Hamilton Grange National Memorial

414 W 141st St, New York, NY 10031, USA

New York

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NYC

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NYC

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MUSEUM

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Hamilton Grange National Memorial is a historic house museum within St. Nicholas Park in the Hamilton Heights neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City. Operated by the National Park Service (NPS), the structure was the only home ever owned by U.S. Founding Father 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 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.

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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.

HOME

EST. 1802

By 1798, they were renting a country house in Harlem from their brother-in-law John Barker Church. 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. Hamilton bought the eastern site on August 2, 1800, paying $4,000 for a plot of 15 acres. That September, he bought 3 acres 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.

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. During the winter, the family stayed in a house on Fulton Street in Lower Manhattan.

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.