Famous Ankles

In one of my wanderings I spotted this plaque at 35th Street and Park Avenue.

The plaque notes the center of the Murray family’s “Inclenberg Farm”.  The area of Murray Hill is named after that family and it appears the lady of the family, Mary Lindley Murray, “rendered signal service in the Revolutionary War.”

Good for them…but NYC was Tory for most of the war.

I’ve linked the Wikipedia article on Murray Hill and discovered to my delight how Mrs. Murray did the honors for George Washington.  Apparently she delayed Howe’s pursuit of the Continental Army by inviting Howe to lunch. 

A Quaker waging war by lunching with a gentleman?  Cool.

Of course, nothing of the farm appears to remain…well, maybe up high there are some gardens on the roofs in the area.  Here’s a couple of shots of the immediate neighborhood.

The above is at the corner where the plaque is situated.  The one below is the old armory just a block away.

-H

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This entry was posted on January 18, 2008 at 7:29 pm and is filed under Manhattan, Mid-town, Wanderings. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments. You can comment below, or link to this permanent URL from your own site.