Alexander Hamilton's House Moved
By Hannah Lepow | Online Only | June 18, 2008
Alexander Hamilton, co-author of the Federalist papers and the first treasury secretary, is all over New York City. There are statues of him at the Museum of the City of New York, in Central Park near the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and on the campus of Columbia University. His grave at Trinity Church on Wall Street is one of the most visited of the churchyard's famous occupants.
But the Harlem house where Hamilton spent the last two years of his life, known as the Grange, had almost been forgotten. It was brought in the spotlight earlier this month, when it was moved one block, to St. Nicholas Park.
The 206-year-old house was suffering from a very contemporary problem: lack of space. In its previous location, the Grange was situated between an apartment building and St. Luke's Episcopal Church, its front facade barely visible. Designed by John McComb Jr., an architect of New York's City Hall, the Federal-style house was built on a promontory that had provided Hamilton with panoramic views.
On June 7, the two-story, 298-ton house took a three-hour-and-40-minute trip to regain those views.
"This was a heroic engineering and move effort," says Peg Breen, president of the New York Landmarks Conservancy. "The house was inappropriately wedged for years. It's about time the house and Hamilton got this attention."
The National Park Service, which owns the Grange, hopes to reopen the house to the public in the fall of 2009.
Read more about the Grange's relocation
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