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

Every so often I’ll see a place that is named….wrong.  I’ve written another post about some restaurant trying to persuade people that Little Italy extends into the high 40s, and there’s this one which extends Times Square into a much wider orbit than the neighborhood around 7th Avenue and 42nd Street.

It’s the Times Square Bagel Deli located in the heart of…Murray Hill?  This place is located at 33rd Street and Madison Avenue.  That 9 blocks south and three blocks east of the real Times Square.  The 9 blocks isn’t much, but the 3-block distance from Madison to 7th Avenue is a long walk (remember, in NYC east-west blocks are big while north-south blocks are short).

I wonder how many people have walked by there and thought they were close.  Nah.  It’s hard to imagine it ever fooled even the newest visitors.  That area is not real big on glitz.

-H