When Joan Rosasco first came to New York to study art history, she fell in love with a book on the city’s architecture by Ada Louise Huxtable. “I decided I was going to see everything she mentioned – that’s how I found the Morris-Jumel Mansion,” Mrs. Rosasco said Tuesday at a fund-raising dinner that she and two other women, Gilda Acosta and Jessica London, organized for the mansion.

Built in 1765, the mansion is the city’s oldest residence, but it is also an undiscovered gem, perhaps because of its noncentral location in Washington Heights.The gala was thus a welcome step toward creating a higher profile for the mansion.

“I haven’t seen it yet. It’s a shame. But I will run to it after tonight,” the consul general of France, Francois Delattre, said. He had a better excuse than some of the New York residents in the room: He’s lived here only eight months.

Longtime supporters of the mansion were also at the dinner. Anna Glen Vietor, who once held a dinner at the mansion for members of the Society of Cincinnati, has a family tie as a descendant of Mary Philipse, who was married to the home’s builder, an English army officer named Roger Morris.

The mansion’s most famous occupant was George Washington, who used it as his headquarters during the Revolutionary War and returned there in 1790 for a commemorative dinner with John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, and Alexander Hamilton.

Among those who have visited the mansion, Washington’s study is a favorite room. Also admired are the Octagon Room, where concerts are often held.

“I love the cobblestone street it’s on, Jumel Terrace,” Peter Hoffman said.

“The thing I love is the Palladian architecture and the spectacular view,” an active member of the New England Society, Arnold Neis, said.

Wayne Benjamin of Washington Heights, who lives within walking distance, enjoys attending lectures at the mansion.

It was the home’s French connection that led to the gala’s being held at the French Consulate. A French merchant, Stephen Jumel, bought the house in 1810, and with the help of his wife, Eliza, an American, decorated it in the Empire style. Madame Jumel claimed the gilded wings in the archways were gifts from Napoleon.

Donors have helped preserve the home since it became a museum in 1907.

Now the mansion is raising $100,000 to have the parlor furniture that belonged to Madame Jumel restored by conservators at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The board plans to restore the gardens next.

Recently completed projects include the repainting and lighting of the upper hall and stairway, and the refurbishing of the French wallpaper in the downstairs hall. Ten years ago, the French Heritage Society gave $10,000 to restore the staircase.

A hundred guests attended the event, which raised $43,000 and honored a residential real estate executive, Elizabeth Stribling, for her commitment to historic architecture and preservation. Mrs. Stribling is a member of the boards of the New York Landmarks Conservancy and the Central Park Conservancy. She also supports the French Heritage Society and Friends of Versailles. Mrs. Rosasco presented her with a teaspoon in the “Madam Jumel” pattern manufactured by the Whiting silver company in 1908.