General Grant National Memorial (Grant's Tomb)
Commonly referred to as Grant's Tomb, the General Grant National Memorial is a National Park Service administered monument in Upper Manhattan. The memorial's mausoleum is the resting place of General Ulysses S. Grant and his wife, Julia.
General Grant served as the 18th President of the United States, and he is best known as the commander of the Union Army during the latter half of the Civil War. The Grant Monument Association planned and constructed the memorial in a twelve year period after Grant's death.
While suffering from terminal throat cancer, Grant listed several possible sites for his burial. He chose New York City "because the people of that city befriended me in my need." A local architect, John Hemenway Duncan, won the final competition for the Classical memorial's design and oversaw its construction.
After the opening ceremony in 1897, Grant's Tomb became one of New York City's major tourist attractions, drawing a half-million visitors each year during its first decade. Over time, the monument's attendance and notoriety gradually declined as fewer Civil War veterans remained alive to visit the site.
In an effort to combat graffiti, a series of decorative benches designed by folk artist Pedro Garcia and built by neighborhood children were placed around the mausoleum during the 1970s. Responding to criticism that the benches clashed with the monument, the National Park Service attempted to remove them during a 1995 restoration. The local community rebuked the removal and Garcia personally led a restoration of the benches in 2008.
Built in the wake of the Civil War, the monument offers visitors a rare glimpse into 19th Century Manhattan. Lying at the edge of Riverside Park, it has also become a definitive landmark of Manhattan's Morningside Heights neighborhood.
Written by Will Velharticky, New Mexico State University.
