LET'S GO ON A GROUP TOUR OF THE MOUNT VERNON MUSEUM & GARDEN

Let's go on a group tour to the Mount Vernon Hotel Museum and Garden on Saturday June 7th from 1pm - 2:30pm. This will be a special tour of this historical museum provided by two docents. They are opening the Museum on a Saturday just for our Social Club, and 15 Members will have the chance to see a part of New York City history that is over 200 years old, right in the middle of Manhattan!

COST: $20 per person. This includes admission to the Museum, and the cost of the Group Tour.

THE EVENT: We will step back in time and take a guided tour through fully furnished period rooms and their beautiful garden. This amazing and mostly unknown Museum, right in the middle of Manhattan was constructed in 1799 as a carriage house and then converted into a hotel in 1826. The Museum will transport us back to the Mount Vernon Hotel, a country escape for New Yorkers living in the crowded city of Manhattan. We will hear the story of the building's period as a day hotel in the 1820s and 1830s, and our tour will touch on aspects of political and social history, the decorative, arts, culinary history, and New York City history.

HISTORY

#### Discover one of the last 18th-century buildings in Manhattan, and one of New York City's historical treasures. The landmarked Mount Vernon Hotel Museum & Garden.

#####

Constructed in 1799 as a carriage house for a 23-acre estate, and converted into the Mount Vernon Hotel in 1826, this stone building sits on land originally owned by Colonel William Stephens Smith, and his wife Abigail Adams Smith, daughter of John Adams. This fashionable country resort was popular among New Yorkers who wished to escape the hustle and bustle of the city which at that time extended only as far north as 14th Street. The Hotel advertised itself as “free from the noise and dust of the public roads, and fitted up and intended for only the most genteel and respectable” clientele. In those days, one could take the stagecoach or steamboat up to 61st street and spend the day at the hotel sipping lemonade in the ladies parlor or playing cards in the gentlemen’s tavern. In 1833, the house became the home for three generations of a New York City family. In 1905, as the area became more industrialized, the building was purchased by Standard Gas Light Company (today’s Con Edison). The Colonial Dames of America (CDA), a women’s lineage society committed to historic education and preservation, purchased the building in 1924. After extensive restoration to the structure, CDA opened the site to the public in 1939. The building endures as a rare reminder of an important era in New York City’s history.