The Grange
The founder of the U.S. financial system and George Washington’s Treasury Secretary, Alexander Hamilton moved to New York in 1772 and commissioned architect John McComb Jr. to design a country home on his 32 acres of land in upper Manhattan, in what is now Harlem. Hamilton named the mansion “the Grange” after his grandfather’s estate in Scotland. Unfortunately, he only lived in the house for two years before he died in a history-making duel against Aaron Burr in 1804.
As the city grew, the Federalist-style house was moved in 1889 to save it from demolition. The building was moved again in 2008 to the southeast corner of St. Nicholas Park at West 141st Street, reports DNA Info.com.
The once-neglected building, which underwent a meticulous $14.5 million renovation that restored many of the home’s historical elements, opened to the public in 2011. Visitors can view is in much the same design as it was originally, even the paint colors, although its new orientation is different from what Hamilton and McComb originally envisioned, much to the chagrin of many preservationists, the New York Times reports.
