287 Convent Avenue, 1932.
Hamilton Grange in its second location! The 1802 home of Alexander Hamilton was originally located at approximately West 143rd Street between what is now Convent Avenue and Hamilton Place. Built by John McComb Jr., the two-story Federal style house was only home to Hamilton for two years before his death by duel in 1804. The home remained in his family until the 1840s.
By the 1880s the home had been condemned and was likely to be razed for the implementation of the street grid uptown. St. Luke's, an Episcopal parish originally organized in Greenwich Village, had recently moved uptown. In 1889, the church had the structure moved east and south (about 250 feet) to a new lot at 287 Convent just north of 141st Street.
For the move many features of the home, including the original porches, were removed, the traditional entrance was sealed (that side of the house was no longer the front), and a new staircase and entrance were created once the home was in place. The church used the house for their first uptown services in 1889, but soon after built their own massive Richardsonian Romanesque church. In the 1910s a new apartment building was constructed within inches of the Grange (it can be seen at left in this 1932 photograph).
The home became a public museum in 1924. It stood, literally encircled on one side by the church and squeezed in on the other side by the apartment building, until 2008. After being closed in 2006 for architectural and structural surveys, it was decided that a more appropriate place for the house was in nearby St. Nicholas Park. The home was raised high enough to pass over the loggia (porch) of the church that curved around it. In July of 2008, from its spot on stilts in the middle of Convent Avenue, the home was moved 500 feet to the park. Attached to its new foundation, the home had its original staircase and entrance restored. It also had 13 sweet gum trees (for the original 13 states) installed nearby, exactly as Hamilton had planted in 1802. Hamilton Grange reopened to the public in September 2011.
