In 1851 John Ferris Seaman "John Ferris Seaman" and his brother Valentine the sons of Dr. Valentine Seaman, who in the early 1800s was one of the men who brought Edward Jenner's smallpox vaccine to the United States bought 25 acres of hilltop property in Upper Manhattan near Kingsbridge Road (now Broadway), between what would become West 214th and 218th Streets. [