Hamilton Grange National Memorial

The house is located in the Hamilton Heights and Sugar Hill sections of the neighborhood of Harlem in Manhattan, New York City. It has occupied three sites in the neighborhood throughout its history, all within the bounds of the U.S. founding father Alexander Hamilton's original estate. The estate was part of section IX of what was known as Jochem Pieter's Hills. John Delavall bought lot IX in 1691 and sold the southern half of the lot to Samuel Kelly (or Kelley), who then sold that site to druggist Jacob Schieffelin in 1799. Schieffelin's parcel was bounded by the Hudson River to the west, 140th Street to the south, St. Nicholas Avenue to the east, and 145th Street to the north. The Bloomingdale Road bisected Schieffelin's parcel into western and eastern plots; Hamilton's estate, the Grange, occupied the eastern plot. The first site was near present-day 143rd Street, at the center of Hamilton's estate. It occupied a small plateau that existed on the estate. This site stood approximately or west of modern-day Convent Avenue. There were also some outbuildings to the east, between what is now Hamilton Terrace and Convent Avenue. These included a barn, chicken house, and shed, as well as a "spring house" atop one of two now-infilled streams on the site, where butter and milk were stored. The house's original site is occupied by the Roman Catholic Church of Our Lady of Lourdes, which was built starting in 1902 and is itself a New York City designated landmark. The second site was at 287 Convent Avenue, approximately or south of the original location. The house occupied this location from 1889 to 2008. East of the house was a lawn owned by St. Luke's Episcopal Church. After the house was moved in 2008, children planted a flower garden at 287 Convent Avenue. The third and current site is at 414 West 141st Street, at the southern end of Hamilton Terrace. The house is within St. Nicholas Park, south of the second site. The current site abuts the campus of City College of New York (CCNY), a unit of the City University of New York. and consists of a plateau measuring no more than wide. ==Use as residence==

Alexander Hamilton was born sometime between 1755 and 1757 on Nevis and went to study at King's College, now part of Columbia University, in New York City at the age of 16. After Hamilton retired as Treasury Secretary in 1795, his family occupied various houses in Manhattan; by 1798, they were renting a country house in Harlem from their brother-in-law John Barker Church. Until then, Alexander Hamilton had never owned a house. In late 1798, Hamilton wrote to his wife Eliza that he was planning a project in New York City, the details of which he was keeping secret. During the Quasi-War of 1798–1800, Hamilton served as Inspector General of the United States Army, trying to fend off a war against France; as such, he could not devote time to his "project". He wrote a letter to the merchant Ebenezer Stevens in October 1799, offering to buy a parcel adjoining Stevens's land from Jacob Schieffelin. Hamilton had wanted the plot west of the Bloomingdale Road, but Schieffelin would only sell the plot to the east of the road. Hamilton bought the eastern site on August 2, 1800, paying $4,000 for a plot of . That September, he bought to the north of his existing parcel Hamilton also acquired the rights to fish in the nearby rivers and hunt game in the woodlands of Upper Manhattan. He and his wife's family, the Schuyler family, had been developing plans for a permanent house for nearly two years at that point. McComb had, at the time, just designed Gracie Mansion and was in a competition to design New York City Hall. Eliza's father Philip Schuyler tried and failed to hire a contractor from Albany, New York, delaying the construction of the permanent house by a year. Ultimately, Ezra Weeks was hired to build the house; Weeks and McComb drew up a proposal for the house, dated June 22, 1801, in which they divided the work between them. Weeks probably began excavating the foundation in late 1801, and he first billed Hamilton in December of that year. After Weeks excavated the site and built the foundation and frame, McComb probably commenced his portion of the work in May or June 1802. Timber in the mansion was sourced from the grounds of the General Schuyler House in Saratoga, New York. The house was mostly done by mid-1802, although some work such as painting continued through February 1803. In total, the house and surrounding structures cost $17,972.06 (), excluding lumber that Philip Schuyler gave to Alexander as a gift. Hamilton's friends estimated that the house cost as much as $25,000. Hamilton occupancy s, symbolizing the Thirteen Colonies, and he also planted a circular flower bed. he had very little free time and described the house itself as his hobby. he traveled to his law office by stagecoach several times a week. The Schuyler family, to whom the Hamiltons were especially close, were frequent visitors, as were Alexander's friends Gouverneur Morris and Rufus King. The Hamiltons also hosted other guests such as jurist James Kent and French royal Jérôme Bonaparte. His