Hamilton Grange National Memorial

About this property

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.

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Property data from the National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service (public domain).

Description adapted from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

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