Merson's Liquor and Wine, January 7, 1941.

Hamilton Grange at its second location before St. Luke's Richardsonian Romanesque church was constructed, ca. 1889.

135 Hamilton Place, ca. 1910. Unfortunately the flourishes at the roofline of this building has since been removed and bricked up.

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.

Hamilton Apartments, ca. 1910.

1560 Amsterdam Avenue, west side, between West 136th and West 138th Streets, showing the Hebrew Orphans Asylum, date unknown. Hebrew Orphans Asylum was established in 1860 for the care of orphaned Jewish children. The large building was constructed in 1884 in a Renaissance Revival style and designed by William H. Hume. The building functioned as an institutional home for children until 1941. It was demolished in 1956.

(Carlson & Wiseman, 1921) This three-story commercial structure, spanning the full block-front on Broadway, was originally the Gotham Theatre. Although most of the building’s exterior finishes have been removed, the inscribed words “Gotham Theatre,” flanked by Corinthian pilasters, exhibit the building’s original use. It was commissioned by Harris Theatrical Enterprises, which operated numerous theaters throughout the city, including the nearby Dorset/ Bunny Theatre at 3589 Broadway. The company hired the firm of Carlson & Wiseman, which designed a number of other theaters, including Brooklyn’s Alpine Cinema and Alhambra Theatre. Renamed the Delmar Theatre in 1937, the building remained in use as a theater until 1961. Located next to Montefiore Park, the theater was constructed on the site of the Montefiore House, founded by Jewish philanthropists to serve those suffering from chronic illnesses and the predecessor to the Bronx’s Montefiore Medical Center.

303 West 142nd Street, ca. 1932.

The High School of Music & Art, April 3, 1926. The High School of Music & Art for Gifted Children opened for the spring term of 1936, in a William H. Gompert-designed school building at 135th Street and Convent Avenue. Built in 1924 for the New York Training School for Teachers and the associated New York Model School (where the training teachers taught), by the mid-1930s, the hilltop Collegiate Gothic structure housed P.S. 193 and an annex of the Wadleigh High School for Girls. The New York Times reported that the initial Music & Art enrollment of 215 “specially gifted students” would receive instruction “not only to develop their abilities in fine arts or music but to pursue courses leading either to the academic high school diploma for college entrance or the general high school diploma.” Piano instruction was also compulsory. Music & Art opened during the administration of Mayor Fiorello La Guardia, himself an enthusiastic patron of the performing arts. In his remarks at the school’s dedication ceremony, La Guardia predicted that “in five years this will be one of the outstanding high schools in the country.” Over 70 years later, the Mayor’s prediction has been validated by the lengthy list of notable alumcross every discipline of the arts. The “castle on the hill” campus was home to Music & Art from 1936 to 1984, when the school merged with the High School of Performing Arts upon moving into a new campus at Lincoln Center. The new facility was named the Fiorello H. La Guardia High School for Music & Art and Performing Arts. Today, over 2,700 students are enrolled at La Guardia, each with a studio or performing arts concentration. Gompert’s building is today part of the City College south campus, and includes the A. Philip Randolph Campus High School.

During an era of racial segregation, pioneering African-American singer and actress Ethel Waters (1896-1977) achieved stardom in theater, radio, movies, and television. Her career in New York began in 1919 when she moved to Harlem and performed at such popular venues as the Lafayette Theater (demolished) on West 132nd Street and the Lincoln Theater (façade since altered) at 58 West 135th Street. By at least 1925, Waters was living in a seven-room apartment at 580 St. Nicholas Avenue in Harlem’s Sugar Hill section. The building had become one of the neighborhood’s most prestigious addresses for prominent African Americans around that time. First a blues singer, she recorded numerous hit songs during this time, including “Dinah” (1925), “I’ve Found a New Baby” (1926), and “Am I Blue?” (1927). In 1925, Waters replaced popular black star Florence Mills at the Plantation Club, a nightclub formerly part of Broadway’s Winter Garden Theatre. She made her Broadway debut in Africana (1927) at Daly’s 63rd Street Theatre (demolished), which soon moved to the National Theatre (now Nederlander Theatre). Her performance in the short-lived revue caught the attention of lyricist Irving Berlin, who would later cast her as the only major black performer in As Thousands Cheer, a huge Broadway hit in 1933. Berlin had also been impressed with her “Stormy Weather” act with Duke Ellington at the whites-only Cotton Club (demolished) in Harlem. After Waters found success in Hollywood and her fame grew she never publicly acknowledged her homosexuality, likely because — as with other closeted stars then and to this day — she feared it would ruin her career. However, in the early 1920s, she lived with her girlfriend, dancer Ethel Williams, and was well known in Harlem’s lesbian circles. Fellow entertainer Mabel Hampton called them “the two Ethels” and later recalled spending time with them and other lesbian blues singers in Harlem.