legal estate was in significant debt because of the Grange's high cost; his account books showed that he spent $11,840.27 () in six months. The Grange estate was secured for about $20,000, an amount that included liens on the actual property, and a consortium was formed to control the legal estate. One writer said that "going into debt to maintain his station gives a hint of" Hamilton's life. Archibald Gracie bought the house at auction in 1805 for $30,000 The last debts on the house were paid off in 1808. a 1980 study did not find records of Eliza renting the Grange. Subsequent residents Eliza Hamilton is recorded as having sold the Grange in 1833; at the time, the estate covered over . The buyer, a banker named Moses Henriques, also assumed a $9,000 mortgage that had been placed on the property. Although the views to the north and south were blocked by higher ground and trees, respectively, the house overlooked the Hudson River to the west and the Harlem River, East River, and Long Island Sound to the east. The oldest known picture of the house was taken around 1864, when the Ward family still lived in the house. The Emigrant Industrial Savings Bank took over the house in 1876 after foreclosing on the property. The buyer, Anthony Mowbray, resold the house for the same amount to William H. DeForest, his client and business partner, The New York Times wrote in 1880 that the house had fallen into disrepair. At the time, "two good-natured Irish families" occupied the premises and allowed visitors to look at the house. The DeForest family removed some mantels and mirrors. One observer, writing in 1886, said the Third Avenue Cable Railroad now ran right outside the house and the stone fence around the estate was crumbling. Subdivision of the old estate When DeForest acquired the Grange estate, he intended to divide it into parcels. the Times described the remaining portion of the estate in 1880 as covering . The site had been condemned since it was in the path of 143rd Street; The Manhattan street grid had been built through the rest of the old estate by 1920, The Third Avenue Cable Railroad opened in the late 1880s on what is now Amsterdam Avenue, which spurred development in the area. The plots that comprised the Hamilton Grange estate were offered for sale in late 1887, and many lots were sold on the condition that they remain in residential use. but O. B. Potter bought the site, preserving the trees. They were placed for sale again in 1898, and the few remaining trunks were felled in 1908. == Use by St. Luke's Church ==

St. Luke's Episcopal Church, which was based in Greenwich Village but whose congregation had moved uptown, was looking for a new site in 1888. The church's rector, Isaac Henry Tuttle, looked at several lots in Upper Manhattan until he came across a site at the corner of Convent Avenue and 141st Street, within the boundary of the original Hamilton Grange. After Tuttle saw the Grange while visiting his recent acquisition, he contacted Cotting, who decided to give the house to the congregation for use as a temporary chapel. The house was one of a few remaining late-17th and early-18th-century mansions in Upper Manhattan at the time. Relocation and 1890s In November 1888, St. Luke's submitted an application to the New York City Department of Buildings (DOB) requesting that the house be relocated; the DOB approved the request the next month. At the time, the house was recorded as occupying an irregular lot of . The original front and rear porches were removed, and the front porch was moved to the western or left side of the house. At its new site, the house was set back from the street. St. Luke's initially used the house for services, The octagonal rooms in the middle of the house were converted into a chapel. St. Luke's erected a Richardsonian Romanesque building to the south between 1892 and 1895, which wrapped around the house slightly. By 1894, the house had developed severe structural issues; for example, it needed a new roof. Although members of St. Luke's congregation believed it would be more cost-effective to just demolish the house, Tuttle thought that the building could be repaired. After the roof was repaired, Tuttle set aside two of the rooms for the church and related organizations. The day school, operated by Ella K. Morgan, occupied either the first story or the basement. Alexander Hamilton Post pushed for the introduction of another State Senate bill in 1901, The 1901 bill failed, but efforts to preserve the house continued. One newspaper estimated that it would cost $150,000 to convert the original site to a park. The local board of improvement voted in favor of the relocation at the beginning of 1905, but the state legislature voted against acquiring the house. The Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) placed a commemorative tablet on the house's steps in 1907, and the DAR also pressured the city government to acquire the house to officially preserve it. Although the state legislature passed a law in 1908 which permitted the city government to take over the house and relocate it to St. Nicholas Park, the house remained in