Dyckman House

The Dyckman Farmhouse Museum was our adventure for the day. I don't think I've ever been that far north on Manhattan. The Cloisters in Fort Tryon Park is about half a click to the Southwest, but the last time I spent any quality time with my unicorn tapestries was a good fifteen years ago. Anyway, the house pretty much stands alone atop a schist outcropping, the acres of farmland replaced by the present day urban mix. We got there a few hours before the scheduled tour, so we asked one the interns for some local food spots. Ended up at a local joint on Vermilyea and gorged ourselves on rice and beans and chicken and plantains. Back to house for the tour. The coolest part of the house (both literally, "I literally jumped out of my skin" and figuratively, "my blood was boiling") was the Nine Mens Morris game carved into the schist near the stairs to the basement.

I often wonder what New York looked like pre-grid, pre-urbanization, with lakes and streams crisscrossing the island; what weaknesses in the rock caused the Hudson to separate Manhattan from the Bronx (and the mainland of North America). Did the tidal channel we now call the East River exist before or after Manhattan was isolated? So many questions...