Hamilton Grange National Memorial

New York
NY

Hamilton Grange in upper Manhattan

QUICK FACTS
  • Hamilton only lived in the home for two summers; he was fatally wounded by Aaron Burr in a dual 11-Jul-1804.
  • This is the third location for the house. It was moved in 1889 (by four blocks) and then again to its present location (2 blocks) in 2008.
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Completed in 1802, Alexander Hamilton commissioned this Federal style country home on 32-acres in upper Manhattan for use during the summer by his family. He was deeply involved with the architect, John McComb, Jr., to ensure the design met his specifications. Hamilton named it The Grange after his family’s ancestral home in Scotland.

Moved to a new location in 2008, the house sits on a portion of St. Nicholas Park in upper Manhattan, which was part of the original estate. It re-opened 17 September 2011 after $14.5 million in renovations by the National Park Service.

Associated People

As in the case of his career as commander-in-chief, Washington’s most important act as president was his giving up the office. The significance of his retirement from the presidency is easily overlooked today, but his contemporaries knew what it meant. Most people assumed that Washington might be president as long as he lived, that he would be a kind of elected monarch like the king of Poland. Hence his retirement from the presidency enhanced his moral authority and set a precedent for future presidents.

Gordon S. Wood
Empire of Liberty: A History of the Early Republic, 1789–1815 (2009)