place. Morgan's day school operated in the house until 1909, when her lease was canceled. Further changes to the interior were made in 1914, when the offices in the rear became a kitchen and maid's bedroom; the meeting spaces in the octagonal rooms became a parlor and a dining room; and the basement was converted to living space for the sexton's family. In addition, the facade was again painted, and the site was landscaped. These discussions were truncated due to the onset of World War I. Other organizations, including the Sons of the American Revolution and the Grand Army of the Republic, also sought to buy the house. St. Luke's began to perceive the house as a liability over the years, and the Hamilton Society of Chicago proposed relocating the house to that city in the early 1920s. The ASHPS opposed the house's relocation to Chicago and resumed its advocacy for the house's preservation. ==Use as museum and memorial==

American Scenic and Historic Preservation Society operation Establishment of museum The ASHPS bought the Grange in November 1924 The ASHPS planned to convert the house into a museum, and it appointed a committee of several people, including two of Hamilton's descendants, to collect memorabilia for the museum. The society wanted to raise money for a renovation but still did not have sufficient funds by 1928; it hoped to raise $125,000. The ASHPS launched a fundraising campaign in early 1929 and renovated the roof the same year. The balustrades were also removed to allow the repainting of the three other facades, which was never completed due to a lack of money. Furniture and decorative objects associated with the Hamilton family were displayed there. 1930s to early 1960s Initially, the house was open to the public every day and did not charge admission fees. With the ASHPS's permission, the DAR redecorated one of the house's living rooms. A statue of Hamilton by William Ordway Partridge was relocated from the Hamilton Club of Brooklyn after the club closed in 1936, and it was dedicated outside the Grange that October. By the early 1940s, numerous people were donating Colonial memorabilia to the museum, regardless of whether the objects were related to Hamilton. By then, the house was dilapidated; some of the upstairs rooms did not have any furnishings, and the facade needed to be repainted. As early as 1950, the ASHPS was asking New York City park commissioner Robert Moses to relocate the Grange to Claremont Park, where the Claremont Inn was being razed. At the time, the group's members felt that the Grange had degraded to a "shabby" condition. The city government asked the state legislature in 1955 to move the house to the City College of New York (CCNY)'s campus, as that site was close to buses and the subway. The New York State Assembly passed a bill that March to permit the house's relocation to the CCNY campus, and governor W. Averell Harriman approved the bill the next month. The society planned to ask local banks for $400,000 because Hamilton had helped establish the modern U.S. banking system. The Grange had still not been relocated by early 1958, and the ASHPS was raising $375,000 to move the house to the CCNY campus. Largely white philanthropists also wished to relocate the house southward, away from the majority-black Hamilton Heights neighborhood, and there were also proposals to move the house to Riverside Park or the Cloisters. Ultimately, no action was taken on any of the relocation proposals. National Park Service operation Takeover and preservation In May 1960, U.S. Senator Jacob Javits introduced a bill in Congress to designate Hamilton Grange as a national memorial, and the Grange was designated a National Historic Landmark that December. The United States Department of the Interior approved the creation of the Hamilton Grange National Memorial on the condition that the city donate land within the CCNY campus for the house's relocation. Congress authorized the national memorial in early 1962, mandating that the property be relocated before a restoration could take place. That May, U.S. President John F. Kennedy signed a bill to create the memorial, authorizing the National Park Service (NPS) to take over the site from the ASHPS. Javits and U.S. Representative John V. Lindsay estimated that it would cost the federal government $300,000–$400,000 to restore the Grange. When Congress had designated the national memorial, it had appropriated $460,000 for the house's restoration, of which $282,000 was for the relocation. A study by the ASHPS indicated that the house was structurally sound, and another report showed that the building could be moved if it were split into two pieces. Local residents organized in opposition to the relocation, and St. Luke's rector David Johnson did not want the house to be moved unless it was adjacent to the church. The house was partially restored during the mid-1960s, reopening in 1967. At the time, many of the house's original artifacts were stored in Sagamore Hill. In its designation report, the LPC recommended moving the building to St. Nicholas Park so it could be fully restored. The report suggested that the house could be