Visit to the King Manor Museum: A look into the 18th century lifestyle and life of Rufus King
My visit to the King Manor Museum, history right in the backyard of Jamaica, Queens was a surprisingly enjoyable and informative experience. It shed light on the oddities of late 18th century high class American culture as well as the significant works of one man’s post-American Revolution political career, Senator Rufus King.
Although the King Manor Museum was extremely uninviting and a little intimidating at first (the house looked a little haunted to me), it was well worth the daunting trip past the doors of the King Manor, the house Rufus King lived in. The first thing I learned when I stepped inside was that the museum was not well known gathering from the small museum staff of three, one of whom was a teenager in high school who would be my tour guide. In addition, I was only the second visitor of the day. However, the low-key profile of the museum made the experience especially enjoyable with an intimate and cozy setting free of crowds and chatter, which allowed me to fully appreciate the history of King Manor.
My main impression of Rufus King was that he was very a cultured man. In addition, he liked to show off his wealth but jumped at every opportunity he could to be cheap. His home décor showed that he was of high class. For example, one end of his dining room was shaped like an amphitheatre in order to get the best acoustics for his private mini-concerts during dinners in which he had guests over. In addition, the house he lived in had fancy wall designs, which, according to the tour guide, showed that he was very stylish. I did not find the walls stylish at all being that they were just teal with dental moldings and Greek key designs. However, the tour guide told me that back then this wall style was atypical because the wall designs of the rich were usually drabber; that put things into perspective for me. Although the King Manor may not be stylish in modern terms, it definitely was stylish back then. I guess what’s stylish depends on the context of the situation. Although Senator King liked to show off his wealth, he always found discrete ways to be frugal. For example, one set of stairs had a big carpet along the center to cover up the part of the stairs that did not have an expensive finish (he was trying to save money here but his peers would not have known this). It was amusing to see that frugality transcended class and economic status here.
Rufus King’s relationship with his wife revealed a lot about the time period. Marriage is a significant cultural construct that can tell us a lot about that culture. During that time period, people more often married out of duty and for maintaining class status and less often out of love. King’s relationship with his wife supported this traditional idea of marriage. Although King was rich to begin with, his wealth increased immensely when he married into his wife’s family. Their marriage improved his economic status. In addition, the museum showed that there were separate bedrooms for the King and his wife, far different from our modern set up of bedrooms for spouses.
The most surprising and most pleasant fact about Rufus King was that he had hired servants instead of slaves because he was against slavery. It was very refreshing to see a man practicing what he preached. He was not like other typical politicians of his time who would believe in God-given, inalienable individual rights and still practice slavery. Senator King hired servants and was an outspoken opponent of slavery. These servants were able to enjoy their own lives and live on their own, outside of work. King’s work against slavery was so influential that Abraham Lincoln borrowed some of his speeches for his own work.
I had passed the King Manor many times before thinking it was just an ordinary public park but little did I know that it used to be an estate belonging to a rich white Senator named Rufus King. The estate belonging to Rufus King spanned the whole park, which was a good two blocks. I found it fitting that a senator who did not own slaves and was against slavery used to live in a section of Jamaica, Queens that today is a predominantly black neighborhood. I would strongly recommend a visit to the King Manor museum to see what you can learn about a person and their time period through analysis of home décor.