Hamilton Grange National Memorial

The Hamilton Grange National Memorial is the last house where Alexander Hamilton, one of the founding fathers of the United States, lived in the early 19th century. It is located in St. Nicholas Park, New York City and is managed by the National Park Service.

History

Alexander Hamilton was born in the Caribbean and grew up there. At the age of 17 he came in 1772 to New York to study at King's College (now Columbia University). During his career, Hamilton was an officer, lawyer, member of the United States Constitutional Convention, American statesman and the first finance minister of the United States.

Hamilton commissioned architect John McComb Jr. with the construction of a country house on his 130,000 m² estate in Upper Manhattan. The two-story Federal-style house was completed in 1802, two years before Hamilton died in a duel with his political rival Aaron Burr on July 11, 1804 died. The house was named after the estate of his grandfather in Scotland, " The Grange ". Hamilton's mother, Rachel Faucett Lavien, lived there for a while and was buried on a property with the name of Grange on the island of St. Croix. The Grange was the only house that had Hamilton and it remained for 30 years after his death in his family.

The Harlem Neighborhood Hamilton Heights was named after Hamilton.

First relocation

In 1889, the congregation of St. Luke's Episcopal Church in Greenwich Village decided to move to Harlem and acquired lands in Hamilton Heights, which include Grange belonged. They staggered the house four blocks west to address 287 Convent Avenue, to make way for the construction of profitable townhouses. The staircase was removed and rebuilt for a temporary entrance on the side of the house. The original entrance was boarded up.

St. Luke's, chose it for his community work and built next door from 1892 to 1895, a neuro manic building. As the building was now " pinched " between the church and the six-story apartment house, many special features of the house were no longer visible.

The building was appointed on 19 December 1960 for the National Historic Landmark and on 27 April 1962, the Congress approved the appointment of a National Memorial. At the time it was found that the restricted site at the Convent Avenue a National Memorial was unworthy and that the country house as a freestanding building would have to be shown. However, the building in 1962 was not given because there was an overwhelming local opposition to the move. The Grange was included administratively in the National Register of Historic Places on October 15, 1966.

Second Relocation

On 9 May 2006, the Hamilton Grange Memorial was closed to the public to allow extensive architectural and structural studies that were necessary for the planned transfer of the building in the nearby St. Nicholas Park. At this worthy of a memorial site, it is possible to restore features of the house that had been lost with the move 1899. The new location is also in the neighborhood of the previous site and is located within the boundary of Hamilton's original 130,000 sqm estate.

The work began in February 2008 with the removal of trees and construction of the foundation. The building was then lifted in one piece from the loggia of St. Luke 's Church at the Convent Avenue. There, the house was placed in the middle of the road on custom built, 3 meter high columns and the traffic was diverted around the house. On 7 June 2008, the move to the new site was completed. The 6-hour event was a big attraction, have been reported extensively in the press

After anchoring the house on the new foundation the original porch and the former entrance area have been restored. The outdoor area was designed with tree plantings, stone walls and paths. Since September 2011, the building is open to the public again.

The Grange is adjacent to the City College of the City University of New York.