Hamilton Grange is the name of the only house that Alexander Hamilton ever owned, and it sits only a few blocks from our school, near where it originally stood, on 141st and Convent Avenue. 

 

Our neighborhood in West Harlem (Hamilton Heights) and many places in it, including our local post office, our local library, a nearby park, restaurant and a street are all named after Hamilton. So who was this guy? 

 

Alexander Hamilton was one of our nation's Founding Fathers, helping to lead the Revolution against the British and create the the United States of America, our Constitution, our two-party governmental system, and lay the foundations for our country's financial system as the first secretary of the Treasury.

 

What we especially respect about Hamilton is that, like many of us, he was an immigrant, born in the Caribbean to a poor, single mother. Some wealthy men on the island where he grew up saw that he was a hard worker, so they sent him to New York to attend Columbia University (just two subway stops from school!). And maybe best of all, unlike more famous Founding Fathers like George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, Hamilton refused to own slaves!