair of earrings for example) it would please him.On the morning of July 11, 1804, Burr arose from Richmond Hill and had himself ferried across the Hudson to his fateful duel with Alexander Hamilton.

[5] In the meantime, in December 1820 Astor had the house set upon logs and rolled down the hill to the southeast corner of Varick and Charlton Streets.

During the time that the mansion was in existence, the surrounding neighborhood, built up from the 1820s by Astor as modest brick rowhouses, was also called Richmond Hill, connected to the city through the former water meadow, now drained and filled, as a continuation of Canal Street.