used to educate black students and that it could be renovated if Congress appropriated $500,000. The house was designated as part of the Hamilton Heights Historic District in 1974. The Hamilton statue outside the house was cleaned in 1978. The Grange was closed for an extensive renovation in 1979. During its closure, the house was repeatedly broken into, although all the items in the house had been cleared out before the renovation. The firm of Meadows Woll Architects was hired in 1980 to study the feasibility of moving the Grange, The NPS announced in 1987 that the house would remain in place and would be renovated for $3 million. By then, the house was completely bare except for two side chairs and a piano in the octagonal rooms. Due to local opposition to the relocation, U.S. Representative Charles Rangel wanted to change the law authorizing the Hamilton Grange National Memorial, allowing the house to be restored at Convent Avenue. and the New York Post also agreed to donate some money for the house's renovation. 1990s By the early 1990s, the house had decayed significantly due to neglect and inclement weather. At the time, it had 40–50 thousand Georgette Nelms, the superintendent of NPS sites in Manhattan, began looking for contractors to stabilize the house's foundation in 1991. Severe deterioration forced the NPS to close the home to the public entirely in 1992. and he successfully requested another $1 million from the United States Congress that October. The Hamilton Heights Homeowners Association held tours of historic houses in the area to raise money for the Grange's restoration. The Grange had few visitors and, according to Rangel, got less attention than Grant's Tomb. Some local residents said the planned relocation of the Grange would disrupt the community; one group of opponents collected 1,200 signatures for a petition against the plan, The NPS planned to build a community center on the Convent Avenue site, but opponents remained skeptical. Supporters of the relocation said the Grange could not be restored at the Convent Avenue site. By 1995, the NPS was planning to seek $11 million from Congress. The NPS indicated that it would move the mansion to St. Nicholas Park, which not only allowed the house to be placed in a rustic setting but also occupied part of Hamilton's original estate. Congress gave around $1.5 million for the relocation, although the house needed another $9.7 million to fund the full project. The relocation process was delayed because the NPS did not have control of the St. Nicholas Park site; in the meantime, the agency spent $400,000 to stabilize the mansion. New York governor George Pataki signed the bill in October 1999, allowing the New York City government to give the NPS an easement within St. Nicholas Park to permit the Grange's relocation. 2000s renovation U.S. Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan wrote a letter to the NPS about the mansion's "deplorable" conditions in March 2000, and both houses of Congress passed legislation in late 2000 to permit the relocation. The NPS allocated $11 million to relocate the building in 2003. Hamilton Grange was closed to the public on May 7, 2006, to undergo architectural testing in preparation for relocating the house to St. Nicholas Park. Because the house was so tightly hemmed in by other buildings, the southern section of the house was disassembled first. The New York City government hoped that the relocation and renovation would attract visitors. The building was raised on hydraulic jacks over 20 days in 2008, with wood cribbing installed under the foundation. Hamilton Grange was raised to a height of about or . The house was then moved on rollers to wooden stilts in the middle of Convent Avenue; the stilts were disassembled, leaving the house resting on nine dollies by the end of May 2008. The NPS hired Wolfe House and Building Movers of Pennsylvania Before the house was to be moved, there were disagreements and legal disputes about its orientation. The NPS planned to rotate the house 180 degrees so it faced northeast; if the house retained its original southwest orientation, it would face a cliff in St. Nicholas Park. Everything in the house's path, such as street lamps and overhead wires, also had to be removed before the relocation took place. On June 7, 2008, the house was rolled half a block south on Convent Avenue and then one block east on 141st Street to the new St. Nicholas Park location over six hours. David W. Dunlap of The New York Times calculated its speed over the 500 feet at .04 mph. A group known as the Friends of Hamilton Grange filed a lawsuit over the house's orientation just after the house was moved but before it was placed on its foundation. The New York Daily News reported that the relocation itself comprised approximately two-fifths of the renovation project's planned $8.4 million cost. After the house was secured to its new foundation, workers began restoring it. The federal government provided another $3 million in funding through a stimulus package. Restoration architects spent 18 months consulting documents to ensure that the restoration was historically