Alexander Hamilton's country home moves to park in Harlem

NEW YORK — With surpassing dignity and surprising agility — for a 206-year-old — Alexander Hamilton's country home, the Grange, lumbered down the West 141st Street hillside Saturday to its new setting in St. Nicholas Park in Harlem.

Under the eyes of neighbors from Harlem and Hamilton Heights, a moving crew composed mainly of German Baptist Brethren from Pennsylvania, often mistaken for Amish in their plain dress, guided the two-story, 298-ton house on a three-hour, 40-minute trip from its former site on Convent Avenue.

It turns out that the Grange, whose architect also worked on City Hall, is capable of doing about 0.04 miles per hour.

In its new setting, the house will be restored by the National Park Service and reopened to the public next year. The project's cost is $8.4 million.

"To the residents of the community, it's like our brother from the Virgin Islands has come back home," said Rep. Charles Rangel, the Democrat from Manhattan who has been involved for decades in efforts to restore the Grange. Hamilton's birthplace, the Caribbean island of Nevis, is not far from the Virgin Islands.

Hamilton, co-author of the Federalist Papers and the first treasury secretary, died after a duel with Aaron Burr in 1804. Congress made the home a national memorial in 1962.

Material from The Associated Press is included in this report.