Hamilton Grange National Memorial

Infobox nrhp2
name = Hamilton Grange National Memorial
nhl=yes
nmem=yes


caption = Hamilton Grange
location = Upper Manhattan, New York City, NY
nearest_city =
lat_degrees = 40 | lat_minutes = 49 | lat_seconds = 20.55 | lat_direction = N
long_degrees = 73 | long_minutes = 56 | long_seconds = 53.87 | long_direction = W
area =
built = 1802
architect = John McComb Jr.
architecture = Federal style
designated_nhl = December 19, 1960cite web|url=http://tps.cr.nps.gov/nhl/detail.cfm?ResourceId=42&ResourceType=Building
title=Hamilton Grange (Alexander Hamilton House)|date=2007-09-14|work=National Historic Landmark summary listing|publisher=National Park Service]
added = October 15, 1966cite web|url=http://www.nr.nps.gov/|title=National Register Information System|date=2007-01-23|work=National Register of Historic Places|publisher=National Park Service]
visitation_num = | visitation_year =
refnum = 66000097
mpsub =
governing_body = National Park Service

Hamilton Grange National Memorial is a National Park Service site in St. Nicholas Park, New York City that preserves the early 19th-century home of American Founding Father Alexander Hamilton.

History

Alexander Hamilton was born and raised in the West Indies and came to New York in 1772 at age 17 to study at King's College (now Columbia University). During his career, Hamilton was a military officer, lawyer, member of the United States Constitutional Convention, American statesman, and the first United States Secretary of the Treasury.

Hamilton commissioned architect John McComb Jr. [Howard, Hugh and Straus III, Roger, Houses of the Founding Fathers (2007)] to design a country home on Hamilton's 32-acre (0.13 km²) estate in upper Manhattan. The two-story frame Federal style house was completed in 1802, just two years before Hamilton's death during a duel with political rival Aaron Burr on July 11, 1804. The house was named "The Grange" after Hamilton's grandfather's estate in Scotland. (A grange was originally a place where food was grown for a monastery.) Hamilton's mother, Rachel Faucett Lavien, also lived there for a time and is buried at an estate named "Grange" on the island of St. Croix. [Exhibit on Rachel Faucett Lavien in Fort Christiansvaern, Christiansted National Historic Site. Observed March 1, 2007.] The Grange was the only home ever owned by Hamilton and it remained in his family for 30 years after his death.

The Hamilton Heights neighborhood of Harlem derived its name from Hamilton and the Grange.

First Relocation

In 1889, the congregation of St. Luke's Episcopal Church in Greenwich Village decided to move uptown and purchased land in Hamilton Heights that included The Grange. The church moved the house four blocks west to a site at 287 Convent Avenue in order to free space for a profitable row house development. The original porches and other features were removed for the move. The staircase was removed and retrofitted to accommodate a makeshift entrance on the side of the house and original grand federal style entrance was boarded up.

St. Lukes used the house for services and subsequently erected a Richardsonian Romanesque building on the site between 1892 and 1895, thus tightly enclosing the building between the church and an adjacent six-story apartment building and hiding many of its features. [ [http://www.nysun.com/arts/hamilton-heights-lose-its-namesake Francis Morrone, "Hamilton Heights To Lose Its Namesake?" "New York Sun", 27 March 2008] Accessed 4 July 2008.] [ [http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/08/nyregion/08grange.html?em&ex=1213070400&en=9a165d615bf9adcf&ei=5087%0A David W. Dunlap, "Witnessing a House, and History, on the Move" "New York Times", 8 June 2008] Accessed 8 June 2008.]

The property was designated a National Historic Landmark on December 19, 1960 and Congress authorized the National Memorial on April 27, 1962. citation|title=PDFlink| [http://pdfhost.focus.nps.gov/docs/NHLS/Text/66000097.pdf National Register of Historic Places Inventory-Nomination: Hamilton Grange National Memorial] |334 KB|author=Ricardo Torres-Reyes|date=April 1975|publisher=National Park Service and PDFlink| [http://pdfhost.focus.nps.gov/docs/NHLS/Photos/66000097.pdf Accompanying photo, exterior, from 1975.] |32 KB] At the time it was determined that the claustrophobic Convent Avenue setting was inappropriate and that the country house should be viewed as freestanding building. However, the house was not relocated in 1962 because of overwhelming local opposition to moving it out of the neighborhood. The Grange was administratively listed on the National Register of Historic Places on October 15, 1966.

econd Relocation

On May 9, 2006, The Hamilton Grange Memorial was closed to the public to allow for extensive architectural and structural investigations as part of a long term plan to move the house to nearby St. Nicholas Park. The park location was judged a more appropriate setting for display that would permit restoration of features lost in the 1889 move. The new location would also keep the house in the neighborhood and keep it on land that was within the boundary of Hamilton's original 32-acre estate.

Work in St. Nicholas Park for tree removal and foundation construction began in February 2008. The actual move of the Grange began with elevation of the building in one piece over the loggia of St. Luke's Church and onto Convent Avenue. The Grange was placed on specially-built stilts that held the entire house approximately ten feet off the ground in the middle of Convent Avenue, between W. 145th and 142nd Street while traffic was routed around the house. The house completed its journey on June 7, 2008 by being rolled one block west on Convent Avenue and then one block south on 141st Street (down a 6% grade) to the new St. Nicholas Park location. The six-hour event was a popular neighborhood attraction covered extensively in the press. [ [http://gothamist.com/2008/06/08/moving_this_old.php Gothamist: Moving This Old House] ] [ [http://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation/AP/story/562461.html Miami Herald AP story: Hamilton's home moved to new spot in Harlem] ]

Once the house is secured to its new foundation, the original porches will be rebuilt and the original main entrance doorway and main staircase within the entry foyer will be restored. Landscaping around the Grange's new home will include tree plantings, a stone wall and paths. The Grange will have security detail during the day and possible video monitoring during the evening hours.

References

External links

* "The National Parks: Index 2001–2003". Washington: U.S. Department of the Interior.
*Official NPS website: [http://www.nps.gov/hagr/ Hamilton Grange National Memorial]
* [http://tps.cr.nps.gov/nhl/detail.cfm?ResourceId=42&ResourceType=Building Hamilton Grange (Alexander Hamilton House)] NHL information
* [http://www.hamiltonsociety.org Alexander Hamilton Historical Society (AHHS)]
* [http://www.stnicholaspark.org/index.html Friends of St. Nicholas Park]
* [http://www.supportthegrange.com/index.html Support the Move to St. Nicholas Park]