Hamilton Grange porch detail, with St Luke's loggia (first floor exterior gallery) archways seen in the background, date, unknown.

Interior of Hamilton Grange, date unknown.

Hamilton Grange, prior to its first move, 1889. When the house was moved the main entrance and staircase were removed because the house was going to be facing the street with what was the original side facade. Here the main entrance is seen cut back and the home is on piles of brick pillars in preparation for the move. Notice the rowhouses that had already been constructed in the distance. Much of Hamilton's original 32-acre estate would become residents on the newly implemented street grid.

Adolph Lewisohn Stadium, during a formal reception for Italian legation when Italy entered World War I., ca. 1915. The Lewisohn Stadium was an amphitheater and athletic facility built where City College's North Academic Center presently stands. Designed by Arnold W. Brunner, the arena opened in 1915 and was the site of City College's athletic events and commencement ceremonies from its inception to 1973, when it was demolished. The structure could not have been built without the financial support of philanthropist Adolph Lewisohn, who donated the money for construction. It was through his contribution that the school was able to construct a great open space that not only served the student body but the public. The stadium was a destination for elaborate theatrical events, summer concerts, including the production of The Trojan Women at the dedication ceremony. In 1973, the structure was demolished to make way for the $125 million North Academic Center.

Hamilton Gate on Convent Avenue, undated postcard. Four concrete and metal arched gates, rendered in a neo-Gothic style, created four entrances to the North Campus Quadrangle of City College. Mirroring the original neo-Gothic buildings of the campus (the building seen here is Shepard Hall), the gates were all named for famous men, Hudson, Washington, Stuyvesant, and Hamilton. This gate at the northern edge of Convent Avenue was named for Alexander Hamilton who lived nearby at the start of the 19th century.

Hamilton Grange with porch configuration and non-original entrance at 287 Convent Avenue, date unknown.

Interior view of the original front door of Hamilton Grange, date unknown. During the home's time at 287 Convent Avenue (1889-2008), this original door was facing the side of the church next door.

Hamilton Grange in its original location, pre-1889. The 1802 home of Alexander Hamilton was originally located here at approximately West 143rd Street between Convent Avenue and Hamilton Place. Built by John McComb Jr, the two-story Federal style home was only home to Hamilton for two years before his death. The home remained in his family until the 1840s. In 1889 the home was moved south about 250 feet to 287 Convent Avenue by the St. Luke's Episcopal Church. Notice at right the grove of trees. While Hamilton lived in the home, he had 13 sweet gum trees planted in honor of the 13 original states. When the home was moved a second time in 2008 to St. Nicholas Park, the new landscaping included a new grove of 13 trees.

He told her she could “guess and guess again,” but that he would let her in on his “scheme” when they next saw each other. Now that Alexander Hamilton has been restored as one of the most talked-about New Yorkers, reminders of his footsteps through the city are cropping up all over the grid. He's also a featured personality in New York at its Core, where visitors will have the opportunity to “meet” him through an innovative interactive storyline that highlights his founding of the Bank of New York, a central aspect of the city’s recovery after the devastation of the Revolutionary War and British occupation.

Hamilton Place and West 138th Street. February 1, 1949. The building at center-right is No. 30 Hamilton Place. At left is Montefiore Square Park, named for Sir Moses Haim Montefiore, a prominent 19th century British-Italian Jewish philanthropist. In 1884, members of New York’s Jewish philanthropic community established the Montefiore Chronic Individuals on the Upper East Side. The Home moved to 138th Street in 1889; the park was acquired and named for Montefiore in 1906. Today, the institution is known as the Montefiore Medical Center, and has been located in the Bronx neighborhood of Norwood since 1913.

Documentation of gay men and lesbians living and socializing in New York City dates back well over 150 years. In this curated collection, cultural institutions, residences, and bars reveal a gay community that thrived in pre-20th century New York.

The Constitution of the United States of America establishes the laws and governmental structure of the United States. It was first drafted by James Madison and explains which rights are reserved to the national and state governments. The Constitution was ratified in 1787, four years after the official ending of the Revolutionary War. In the years between the Treaty of Paris, which ended the war, and the Constitutional Convention, the United States was governed by a document titled Articles of Confederation. This document gave more power to the various states instead of a single national government. This made important decisions regarding trade, taxation, and defense, very hard to make. Many people recognized the serious situation the new nation found itself in and met in Philadelphia to create a new guiding document. After intense debate, they produced the US Constitution, which still forms the basis of our government. In fact, the US Constitution is the oldest constitution still in use today. While not perfect, this document laid out the fundamental rights that all Americans enjoy today. These different locations throughout New York help to highlight some of the powers and rules laid out in our founding document. NYS Social Studies Scope and Sequence Standards 7.4 & 11.2 For Teachers: US Constitution Lesson Plan

A. Philip Randolph Campus High School, Manhattan Established in 1979, the A. Philip Randolph Campus High School (H.S. 540) occupies the former High School of Music & Art, located on West 135th Street in Harlem. Designed by William H. Gompert and built between 1924 and 1926 in Collegiate Gothic style, the L-shaped building is clad in limestone and mottled buff-to-brown ironspot brick features distinctive square towers. Designated as a New York City Landmark in 1977, the school is named in honor of Asa Philip Randolph, founder of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, who is considered to be the greatest African-American labor leader in American history.

