Hamilton acquired land for the estate from Jacob Schieffelin and Samuel Bradhurst starting in 1800, and he commissioned architect John McComb Jr. to design a country home there.

[18][19] The house's original site is occupied by the Roman Catholic Church of Our Lady of Lourdes, which was built starting in 1902[20] and is itself a New York City designated landmark.

[38][41] During the Quasi-War of 1798–1800, Hamilton served as Inspector General of the United States Army, trying to fend off a war against France; as such, he could not devote time to his "project".

[50][51] Eliza's father Philip Schuyler tried and failed to hire a contractor from Albany, New York, delaying the construction of the permanent house by a year.

[57][58] In total, the house and surrounding structures cost $17,972.06 (equivalent to $382,679 in 2023), excluding lumber that Philip Schuyler gave to Alexander as a gift.

[45] Hamilton worked in Lower Manhattan, a three-hour round trip from his estate;[73][74] he traveled to his law office by stagecoach several times a week.

[19][82] The purchase price excluded approximately $7,600 in mortgage loans that Hamilton had received from the site's previous owners, Schieffelin and Bradhurst.

[98][108] The church's rector, Isaac Henry Tuttle, looked at several lots in Upper Manhattan until he came across a site at the corner of Convent Avenue and 141st Street, within the boundary of the original Hamilton Grange.

[127][128] Alexander Hamilton Post pushed for the introduction of another State Senate bill in 1901,[124] allowing the New York City government to acquire the house and maintain it.

[146] At the time, the Grange was the only remaining building associated with Hamilton; his law office and residences in Lower Manhattan had been replaced, while his home in Weehawken, New Jersey, had been demolished.

[174] The United States Department of the Interior approved the creation of the Hamilton Grange National Memorial on the condition that the city donate land within the CCNY campus for the house's relocation.

[23][177] That May, U.S. President John F. Kennedy signed a bill to create the memorial, authorizing the National Park Service (NPS) to take over the site from the ASHPS.

[184] Local residents organized in opposition to the relocation,[184][185] and St. Luke's rector David Johnson did not want the house to be moved unless it was adjacent to the church.

[177] The New York Daily News wrote that, while other historical sites in the city were deteriorating because of neglect, the Grange was crumbling because "too many people" were interested in its preservation.

[4] A mayoral committee published a report in 1972, recommending that the NPS take action to attract visitors to five historic sites in Manhattan, including the Grange.

Due to local opposition to the relocation, U.S. Representative Charles Rangel wanted to change the law authorizing the Hamilton Grange National Memorial, allowing the house to be restored at Convent Avenue.

[73][51] Early that year, workers commenced the first phase of a four-part renovation, which included repainting the facade, replacing the roof, and fixing masonry and woodwork.

[214] The NPS indicated that it would move the mansion to St. Nicholas Park,[215][216] which not only allowed the house to be placed in a rustic setting but also occupied part of Hamilton's original estate.

Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan wrote a letter to the NPS about the mansion's "deplorable" conditions in March 2000,[221] and both houses of Congress passed legislation in late 2000 to permit the relocation.

[230][231] In mid-June, a federal judge threw out the Friends of Hamilton Grange's lawsuit, ruling that the house might be damaged even more if it were rotated to face southwest.

[31][249] Fergus M. Bordewich wrote in The Wall Street Journal that the relocated house "will gaze out from its perch over one of the most vibrant black neighborhoods in America", namely Hamilton Heights.

In contrast to other Federal-style structures, the Grange's architectural elements were resized to emphasize different aspects of the facade, such as its height; one report referred to the design as "squat and somewhat clumsy".

[260] Other influences may have included Robert Morris's 1759 book Selected Architecture,[257] as well as the interior of a pavilion at Kedleston Hall in Derbyshire, England.

[89][302][308] It has very similar walls, ceilings, cornices, baseboards, door frames, floorboards, fireplace, and floor-to-ceiling triple-hung windows as the drawing room/parlor.

[5][323] The modern-day exhibits include some of Hamilton's old books, papers, and furniture, as well as drawings and diagrams of the house created as part of the Historic American Buildings Survey.

[83] A writer for the New York Amsterdam News said in 1962 that, despite the house's deterioration, its decorated floors, ceilings, and fireplace mantels "still speak of the era when it was the country home" of Hamilton.

[328] When the Grange was located at Convent Avenue, the historian Hugh Howard described the house as being hemmed in and forgotten about, akin to "a misplaced book on a library shelf".

[280] A critic for the same newspaper described the relocation as successful both from a historical and architectural point of view, saying that the design "suggests a rationality that isn't accidental".

[246] The New York Times said the design gave "a kind of gracious pleasure taken in what was being made possible" and that the St. Nicholas Park site was an appropriate setting for the house.

[31] A writer for AM New York described the home in 2016 as nondescript but "something every New Yorker can enjoy",[304] and the Chicago Tribune said the same year: "As impressive as the house is, its odd history is equally compelling.