George Washington was a Virginian, but New York was a central city in his life. At the start of the revolution, the British made it a priority to take New York. They wanted it for its harbor, and because it separated the northern from the southern colonies. The Continental Congress had made Washington, a hero of the French and Indian War, commander of Continental forces. He attempted to defend New York from the British, who, in a muscle-flexing gesture, sent to New York Harbor the largest fleet any nation had ever sent to a foreign port. The British, aided by Hessian mercenaries, routed the colonials in the Battle of Brooklyn at the end of August 1776. Remarkably, Washington and most of his troops got away, across the East River to Manhattan, under the cover of fog, on August 31. In September and October Washington kept his headquarters at the commandeered home of a former British officer named Roger Morris.

Today we call the house the Morris-Jumel Mansion. It stands near the intersection of 160th Street and Edgecombe Avenue, just north of the fabled Sugar Hill section of Harlem, on a high bluff dramatically overlooking the Harlem River valley. Roger Morris and his wife Mary built the mansion as their country house between 1765 and 1770. (Their city house was at Broadway and Stone Street.) They called the house Mount Morris. The estate stretched 130 acres between the Harlem and the Hudson rivers.

Washington left the house when it became clear he had lost New York City to the British. The historian Barnet Schecter, in his “Battle for New York,” suggests that from the house’s elevated position, Washington probably had a good view of the city to the south as it burned in the Great Fire of September 21, 1776. Washington of course returned in triumph to New York in 1783, and again in 1789 when he was sworn in at Federal Hall as our first president. In 1790 he dined with his cabinet at the Morris house.

The Morris house bears even more weight of history. In 1810 Stephen Jumel, a French émigré, and his wife Eliza, of mysterious background, purchased the house. Jumel was very rich. Eliza was a strong-willed woman who spun fanciful tales about her past. When Jumel died in 1832, he left Eliza one of New York’s wealthiest women. In 1833, she married Aaron Burr, a man even more mysterious than she, and the couple resided in the mansion. His mishandling of her money, not to mention his adultery, caused the marriage to collapse in short order. Burr died in 1836, but Madame Jumel lived in the house until her death in 1865.

The clapboarded house is a beauty of Georgian architecture, with a marvelous four-columned portico surmounted by a broad triangular pediment, and with lovely rooftop balustrades. The grounds steadily yielded to development. In 1882, for example, the very unusual street of wooden row houses, Sylvan Terrace, rose just to the west of the mansion.

The mansion is maintained as a historic house museum, and is a must to visit, especially as it can be combined with visits to other nearby Harlem attractions. Today from noon to 4 p.m. the museum is hosting a “Washington’s Birthday Celebration,” with music, talks, demonstrations, and refreshments. Call 212-923-8008. Normal hours are 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., except Mondays and Tuesdays when the house is open by appointment only.

fmorrone@nysun.com