A residential enclave, this neighborhood east of St. Nicholas Park features remarkably intact and finely detailed residential rowhouse architecture, built for upper-middle-class professionals in the late 19th century. The community is named for the adjoining park dedicated in 1925 that honors African-American infantryman Dorrance Brooks, who displayed ”signal bravery” in World War I. The square became a rallying point for civil rights protests. Closely associated with the Harlem Renaissance, the area was home to jazz musician Lionel Hampton. Dorrance Brooks Square was designated a historic district on June 15, 2021. Watch the 2020 Grassroots Prersvation presentation on Dorrance Brooks Square

College of the City of New York: The Main Building, 1911. Described in the LPC designation report as being shaped from above as a stubby anchor, Shepard Hall (originally known as Main Hall) is the largest of the buildings on the City College of New York North Campus. Built in a lavish neo-Gothic style with terra cotta quoins and a seven-story tower, Shepard Hall is the "cathedral" of this campus. Designed, along with most of the other university buildings nearby, by George B. Post between 1903 and 1907, it was the particular project a former graduate Edward Morse Shepard. Shepard would oversee the design and decoration of the enormous room within the Main Building called the Great Hall, which could accommodate more than 1000 people.

Drawing of Hamilton Grange, pre-1889. Hamilton's home has only been in its new (and likely final) location in St. Nicholas Park since 2008– not long enough for photographs to be in the collections of NYC archives. For a series of historic photos, make sure to visit the pins for 287 Convent Avenue and 143rd Street between Convent and Hamilton Place. This drawing of the home in its original location (approximately West 143rd Street between Convent Avenue and Hamilton Place) is very similar to how the building looks today. In its final move the original entrance was restored.

Block 2075, made up of 17 apartment buildings, is representative of the “Apartment Court” building typology found throughout West Harlem. Derived from Ernest Flagg’s “New Law Tenement” design, these apartment buildings were designed to meet the 1901 Tenement House Act requirement that every room contain at least one window. Building codes only permitted self-service elevators in low rise buildings, so apartment courts typically ranged from five to seven stories. These buildings proliferated in the city’s expanding middle class districts, with 63 apartment courts built on Broadway and Riverside, from West 135th to West 165th Streets, between 1905 and 1908. The prolific firm of Neville & Bagge designed at least three of the buildings on Block 2075: Washington Court at 3502-3512 Broadway; Lucerne Court at 505 West 143rd Street; and Hamilton Court at 501 West 143rd Street and 144 Hamilton Place. All of these feature brick and limestone façades designed in the neo-Renaissance and Italianate styles and included self-service elevators and servants’ quarters. Before these buildings’ construction, this block was the home of the Colored Orphan Asylum, constructed in 1867. Founded in 1836 by Quakers, it was originally located at 5th Avenue and 42nd Street until it was burnt to the ground during the Draft Riots of 1863. Although the 233 children at the orphanage escaped unharmed, the building’s destruction prompted the institution to move to the then isolated environs of rural West Harlem. The three-story brick building with a central tower was laid out in a cross plan and positioned mid-block. As professional opinion shifted against large institutions, the asylum constructed a new campus of smaller “cottages” in Riverdale in 1907, selling off its West Harlem site just as the construction of the IRT subway spurred a building boom in the neighborhood.

St. Nicholas Avenue Presbyterian Church is a Gothic Revival church built between 1904-1905. Its congregation was originally known as the Lenox Presbyterian Church, which occupied a Romanesque structure constructed in 1892. Upon moving, the church changed its name to reflect its new location. The congregation merged with the North Presbyterian Church and moved to 529 West 155th Street in 1927. The building now houses the St. James Presbyterian Church, a historically black church known for its music. In 1964, the Harlem School of the Arts was established in the basement of this building. Its founder was Dorothy Maynor, the wife of Reverend Shelby Rooks and a talented soprano soloist. Her husband was the pastor of the church until 1976. The school is now located in the building directly behind the church.

136th Street, east of the northeast corner of Broadway, 1931. The four-story building in the background is part of the Hebrew Orphan Asylum. In the foreground on the corner is a once common rail car diner, which has since been replaced by an equally if not more ubiquitous today market and corner fruit stand.

