#InTheLoop | Enjoy Tea By The Fireplace At A Spectacular Queens Estate
BY QEDC It's In Queens
It’s a beautiful day in 1810, and you’re invited to tea in a beautiful mansion on a Queens farm that’s run by one of the day’s most prominent families.
So you click and enter, of course.
King Manor Museum’s website has a new game that allows cybernauts to travel back in time and spend a day with Mary Alsop King at her historical house.
Thanks to audio, text, high-res images, and links to websites, users can meet a laborer named “Valentine” and learn about a tool called a “flail” that was used to separate grain from stalks of wheat. They can also check out the apple orchard, say hello to the farmhands, and commune with the cows, horses, pigs, and sheep.
Take another cyber-route and users can learn about wool broadcloth coats, knee-length breeches, pantaloons, and other examples of the era’s haute couture. Then it’s off the parlor, newly furbished dining room, library, and kitchen…with time for tea and still-warm cookies by the fireplace.
In real life, King Manor lies inside 11-acre Rufus King Park in Downtown Jamaica. The three-story, three-chimney residence is the second-longest-running historic house museum in New York City. It’s been listed on the National Register of Historic Places since 1974.
From 1805 to 1896, Rufus King, who was married to Mary Alsop, and their descendants lived there and worked about 150 acres of farmland. They were ardent abolitionists who paid their African American workers wages even though slavery was permitted in New York State until 1827. (Most other workers were immigrants from Scotland and Ireland.)
Rufus was the youngest signer of the Constitution, a senator for almost 18 years, and an ambassador to Great Britain. His sons were also overachievers. John served as an Assemblyman, Congressman, and Governor. Charles was a Columbia College President who later founded Cincinnati Law School. James moved to New Jersey and became a Congressman. Frederick was a doctor.
Images: King Manor Museum