Hamilton Grange National Memorial

Hamilton Grange National Memorial This was the country home of US Founding Father Alexander Hamilton.
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in 1804, Jerome Bonaparte, youngest brother of Napoleon Bonaparte, dined with Alexander Hamilton at the Grange. Bonapa...
05/13/2026

in 1804, Jerome Bonaparte, youngest brother of Napoleon Bonaparte, dined with Alexander Hamilton at the Grange. Bonaparte brought with him Elizabeth Patterson, a wealthy woman reputed to be the most beautiful woman in Baltimore, who he had recently married. When Bonaparte returned to France the following year, Elizabeth was not permitted to enter the country. Emperor Napoleon had his younger brother's marriage to Elizabeth annulled, so that the emperor could marry off his brother to a European noblewoman, thus further consolidating his power in Europe. Elizabeth Patterson Bonaparte gave birth to the couple's son, Jerome Napoleon Bonaparte, in England before returning to the United States. She never saw her former husband again, who later married Princess Katharina of Württemberg.

The American line of the Bonaparte family continued to live in Maryland. Jerome’s grandson, Charles Joseph Bonaparte, served on President Theodore Roosevelt’s cabinet as both Secretary of the Navy and as Attorney General.

Images: “Jérôme Bonaparte, King of Westphalia", portrait on porcelain by Sophie Liénard. Napoleon-empire.org. “Elizabeth Patterson Bonaparte” by Gilbert Stuart.

May the Fourth be with you! One of the things Alexander Hamilton is most famous for is his duel with Aaron Burr, and Sta...
05/04/2026

May the Fourth be with you! One of the things Alexander Hamilton is most famous for is his duel with Aaron Burr, and Star Wars day has us thinking about other famous duels.

Happy Earth Day from Hamilton Grange National Memorial! Since 1970, Earth Day has been celebrated across the United Stat...
04/22/2026

Happy Earth Day from Hamilton Grange National Memorial! Since 1970, Earth Day has been celebrated across the United States as a day to reflect on how to protect and preserve our environment. The National Park Service was formed with the mission to “preserve unimpaired the natural and cultural resources and values of the national park system for the enjoyment, education, and inspiration of this and future generations.”

In honor of Earth Day, we would like to extend our sincere gratitude to Girl Scout Troop 493 from Flushing, NY, who recently helped clean up the grounds of Hamilton Grange. We invite everyone to celebrate Earth Day by doing something to support our planet and our parks.

(Images: NPS) The first image shows Troop 493 raking and cleaning up trash on the grounds of Hamilton Grange, the second shows them posing with a large pile of trash bags.

April is National Volunteer Month, and thanks to our volunteers, our garden at Hamilton Grange is beginning to bloom!Ale...
04/17/2026

April is National Volunteer Month, and thanks to our volunteers, our garden at Hamilton Grange is beginning to bloom!

Alexander Hamilton was involved in every aspect of planning his country home, including the landscaping and gardens, and our gardens today are partly based on Hamilton’s own writings and plans. Hamilton Grange has a dedicated group of volunteers that maintains the garden year-round, and within the next month the lawn in front of the Grange will be bursting with color. In the image below you can see some of our early spring blooms, including daffodils, violets, and hyacinths.

Happy National Pet Day!Pets are an important part of family life in many households, and Hamilton Grange was no differen...
04/11/2026

Happy National Pet Day!

Pets are an important part of family life in many households, and Hamilton Grange was no different. In an 1802 letter to his South Carolina friend and fellow politician, Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, Alexander Hamilton mentioned “My daughter adds another request, which is for three or four of your peroquets (parakeets). She is very fond of birds.” This was Angelica Hamilton, the older of Alexander and Eliza’s two daughters. Angelica had suffered a lapse in her mental health following the death of her brother Phillip a year earlier, and her parents made every effort to make her happy.

The birds Hamilton requested may have been Carolina Parakeets, a small species of parrot native to the United States that went extinct in the early 20th century.

(Image: National Galery of Art) Carolina Parakeets by John James Audubon, who lived near Hamilton Grange in the mid-19th century.

The duel between Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr may be the most famous in American history, but it is only one of man...
04/08/2026

The duel between Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr may be the most famous in American history, but it is only one of many duels that happened between American politicians. Today marks the anniversary of a duel fought by Henry Clay and John Randolph, a duel that bears striking similarities to the one fought between Hamilton and Burr.

At the time of the duel Henry Clay was serving as Secretary of State under President John Quincy Adams. One of the most prominent politicians of his time, Henry Clay also served as the youngest ever Speaker of the House and as a US Senator from Kentucky. John Randolph was a Senator from Virginia. Clay challenged Randolph to the duel after Randolph insulted him in a senate speech, referring to his relationship with President Adams as an alliance between “the puritan (Adams) with the blackleg (Clay)”. The term "blackleg" referred to Clay's reputation in his youth for gambling and drinking.

