“It’s quiet uptown.” So sings Alexander Hamilton about moving to Harlem in the hit eponymous musical chronicling his life which debuted on Broadway to incredible fanfare in 2015. At the time the Founding Father built his “country” house in 1802, “uptown” was indeed placid. Situated on a bucolic 32-acre plot of land nine miles north of the then city limits, traveling to the residence from his downtown law office took Alexander an incredible two hours by carriage! Two hundred plus years later and the area is a bustling metropolis with towering buildings, busy bodegas and brimming shops replacing the once rural farmland. Despite the growth of the city around it, though, Hamilton’s former home remarkably still stands! Said to be the only residence he ever owned (“Like most New Yorkers, he was a lifelong renter,” asserts the Permanent Collection website), the property now serves as a museum honoring the revered statesman.
Born in the British West Indies in either 1755 or 1757 – as Ron Chernow notes in his 2005 book “Alexander Hamilton,” “Few questions bedevil Hamilton biographers more than the baffling matter of his year of birth” – Alexander was a true Renaissance man. A prolific writer, seasoned lawyer, Federalist Party founder, creator of the Revenue-Marine (predecessor to the United States Coast Guard), signer of the Constitution (the only New Yorker to have that distinction) and the first Secretary of the Treasury, he certainly left his mark on America. But he was not without his detractors. Fellow Founding Father and second U.S. president John Adams called him “The most restless, impatient, artful, indefatigable and unprincipled intriguer in the United States.” Regardless, there’s no denying the man helped shape the nation as we know it.
Hamilton’s country house was a later-in-life endeavor. Per Eric Sloane and Edward Anthony’s book “Mr. Daniels and the Grange,” his first mention of plans for the residence was in a November 1798 letter he wrote to his wife, Elizabeth Schuyler Hamilton (aka “Eliza”), which stated, “I have formed a sweet project, of which I will make you my confident [sic] when I come to New York, and in which I rely that you will cooperate with me chearfully [sic]. You may guess and guess and guess again, your guessing will be still in vain. But you will not be the less pleased when you come to understand and realize the scheme.”
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Image Credit: Lindsay Blake The “scheme” was an idyllic Federal-style estate designed by John McComb Jr., the same architect behind Gracie Mansion and New York City Hall. The two-story pad (which also features a basement) initially stood surrounded by gardens and lush landscaping (and little else) on the corner of what is now 143rd St. and Convent Ave. Hamilton dubbed his new estate the “Grange” in honor of the Scotland home of his grandfather, a place where he never actually set foot.
Of the property, Liam Strain of the National Park System said, “The house was designed to be very light and airy with big double-hung windows, big piazzas on the outside. It was a place meant to entertain.” Indeed, beyond the handsome façade sit bright open living spaces including a formal entry, a dining room with a fireplace, a parlor bound by three tall windows and a private study. Two chamber rooms can also be found on the main level with an additional four bedrooms situated upstairs.
Hamilton only lived on the premises for a short time before being famously killed in a duel with fellow statesman Aaron Burr in July 1804. Following his untimely death, Eliza continued to reside at the country house for almost 30 years before ultimately selling to developer Thomas E. Davis in 1833. In the ensuing decades, the area around the Grange was built up considerably and by 1889, the structure was facing demolition. Fortunately, St. Luke’s Episcopal Church rescued the pad by moving it about 500 feet south to a plot of land at 287 Convent Ave. that it had just acquired to build a new parish. The Grange was operated as a chapel in the years that followed as plans for the new church structure were completed.
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Image Credit: NY Landmarks In 1924, the American Scenic and Historic Preservation Society acquired the site from St. Luke’s and transformed it into a museum honoring Hamilton’s life. By that time, the structure was in a pretty sorry state – “a diamond in the rough, a shiny piece of coal tryin’ to reach its goal,” some might say – sandwiched unceremoniously between the new church and an apartment building, virtually unrecognizable from its days as a country house.
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Image Credit: NY Landmarks The National Park Service ultimately took over the reins in 1962 by purchasing the property and declaring it a National Memorial with the intention of moving it to a more suitable location and restoring it to its original glory. That process did not come to fruition for an additional 40-plus years, though, as locals and city organizations haggled over where to relocate the historic structure. The move itself, which finally occurred on June 7, 2008, proved quite the harrowing feat, during which Hamilton’s former residence was lifted off its foundation (as seen above), placed on dollies and then rolled the short distance to where it now stands on the northern tip of St. Nicholas Park at 414 W. 141st St.
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Image Credit: Lindsay Blake Following the move, the Grange was closed for nearly five years to undergo a $14.5 million restoration, “a meticulous process that involved 18 months of architectural investigation,” as National Parks Service spokeswoman Mindi Rambo told the Welcome to Harlem website. The endeavor paid off, though. As the website explains, “It allowed some of the home’s original pieces to be rediscovered. During a previous renovation, the tops of the oversized dining room doors had been sawed off. Architects found them being used as a brace elsewhere in the house and restored the doors.”
The dwelling’s wide porches, long since removed, were also reinstalled during the project, as were the gardens surrounding the property. The interior was fashioned to look much as it did in Alexander’s day, right down to the paint colors, and includes a few original items on display, including his daughter’s piano.
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Image Credit: Lindsay Blake The Hamilton Grange National Memorial, as it is known today, opened to the public in September 2011. At the time, Welcome to Harlem ironically noted, “In restoring the home, the park service also hopes to reanimate the discussion about one of this country’s lesser-known, yet influential Founding Fathers.” Four years later, “Hamilton: An American Musical” hit Broadway and became an instant phenomenon, rendering Alexander’s “lesser-known” status completely moot. Thanks to the gifted hands of Lin-Manuel Miranda, soon the “ten-dollar Founding Father” was all anyone was talking about! Consequently, interest in his onetime country house was also sparked.
Though the musical, along with the rest of Broadway, remains shuttered due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the Grange is currently open Wednesdays through Sundays from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. And tickets are far more attainable than those to the show, which run upwards of $300. Unlike most things in the Big Apple, admission to the museum is actually free!