accurate. and Fallon and Wilkinson were hired to create replicas of the original furniture. During the renovation, contractors rediscovered some of the original materials, using them to rebuild some of the original details. Early 2010s to present The Grange reopened to the general public on September 17, 2011. A ceremony was held with Hamilton descendants in attendance and tours of the restored interiors. At the time of the reopening, only some of the first-floor rooms had been restored, while the second floor was closed. Fergus M. Bordewich wrote in The Wall Street Journal that the relocated house "will gaze out from its perch over one of the most vibrant black neighborhoods in America", namely Hamilton Heights. The house saw 21,000 annual visitors by 2014. and many people who saw the musical went to the Grange afterward. The house saw 35,000 visitors in 2015 and another 35,000 in the first five months of 2016, with a record 85,603 in 2017. , the site saw 63,647 visitors. ==Architecture==

John McComb Jr. designed Hamilton Grange in the Federal style; it is one of the only remaining residential buildings with which he was involved. The Grange differed significantly from most of McComb's other designs, which generally were either designed in the Georgian style or resembled more typical Federal buildings. In contrast to other Federal-style structures, the Grange's architectural elements were resized to emphasize different aspects of the facade, such as its height; one report referred to the design as "squat and somewhat clumsy". At the time of the Grange's construction, McComb was still experimenting with architectural styles. Although McComb largely designed the house based on Alexander's wishes, Eliza and her father Philip also influenced the design, drawing on their experiences living in the Schuyler Mansion in Albany. No extant elevation drawings for the house have been identified, but parts of the design may be derived from pattern books and from other buildings. Design features, such as archways and octagonal rooms, may have been inspired by the Morris–Jumel Mansion at what is now 160th Street. It weighs approximately . and south at its Convent Avenue location. measuring . A rubblestone foundation was built at Convent Avenue when the house was first relocated. Another foundation with a basement was constructed in St. Nicholas Park when the house was moved a second time. The basement at St. Nicholas Park is at ground level. Flush siding is also used on the lower parts of the left and right elevations, and clapboard siding is used on the upper sections of these elevations. In addition, there are trim boards at each corner of the house, as well as sill boards on the front and rear elevations. Most of the windows in the house are double-hung sash windows. There are protruding triple-hung bay windows on the left and right elevations, sheltered by the piazzas, as well as a tripartite window directly above the main facade's entrance. The windows are flanked by different types of shutters; the panels on the double-hung windows' shutters are flush with the facade, while those on the triple-hung windows' shutters are recessed. Above the second story, an entablature, designed with elements of the Doric order, runs across the entire facade of the main house. Additional entablatures run horizontally across the tops of the piazzas. The original front portico was flanked by two pairs of Doric columns and had Douglas fir floors and redwood balustrades. It was accessed by a wooden stair that originally ascended half a story; The front entrance door is designed in the Federal style, with sidelights on either side, and there is a semicircular transom window above the door. There are two pairs of pilasters on either side of the door. The two porticos were restored to their original positions in 2011. The roof was surrounded by a carved wood balustrade, which was installed at an unknown date and removed by the 1930s. The roof is supported by four sets of rafters, which are divided into lower and upper portions. The lower portions of each rafter were likely built along with the rest of the house, while the upper portions were probably added in 1835 when the roof was raised. The 1980 architectural report indicates that the roof was originally topped by a flat deck. There are copper gutters at the edges of the roof. The roof is topped by two non-functional wooden chimneys and two symmetrical brick chimneys that do work. The piazzas on either side of the house originally had nearly flat roofs with a slope of about 1:24, Hip roofs with steeper slopes were installed in the mid-19th century, likely to improve drainage. During the mid-19th-century modifications, the piazzas' ceilings were lowered and rebuilt out of plaster and wooden lath. The first and second stories are connected by a staircase, which was originally on the left side of the house but was moved to the front when the Grange was first relocated. There is also a staircase from the second floor to the attic, and there may have been a stair from the first floor to the basement (although no evidence of the latter exists). Throughout the house