When biking, as when driving, it is a good time to organize thoughts, organize the lists and generally take care of business while paying attention to the traffic. It had been a busy afternoon, and I decided to miss the masses by taking a side street home. Passing a group of three, one of them called out a question about the mansion at whose side they were standing. “What had it been?” Such a good question indeed. To my own surprise, I stepped on the brakes, straddled my bike, backed up and gave them the full history; an interesting history. The original owner who built the house in the mid-1700 made a literal boatload of money with slavery. Among the many facts: he left a 5 million guilder fortune at his death. of 5 million [100 guilders from that time is worth $6,000. today.] He had 6 daughters, a couple died, none married and so the fortune was put in a trust that still finances the upkeep of all the properties bearing his name. As their eyes began to blur over, I jumped back on my bike and peddled homeward.