Rose Hill Historic House
You’ve probably never heard of the Rose Hill neighborhood between Kips Bay and Murray Hill. In modern day Manhattan we tend to forget that all of this urban landscape used to be wilderness. There were many farms and forests, even streams running through Greenwich Village! One such neighborhood was Murray Hill, which I always found fascinating due to its history around the Revolutionary War. I lived there from 2006-2009. Did you know that just south of Robert Murray’s estate was a farm called Rose Hill?
An old view of Murray Hill from 1858, Lexington Avenue and East 37th Street
Photo by CUNY Graduate Center Collection
You can sometimes get Google Maps to pull it up
In 1747, John Watts, an early Colonist, bought what was to become Rose Hill Farm from James Delancey. It bounded 23rd Street to the south, 32nd Street to the north, Madison Avenue to the west and the East River and was around 130 acres. Watts named the farm ‘Rose Hill’ because his father was from Rose Hill in Scotland not far from Edinburgh. Wild!
John Watts has a pretty remarkable memorial in Trinity Church. Alexander Hamilton’s tomb is the white obelisk to the right.
Photo by Daytonian in Manhattan
Watts and his family were Loyalists, so at the onset of the Revolutionary War they fled back to England, forfeiting their land.
In 1780, the city then started to divide and sell the remains of Rose Hill Farm. Nicholas Cruger paid "144 pounds" for a lot at the north edge of the property between today’s 29th and 30th Streets and Third Avenue. Then, in 1811 as our famous Grid Plan was being laid out the land was parceled out once more so it would fit the design of the grid.
Rose Hill Farm is northernmost just above the Gramercy Farm.
Photo by NYPL Digital Archives
One building managed to survive it seems. On 29th Street just off of 2nd Avenue stands a gorgeous wooden clapboard house, very rare in our city.
Photo by Atlas Obscura
After Nicolas Cruger, it changed hands a few times in the 1800's and then after the Civil War as the neighborhood changed it became a men’s boarding house with rooms for rent. In 1915, it even seems there was a junk shop on the ground floor.
1915 & 1934 - Photos by NYPL Digital Archives.
In 1979, it was purchased by a couple for $80,000 (yes, $80k) and gut renovated, bringing it back to life!
Today, some developers are trying to bring the Rose Hill neighborhood name back to life. Rockefeller Group launched Rose Hill, a luxury condo on 30th Street with apartments ranging from $1.3M for a Studio to $6MM for a three bedroom
Rose Hill condominiums
Photo by Pandiscio Green and Recent Spaces
Would you rather own the cute clapboard house or an apartment in the luxury high rise?
So if you ever feel like showing off some street-savvy, the next time you’re walking with a friend through Kips Bay headed toward Murray Hill, tell them you’re actually passing through the long-forgotten Rose Hill neighborhood.