are decorations with Adam style influences. The Grange's first floor, second floor, and attic are supported by a wood frame with interior partitions, joists, and studs. Brick nogging and plaster coating were used to insulate the house. Ceiling joists and studs were covered with lath that was then coated with plaster. though most of the cornices are plain. Three types of doors and four types of windows were used throughout the house. Except for the fireplaces and an arch on the first floor, the interior has a plain design. By the 1990s, the basement had an information desk, a meeting and theater space, an exhibition space, restrooms, and a bookstore. There was also a sub-basement with a boiler, a heater, and storage space. The modern-day basement has a theater and exhibition space. The stair led up to the second floor and down to the basement. When the house was moved to Convent Avenue, the entry and stair hall were moved to the southwest (front left) corner of the first floor, measuring wide. The modern-day stair is to the left of the foyer, but the staircase has been relocated so it does not block the original front entrance. This room measures about across; The study retains almost all of its original ornament such as cornices, baseboards, door frames, and floorboards. Sources disagree on whether the color was meant to represent nature There are a desk and bookshelves, and measure across. and is known as the parlor. The room includes three floor-to-ceiling triple-hung windows and a fireplace with a marble mantel. Between the west and east octagon rooms was an ornate four-paneled wooden door, The hallway has four interior doorways. During the 20th century, the space occupied by the rear doorway became a window, and a bathroom was installed. The original use of the rear-right room (the northeast room) is also not known but may have also been a bedroom. The decorations are similar to that of the northwest room, and there is also a baseboard and marble fireplace mantel. Second floor Originally, the second floor had separate bedrooms for Hamilton, his wife, their daughters, and their two eldest sons. Extending behind the front hall to the rear of the house is a central passageway which also retains many of its original decorations. The southwest room at the front left corner of the second floor, dating from the 1889 renovation, occupied the site of the original stairwell; this room has since been replaced with a stairwell. The west center room and east center room respectively adjoin the left and right walls of the center hall and were originally very similar in design, with fireplaces and doorways; the west center room also had a closet, while the east center room had a stair to the attic (accessible from the center hall). At the rear of the house are the northwest room, northeast room, and a central bathroom, all accessed by a rear hall at the end of the central second-story passageway. Originally, the rooms in the rear comprised a single space, but the rooms were subdivided before 1820, likely to provide a bedroom for each Hamilton child. The rooms at either corner have fireplaces, and the northwest room also had a closet. ==Operation==

Most of Hamilton's original belongings were sold after his death to other American institutions such as the Smithsonian Institution, New York Public Library, New-York Historical Society, and Museum of the City of New York. as well as a pair of guns that Hamilton brought to his duel with Burr. In the mid-20th century, the house exhibited various objects such as a bust of Alexander Hamilton by Giuseppe Ceracchi; a dress worn by Eliza Hamilton; and a collection of books from the Hamiltons' family library. The modern-day exhibits include some of Hamilton's old books, papers, and furniture, as well as drawings and diagrams of the house created as part of the Historic American Buildings Survey. In the dining room are late-18th-century teacups with wooden handles, a replica of a wine cooler given by George Washington, the second floor is used only by staff. == Critical reception ==

Architecturally, the New York Sun called the house "a good example of the comfortable country house" of the early 19th century, and The New York Times described the house as "substantial rather than elegant". By 1926, the writer Chesla Sherlock lamented that "so little of the home he loved so well has been preserved to us", citing the fact that the house had been moved and all its furniture dispersed. When the Grange was located at Convent Avenue, the historian Hugh Howard described the house as being hemmed in and forgotten about, akin to "a misplaced book on a library shelf". Upon the house's reopening in 2011, The Wall Street Journal said that the house "at long last is a fitting monument to one of America's greatest Founding Fathers". Frommer's guidebook gave the house one star out of three, criticizing the lack of original furniture and the small number of rooms on display. as well as the name of the Hamilton Grange Library on 145th Street. The surrounding neighborhood was also known as Hamilton Grange until the 1930s, when it became known as Hamilton Heights. ==See also==