Randolph accepted the challenge, but much like Alexander Hamilton two decades earlier, resolved to “throw away” his shot, having no wish to harm Clay. As a lifelong bachelor, Randolph confessed to a friend that he believed Clay, a family man, had more to lose. Randolph also stated that if he saw any "malice" in Clay’s eyes, he might change his mind.

in 1826, the two men met for their duel in Arlington, VA. Both men missed their first shot, although Clay’s bullet grazed Randolph’s coat. Randolph fired his second shot directly into the air. Seeing this, Clay lowered his gun, approached Randolph and said, “I trust God, my dear sir, you are unhurt.” “You owe me a coat, Mr. Clay,” Randolph replied. Clay responded, “I am glad the debt is not greater, Mr. Randolph.”

Image: Virginia Department of Historic Resources. Alt. text: An illustration of the moment when John Randolph fired his shot into the air during his duel with Henry Clay.

It has been a long and cold winter, but spring is finally coming to Hamilton Grange with the appearance of these crocuse...
03/27/2026

It has been a long and cold winter, but spring is finally coming to Hamilton Grange with the appearance of these crocuses, our first flowers of 2026! Alexander Hamilton wrote many letters describing his plans for the Grange’s gardens, and our gardens today are partly based on those documents. If you come to visit the Grange in a few weeks, you’ll find it bursting with color!

(Image: CSwenson) Several small flowers extend from the dirt in front of Hamilton Grange.

The duel between Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr may be the most famous in American history, but it's only one of many...
03/22/2026

The duel between Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr may be the most famous in American history, but it's only one of many duels that have happened between prominent Americans. Today we're looking at the duel between Stephen Decatur and James Barron.

Stephen Decatur was a distinguished United States naval officer who served during the Quasi-War with France and the War of 1812. A nighttime raid led by Decatur to destroy the captured USS Philadelphia during the First Barbary War was called by British Vice Admiral Lord Horatio Nelson "the most bold and daring act of the age."

in 1820 a long -simmering rivalry between Decatur and Commodore James Barron finally erupted in violence. Barron had long believed that Decatur was undercutting his career, and he challenged Decatur to a duel over remarks he made regarding Barron’s surrender to the British in the 1807 Chesapeake-Leopard Affair. The duel took place at the Bladensburg Dueling Grounds just outside Washington D.C. at 9 o'clock in the morning. Both men were shot in the first exchange of fire, and both were grievously wounded. As they were carried off the field Barron called out "God bless you, Decatur" and Decatur responded "Farewell, farewell, Barron". Barron recovered, but Decatur died that night.

(Image: Library of Congress) The image shows Stephen Decatur standing in uniform on the deck of a sailing ship.

in 1776, 250 years ago, the British evacuated Boston, where they had been under siege by Patriot forces for nine month...
03/17/2026

in 1776, 250 years ago, the British evacuated Boston, where they had been under siege by Patriot forces for nine months.

General Henry Knox of the Continental Army had spent the winter of 1775 into 1776 dragging heavy cannons captured at Fort Ticonderoga across New York and Massachusetts. On their arrival in Boston, General Washington had them strategically placed on Dorchester Heights, a prominent hill overlooking the city. Faced with the prospect of heavy shelling from this position, the British chose to leave the city.

Their next destination, after a stop in Nova Scotia, would be New York City, where a young artillery captain named Alexander Hamilton faced the prospect of an invasion. In a letter, Hamilton described the mood in the city on a letter “under the influence of a general panic.” General Washington travelled to the city the following month, and on June 29, the British fleet arrived in the lower harbor.

(Image: National Park Service/©Louis S. Glanzman) An artist’s depiction of the fortification of Dorchester Heights. George Washington and several other men look out across Boston Harbor from Dorchester Heights as fortifications are dug.

As a writer, proper grammar was important to Alexander Hamilton, and this is visible inside some of the books in our col...
03/14/2026

As a writer, proper grammar was important to Alexander Hamilton, and this is visible inside some of the books in our collection.

The picture below is a page from a book in our collection that Alexander Hamilton owned, “Modern Europe Vol. III”. In the sentence “Happily the plot was discovered by the vigilance of Secretary Walsingham; and Babbington, and thirteen others…” you can see that someone, quite possibly Hamilton himself, crossed out the word “and” so that it reads “Happily the plot was discovered by the vigilance of Secretary Walsingham; Babbington, and thirteen others…”

Whether he was serving as General Washington’s aide-de-camp or as the first Secretary of the Treasury, Hamilton’s fastidious attention to detail was a major part of his professional success.

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414 W 141st Street
New York, NY
10031

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Wednesday 10am - 4pm
Thursday 10am - 4pm
Friday 10am - 4pm
Saturday 10am - 4pm
Sunday 10am - 4pm

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