MUSEUM REVIEW
A Founder’s at Home
Joshua Bright for The New York Times
Hamilton Grange Alexander Hamilton's house is reopening at its new site, in St. Nicholas Park in Hamilton Heights. The structure, built in 1802 and relocated twice, has undergone a $14.5 million renovation.
By EDWARD ROTHSTEIN
Published: September 15, 2011
When you look at Alexander Hamilton’s home comfortably nestled on the sloping hillside of St. Nicholas Park in an area of northern Manhattan that has long been known as Hamilton Heights, it almost seems to be ... well ... at home.
ArtsBeat
The latest on the arts, coverage of live events, critical reviews, multimedia extravaganzas and much more.Join the discussion.
Joshua Bright for The New York Times
Alexander Hamilton's Grange with its new neighbors in Hamilton Heights.
Joshua Bright for The New York Times
Items in the dining room, painted the original yellow, include a silver plateau, meant to reflect light from the candles it held, from Hamilton's time.
Admittedly there are a few jarring juxtapositions with nearby buildings, none of which can claim anything close to its 1802 vintage. And there is the sense you often have in New York City when a free-standing house looks as though it should have far more space surrounding it than it does.
And originally this two-story house did indeed sit atop a plot of land — a little over 32 acres — that Hamilton purchased here and named the Grange. That elevation allowed views of both the Hudson and Harlem Rivers from the house’s capacious windows and from the long piazzas that stretch along its sides. Those porches still give its Federalist-style solidity a faint hint of more Southern climes, thoroughly appropriate to its original owner, who was born, after all, in the West Indies.
But with its reopening this Saturday under the auspices of the National Park Service after a relocation and five years of renovations costing $14.5 million, this house may have finally found a home.
The building has actually been moved twice, the first time in 1889 (Hamilton’s widow had sold it in 1833), as the Manhattan street grid was creeping north. A developer donated it to St. Luke’s Episcopal Church, which moved it 250 feet from its original hilltop to Convent Avenue at 141st Street, where it was used for worship. Over time it became hemmed in, by St. Luke’s new Romanesque building and by an apartment house that hugged its opposite side.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/16/arts/design/alexander-hamiltons-renovated-grange-review.html
No comments:
Post a Comment