King's College: Hamilton Arrives in New York (1772–73)
King's College · Park Place & Church Street
In Hamilton's day
Hamilton arrived in the colonies in 1772, a teenage clerk from St. Croix whose writing had impressed island patrons enough to pay his way north. After a year of preparation at a grammar school in Elizabethtown, New Jersey, he began studying at King's College around the end of 1773.
The college stood on open ground west of the Common, at the northern edge of a city of about 25,000 people. His studies ended when the war reached New York in 1776.
“My Ambition is prevalent.”
Letter to Edward Stevens, 11 November 1769
Visiting today
King's College became Columbia University and moved uptown in the 19th century. Nothing of the original building survives; the site is a few blocks of office towers around Park Place, a short walk west of City Hall Park.
Nearby in Hamilton's day
- Declaration read to the troops1776
On 9 July 1776 the Declaration of Independence was read to Washington's army on the Common.
- Bridewell1775
City jail on the Common, used to hold American prisoners during the British occupation.
- Liberty Pole1766
Raised on the Common by the Sons of Liberty after the Stamp Act's repeal, and repeatedly cut down by British soldiers.
- St. Paul's Chapel1766
Manhattan's oldest surviving church. Washington prayed here after his inauguration in 1789.
- John Street Theatre1767
The city's main playhouse in Hamilton's day. President Washington attended performances here.
- Madison's boardinghouse1787
James Madison lodged here on Maiden Lane while writing The Federalist with Hamilton and John Jay.