Historic house in Manhattan, New York
Hamilton Grange National Memorial (also known as Hamilton Grange or the Grange) is a historic house museum within St. Nicholas Park in the Hamilton Heights neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City, United States. Operated by the National Park Service (NPS), the structure was the only home ever owned by Alexander Hamilton, a U.S. founding father. The house contains exhibits for visitors, as well as various rooms with restored 19th-century interiors. Originally located near present-day 143rd Street, the house was moved in 1889 to 287 Convent Avenue before being relocated again in 2008 to St. Nicholas Park. The structure is a New York City designated landmark and a United States national memorial, and it is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Hamilton acquired land for the estate from Jacob Schieffelin and Samuel Bradhurst starting in 1800, and he commissioned architect John McComb Jr. to design a country home there. The house was completed in 1802, just two years before Hamilton's death in 1804. The house remained in his family for 30 years afterward and was then sold several times, including to the Ward family, who occupied the house between 1845 and 1876. The original estate was parceled off and sold in the 1880s, and the house was first relocated after St. Luke's Episcopal Church bought it in 1889. The church used Hamilton Grange as a chapel and a rectory before selling it to the American Scenic and Historic Preservation Society (ASHPS) in 1924. The ASHPS opened the house as a museum in 1930 and handed over operations to the NPS in 1960. For the next four decades, the NPS attempted to move the house so the building could be restored. The Grange was closed for restoration and relocation between 2006 and 2011.
The Grange is a two-story frame Federal-style house with a ground level basement. It is a rectangular structure with porticos on the front and rear facades, as well as piazzas to its left and right. The basement dates from 2011 and contains the gift shop and exhibits, while the other two stories are part of the original house. On the first floor are Hamilton's study, a parlor, a dining room, and two additional spaces. The second-floor spaces were used as bedrooms. Most of Hamilton's original belongings were sold after his death to other American institutions, and many of the current objects in the house are replicas created in 2011. The Grange has been the subject of architectural commentary over the years, and it is the namesake of several structures in the neighborhood.
Site.
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 Grange name extended across much of the surrounding area, which remained largely rural until the late 19th century.
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. It was located on the east side of the avenue and sloped down significantly to the east, toward Hamilton Terrace. 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. The parcel covers nearly 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. During his career, Hamilton was a military officer, lawyer, and author of some of "The Federalist Papers". He also married Elizabeth Schuyler in 1780, just after the American Revolutionary War, and served as the first United States Secretary of the Treasury in 1789. 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 from Samuel Bradhurst. 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.
Development.
After officially acquiring the Schieffelin site, Alexander, Eliza, and their seven children moved into an existing farmhouse on the site. Alexander hired architect John McComb Jr. to remodel that house for an estimated $70.90 (). McComb had, at the time, just designed Gracie Mansion and was in a competition to design New York City Hall. Hamilton also commissioned McComb to design a country home on the estate. 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; Hamilton had defended Weeks's brother in a murder trial two years earlier.
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. Hamilton wrote a letter to Eliza in late 1803, requesting alterations to an ice house on the site. 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.
The Hamilton family moved into the house in August 1802. Known as the Grange, the estate was named after the estate of Hamilton's grandfather in Scotland. Hamilton acquired another parcel from Bradhurst in January 1803, bringing his total acquisition to . The house was the only residence that Hamilton owned in his lifetime. Hamilton, wishing to landscape the area around the house, consulted physician David Hosack for guidance. Hamilton planted a circle of 13 sweet gum trees, symbolizing the Thirteen Colonies, and he also planted a circular flower bed. Though early-20th-century sources described him as an avid farmer and gardener, he had very little free time and described the house itself as his hobby.
Hamilton worked in Lower Manhattan, a three-hour round trip from his estate; he traveled to his law office by stagecoach several times a week. His house was close to the Albany Post Road, which led directly to Lower Manhattan. Hamilton also had a second residence in Lower Manhattan, and his wife maintained the Grange during his absences. Details of Hamilton's life at the Grange are known only from accounts written by his relatives, friends, and followers. The historians Alfred Mongin and Anne D. Whidden wrote that the Grange housed not only the Hamiltons and their seven children, but also the children of friends or family. 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. During the winter, the family stayed in a house on Fulton Street in Lower Manhattan.
Hamilton lived at the house for two years, dying after his duel with Aaron Burr on July 11, 1804. Although he had been a successful lawyer, Hamilton was "essentially land poor" when he died. 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 and set up a trust to take over the estate. The purchase price excluded approximately $7,600 in mortgage loans that Hamilton had received from the site's previous owners, Schieffelin and Bradhurst.
Eliza Hamilton took title to the Grange on July 6, 1805, but Hamilton's legal estate still owed about $55,000, which was only repaid after additional land had been sold off. The last debts on the house were paid off in 1808. During the 1810s, Eliza Hamilton received land and payment from the federal government to compensate for her husband's military service. Eliza is recorded as having sent correspondence from the Grange through at least 1819. Although a 20th-century source describes the family as having rented out the house, 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 house was sold for $25,000 (). The buyer, a banker named Moses Henriques, also assumed a $9,000 mortgage that had been placed on the property. Henriques promptly sold the house to real estate speculator Theodore E. Davis, who resold it to Isaac G. Pearson in 1835 for $52,511 (). Pearson put up the house as collateral for a $15,000 mortgage loan given to Samuel Ward. The latter took over ownership of the house in 1845. The family of Ward's brother, the lawyer William G. Ward, moved into the house. Although William Ward died in 1848, his widow and the families of his sons continued to live there during the summer.
By the mid-1850s, the area was gradually densifying. The house was accessed only by a driveway that