Rose Hill

Rose Hill is a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Manhattan, between the neighborhoods of Murray Hill to the north and Gramercy Park to the south, Kips Bay to the east, the Flatiron District to the southwest, and NoMad to the northwest.

Benjamin Corsa married Michaelson's daughter and was deeded the house and land in 1736.

In July 1742, John married Ann, youngest daughter of Stephen DeLancey.

According to a historical genealogical source, the first "Rose Hill" was the farm acquired from James DeLancey in November 1747 by the Hon. John Watts (1715–1789), who represented the city for many years in the Colonial Assembly.

According to the New York City Department of Parks, in 1775 Robert's brother John married his cousin Jane DeLancey, whose family lived on the adjacent property, which is now Bronx Park.

Prior to his marriage, John Watt had lived on his Manhattan properties.

As Loyalists, they left for Britain in 1775 and never returned, leaving "Rose Hill" and the Broadway house in the hands of their son John Watts (1749—1836).

The main house at Rose Hill burned in 1779, during the British occupation, but a deed from the 1780s mentions "houses, buildings, orchards, gardens" on the land.

Parts of Rose Hill Farm were being sold off in the 1780s: in 1786, Nicholas Cruger paid "144 pounds" for a lot at the north edge of the property, consisting of most of what is now the block bounded by 29th and 30th Streets and Second and Third Avenues.

He purchased the Bronx property in 1787 from the estate of Andrew Corsa.

Shortly afterward, John transferred the property to his brother Robert, who named it "Rose Hill".

Archival research by Roger Wines, professor of history at Fordham, has shown that the original owner of the manor was a Dutchman named Reyer Michaelson.

John (2nd) received both houses outright in his father's will, proved September 12, 1789.

Having been rebuilt and refurbished after the Revolutionary War, Rose Hill Farm was put up for sale in 1790.

As Advertised in the New-York Daily Advertiser:

"A Farm for Sale. That very elegant and pleasantly situated FARM, Rose Hill, lying on the banks of and adjoining the east river, three miles from this city, containing 92 acres of valuable land, in the highest cultivation, chiefly in mowing ground, the whole well inclosed, principally with stone fences of a superior construction, bounding on the public road 1175 feet; a pleasant avenue through the orchard in front of the house, also a good road that comes out into the bowery land, next to the honorable James Duane’s; on the premises there is an elegant dwelling house of 50 by 37 feet; a commodious farm house of 50 by 20 feet; an excellent barn with carriage houses and stable, 20 by 40 feet, a hovel with a large hay loft over the whole 96 by 15 feet, corn crib, fowl house &c. all the buildings are new and well finished in the most commodious manner, a fine bearing orchard of 260 engrafted apple trees of the most approved sorts, and a great variety of other kinds of the best English and American fruits, a thriving nursery of upwards of 9000 young fruit trees, numbers of which are inoculated and engrafted; an elegant garden, with the finest collection of flowers, flowering shrubs, strawberry, asparagus beds, etc. ten acres in wheat and rye:

The whole with all farming utensils, cattle, and stock of all kinds, will be sold, either together or separately; the buildings, with orchard, fruit trees, garden; etc. with as many acres of the land as may suit a purchaser, to whom the conditions will be made convenient, by a length of time for the payment.

Apply on the premises, or at No. 5 Stone Street.

NB: If the above farm is not disposed of by the first of May, it will then be leased for a number of years.

–Among the stock there is some valuable cattle imported from Holland, and a fine large breeding mare from England."

Revolutionary War General Horatio Gates acquired part or all of the Watts property in 1790 and established a country seat in a mansion at the present corner of Second Avenue and 22nd Street.

He died at his estate in April 1806, whereupon his home became a boarding house.

The Cruger parcel was subdivided into building lots by the time the Commissioners' Plan of 1811 was adopted, establishing Manhattan's present street grid.

Just to the southwest corner of the "Rose Hill" property, Gramercy Park was laid out in 1831, on the axis of what became Lexington Avenue.

John Hughes, Roman Catholic Bishop of New York, purchased Rose Hill in 1839 as the future site of Fordham's forerunner, St. John's College.

The map made in 1866 by John Bute Holmes, of "Rose Hill Farm Gramercy Seat, and the estate of John Watts" is conserved in the New York Public Library.

The Baruch College and School of Visual Arts campuses and the New York University College of Dentistry and Rose Hill Montessori Preschool are all located in Rose Hill.

The community has several single room occupancy supportive housing ventures.

One such venture is Friends House in Rosehill, a Quaker venture that, in effect, recovered the neighborhood's old name; another is the Prince George Hotel, sponsored by Common Ground.

The original Madison Square Garden at Madison Square was located at the corner of Madison Avenue and 26th Street, and stood at the site from 1879 to 1890.

The AIA Guide to New York City defines Rose Hill as the area bounded by 23rd Street to the south, 32nd Street to the north, Madison Avenue to the west, and Third Avenue to the east.

The president of the Rose Hill Neighborhood Association considers the eastern boundary to be the East River.

The Rose Hill neighborhood straddles Manhattan Community Districts 5 and 6.

The name of the Manhattan neighborhood is derived from a locale in the Bronx.

Rose Hill Park is a vestige of a far larger estate once called "Rose Hill" by its owner, Robert Watts, and Rose Hill Campus is part of the site of Fordham University.

Madison Square anchors the neighborhood's southwest corner, bounded by 23rd Street, 26th Street, Fifth Avenue, and Madison Avenue.

The formerly unnamed area is sometimes considered to be a part of NoMad, because the name "Rose Hill" was chiefly used for the area in the 18th and 19th centuries, and is not very commonly used to refer to the area in the 2010s.

The farm contained over 130 acre which lay on the East River between what were to become 21st and 30th streets and between the future Fourth Avenue and the water.

Watts' residence in town was at 3 Broadway, facing Bowling Green.

Watts was the son of Robert Watts, of "Rose Hill", near Edinburgh, and Mary, eldest daughter of William Nicoll, of Islip, Long Island; John named the farm in commemoration of his father's house.