305 West 142nd Street, ca. 1932.

35 Hamilton Place, north east corner of West 138th Street, ca. 1922.

Townsend - Harris Hall, City College, ca. 1910.

(Gaetano Ajello, 1913-1914) As evidenced by the terra-cotta movie camera and tripod in its parapet, the Claremont Theater is one of the city’s first buildings built specifically to show motion pictures. The two-story, neo-Renaissance building faced in white brick and terra cotta is distinguished by its chamfered corner, a rarity in Manhattan’s gridiron plan. Unlike the first theaters downtown which was simply nickelodeons located in storefronts, those built-in expanding neighborhoods like West Harlem were freestanding structures built by theater operators seeking to elevate the movie-going experience. Commissioned by the Wayside Realty Company, the theater was the only non-residential building by architect Gaetano Ajello, who designed roughly 30 apartment buildings on the Upper West Side. Seating between 1,200 and 1,500 people and featuring multiple shows a week, the Claremont Theater also boasted a second-floor restaurant and dance hall.

New York Training School for Teachers, 1926. Known as the "Castle on the Hill," the school building seen here was built in an "abstracted contemporary Collegiate Gothic style," according to the Landmarks Preservation Commission. Designed by William H. Gompert, Architect and Superintendent of School Buildings for the Board of Education and constructed in 1924-1926, the building originally housed the New York Training School for Teachers. In this buildings teachers were educated and allowed to "practice" teaching. It became the New York Teachers Training College for a few years, but was closed in 1933 when, during the Depression the city had a surplus of 5000 teachers waiting for appointments. Next, the building became Public School 193 briefly before becoming the High School of Music and Art, which it remained for nearly 50 years. Created by Mayor LaGuardia in 1936, it is considered to be the first public high school in the country to have a specialized study of art and music. The school merged with the High School for Performing Arts in 1984 and moved to Lincoln Center. Today the building is occupied by the A. Philip Randolph Campus High School, a public school where screened applicants offered a place in one of three academic academies within. An educational collaboration between the Board of Education and CCNY, the school was established in 1979 and moved into this building in 1983.

Hamilton’s impact on New York City was deep and long-lasting. In addition to establishing the Bank of New York and resurrecting Columbia College, he advocated for the city through his role as the first Secretary of the Treasury. A physical reminder of Hamilton’s presence remains in Harlem in the form his “country” estate, The Grange, although it has moved a couple of times over the last 200 years in response to our growing metropolis. Towards the end of his political, financial, and legal career, Alexander Hamilton wrote to his wife, Elizabeth Schuyler Hamilton, about a “sweet project” he was planning, with which she would be pleased. He told her she could “guess and guess again,” but that he would let her in on his “scheme” when they next saw each other. Hamilton’s plan was to purchase land in part of upper Manhattan about nine miles above the city limits of the time, and to commission a country home. The Federal-style home was designed by John McComb, Jr., and Hamilton named the estate “The Grange” after his family’s ancestral home in Scotland. The Grange was finished in 1802 and Hamilton lived there for just two years, until his death-by-duel in 1804. Hamilton’s widow sold the home in 1833 and moved downtown. By 1889, the Grange had fallen into disrepair and was set to be razed to make room for the expanding city grid. The estate sat on what was to be 143rd Street – the street would have run right through the house’s northwest corner. Luckily, St. Luke’s Episcopal Church, in the midst of relocating from Greenwich Village, acquired the house and moved it a half block east and two blocks south, out of the way of the city’s bulldozers. The home’s original porches and staircase were removed for the move; the original front entrance was boarded up; and a new entrance was added to the side of the house, which now faced the street. St. Luke’s used the house for various purposes and built an adjacent church building that nearly touched The Grange’s front porch. In 1924 the American Scenic and Historic Preservation Society purchased The Grange and turned it into a museum, complete with furniture and decorative objects associated with the Hamilton family. The house changed hands yet again in 1962, after being purchased by the National Park Foundation and transferred to the National Park Service. The same year Congress designated The Grange as a National Memorial, with the caveat that it be relocated, again, and restored to its original condition. The second relocation didn’t occur until about 45 years later, in part due to local opposition to moving the home from its spot on Convent Avenue in the eponymous Hamilton Heights neighborhood. Residents were afraid the move would effect the character of the community. Officials decided to move The Grange to nearby St. Nicholas Park, where the home would remain within the original 32 acres of Hamilton’s estate, and where its original features could be restored. The Grange temporarily closed in 2006 – the home was moved one block south and one block east in June 2008 – and in September 2011, it finally re-opened to the public.. The house is oriented in a different direction, allowing for a better view from the street, but otherwise its original characteristics have been restored, including the addition of 13 sweet gum trees – the same variety that Hamilton had planted to represent the original 13 colonies. Perhaps Hamilton already had these trees in mind when he referred to The Grange as his “sweet project!”