page_title: Hamilton Grange National Memorial
section_title: Second relocation
hierarchical_section_title: Hamilton Grange National Memorial / Second relocation
caption_attribution_description: English: Hamilton Grange at St Nicholas Park - October 25, 2009
context_page_description: Hamilton Grange National Memorial, also known as The Grange or the Hamilton Grange Mansion, is a National Park Service site in St. Nicholas Park, Manhattan, New York City, that preserves the relocated home of U.S. Founding Father Alexander Hamilton. The mansion holds a restoration of the interior rooms and an interactive exhibit on the newly constructed ground floor for visitors. The Hamilton Heights subsection of Harlem derived its name from Hamilton's 32-acre estate there.
context_section_description: On May 9, 2006, the Hamilton Grange Memorial was closed to the public to allow for extensive architectural and structural investigations as part of a long-term plan to move the house to nearby St. Nicholas Park. The park location was judged a more appropriate setting for display that would permit restoration of features lost in the 1889 move. The new location would also keep the house in the neighborhood and within the boundary of Hamilton's original 32-acre (130,000 m²) estate.
  Work in St. Nicholas Park for tree removal and foundation construction began in February 2008. The actual move of the Grange began with elevation of the building in one piece over the loggia of St. Luke's Church and onto Convent Avenue. Over several weeks it was gradually raised on hydraulic jacks, and more than 7,000 pieces of wood cribbing were inserted under the foundation. It was then moved on rollers along steel beams to wooden stilts of matching height erected in the middle of Convent Avenue, between West 141st and 142nd Streets, which held the entire house approximately ten feet off the ground while traffic was routed around it. These stilts were then slowly disassembled to leave the house resting on dollies, where it received interior bracing and was wrapped in two miles of chains. Finally on June 7, 2008, it completed its journey by being rolled one block south on Convent Avenue and then one block east on 141st Street (down a 6% grade) to the new St. Nicholas Park location. The New York Times's David W. Dunlap calculated its speed over the 500 feet at .04 mph. The six-hour event was a popular neighborhood attraction covered extensively in the press. The house was secured to its new foundation, original porches were rebuilt and the original main entrance doorway and main staircase within the entry foyer were restored using original materials recovered from elsewhere in the house. Landscaping around the Grange's new home includes among the tree plantings 13 sweet gum trees as in Hamilton's original garden, a stone wall, a circular rose garden planted in front to Hamilton's own specifications, and paths.
  The Grange re-opened to the general public on September 17, 2011. A ceremony was held with Hamilton descendants in attendance and tours of the restored interiors took place through the day. In the renovated house, a visitor's center is located in the entirely newly constructed ground floor, where the kitchen, laundry and servants' rooms would have been. The Grange now has a security detail and possible video monitoring during the evening hours. At its new location, it is next to the City College of the City University of New York campus.
caption: Hamilton Grange at St. Nicholas Park in October 2009.
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