A look at how Hamilton's tourist-flocking Grange house was moved

2017-09-18T15:43:00-04:00

For nearly three weeks in the spring of 2008, residents and passersby near Convent Avenue and 141st Street in Harlem craned their necks to take in a peculiar sight. Positioned atop a 38-foot structure of crib piles, shimmies, and steel beams was a two-story yellow house originally built for Alexander Hamilton, the first Secretary of the Treasury and future Broadway musical sensation.

Built in 1802, the Hamilton House has been moved twice since then, first in 1889, and more recently in 2008 when it was raised on a 38-foot tall structure before being moved slowly down the street to St. Nicholas Park. The National park services considered cutting the house in half or removing pieces, but the third option of raising the house up on jacks and driving it down at a six percent grade allowed them to keep the house in one piece during the move. Since then, the house has been located at St. Nicolas Park and is open to the public to visit.

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A look at how Hamilton's tourist-flocking Grange house was moved