General Philip Schuyler—an Albany-born veteran of the French and Indian War—erected this home in 1761 just outside what was then the city limits of Albany, NY. Schuyler and his wife Catherine Van Rensselaer Schuyler raised their extensive family there and farmed the vast acres of land he owned using, in part, the forced labor of enslaved people.

Albany was several days’ travel from New York City by boat and/or stagecoach. Despite the dramatization in the Hamilton musical, the Schuyler Mansion would have been too far for the Schuyler Sisters to casually visit Manhattan without their father knowing.

Alexander Hamilton may have met his future wife, Elizabeth Schuyler, years before in Elizabethtown (Elizabeth), NJ. But he met her for certain—and apparently developed some level of amorous designs on her—when he was sent to Albany on military business in 1777.

The Schuyler Mansion played host to Hamilton and Elizabeth’s wedding in an intimate, family affair while on leave from military service during the American Revolution on December 14, 1780. Several of their children were later born and baptized here, and Hamilton—exhausted after the Battle of Yorktown—convalesced within the Georgian mansion’s walls for some months.

Hamilton and Elizabeth lived here on and off for about two years while Hamilton practiced law in Albany, and they made many visits after relocating to New York City.

Philip Schuyler kept a large (for the time) library, including many volumes on the law. Both Hamilton and his rival, and eventual murderer, Aaron Burr made use of these books while studying and working law in Albany.