Hamilton Grange: Alexander Hamilton's Country Home (1802)
Hamilton Grange · St. Nicholas Park, 414 W 141st St
In Hamilton's day
Hamilton built a Federal-style country house on about 32 acres in upper Manhattan, nine miles from his law office, designed by John McComb Jr. and named after his grandfather's estate in Scotland. The family moved in in 1802.
It was his home for barely two years. His eldest son Philip had died in a duel in Weehawken in November 1801.
In 1802 everything north of today's Houston Street was farmland, woods and scattered country estates, and Harlem was a separate village. Hamilton commuted downtown by carriage along the Kingsbridge and Bloomingdale roads, a long ride each way.
Visiting today
The only house Hamilton ever owned, now a National Park Service site. It has been moved twice, most recently in 2008 into St. Nicholas Park, close to its original spot. Admission is free; check the NPS site for hours.
Nearby in Hamilton's day
- Morris house: Washington's headquarters1776
Washington's headquarters in September and October 1776, now the Morris-Jumel Mansion. In 1833 Aaron Burr married the owner, Eliza Jumel, in its parlor.
- Battle of Harlem Heights1776
On 16 September 1776 American troops pushed back the British in a buckwheat field near today's 120th Street, a much-needed lift after the losses on Long Island and at Kip's Bay.
- Fort Washington1776
American fort on the heights above the Hudson. It fell to the British on 16 November 1776, with nearly 3,000 Americans taken prisoner, the worst American loss of the war to that point.