Hamilton Grange National Memorial
St. Nicholas Park
414 West 141st Street
Harlem
Manhattan
Hamilton Grange National Memorial is a historic house museum within St. Nicholas Park in the Hamilton Heights section of Harlem. Operated by the National Park Service (NPS), the structure was the only home ever owned by Alexander Hamilton. 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 three sites are all within the bounds of Alexander Hamilton's original estate. The current site is close to the campus of City College of New York (CCNY), a unit of the City University of New York (CUNY). It is a New York City and 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.
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. On the first floor are Hamilton's study, a parlor, a dining room, and two additional spaces. The second floor was used as bedrooms.
above and below, a scale model of the house that is located in a room on the lower level
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 32 acres. Hamilton worked at his law office in Lower Manhattan, a three-hour round trip from his estate by stagecoach, several times each week.
Hamilton lived at the house for two years, dying after his duel with Aaron Burr on July 11, 1804. 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. Eliza is recorded as having sent correspondence from the Grange through at least 1819. She is recorded as having sold the Grange in 1833; at the time, the estate covered over 32 acres (13 ha). The house was sold for $25,000 (equivalent to $758,000 in 2022. By the mid-1850s, the area was still rural, although gradually densifying. In May 1960, U.S. Senator Jacob Javits introduced a bill in Congress to designate Hamilton Grange as a national memorial, which occurred that December.
Hamilton Grange's popularity increased significantly after the Broadway musical Hamilton opened in 2015, 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.
above and below, Hamilton Grange in winter
