General Grant National Memorial (Grant's Tomb)

History and architecture

he General Grant National Memorial, the work of architect John K. Duncan, is one of the most impressive monuments in the City. Located on a spectacular site overlooking the Hudson River and Riverside Park, at houses the earthly remains of Ulysses S. Grant, Civil War hero and eighteenth President of the United States, and Julia Dent Grant, his wife, in sarcophagi located side by side.

Ulysses Simpson Grant (1822-1885), trained at West Point, began his professional life as a career soldier in the Mexican-American War. Discontented with army life, he retired to the family business in Galena, Illinois, until the outbreak of the Civil War. Enlisting as a colonel in an Illinois regiment, Grant quickly rose in the ranks because of his successful campaign operations in the Mississippi Valley. Major victories at Vicksburg and Chattanooga led President Lincoln to give Grant supreme command of the Union armies in 1863.

Grant's personal direction of the Army of the Potomac ultimately led to the final battle of the war and Robert E. Lee's surrender at Appomattox on April 9, 1865, Grant's renown as a war hero led to his election as President, as the candidate of the Republican Party in 1868 and again in 1872. The years in the White House were shadowed by political passions bred by the war and the Reconstruction period.

When Grant died, he left a note requesting that he be buried at West Point, New York,Galena, Illinois, or New York City, and that his wife be buried next to him. Mrs. Grant preferred Washington, D. C., as his final resting place, but her son persuaded her to follow tho General's wishes. West Point was rejected because Mrs. Grant could not have been buried there, and Galena because it was in a rather inaccessible location for visitors.

Once New York had been chosen, it became necessary to find a site. -Many favored a Central Park location, either in the Mall or on Watch Hill at 108th Street. A location at Riverside Park prevailed, however, because a purely architectural monument that would dominate its surroundings was desired. On July 29, 1885, the site decision was announced, and on August 8, after being transported down river from upstate. General Grant's body was buried, in a temporary tomb on Riverside Drive at 123rd Street, following a ceremony attended by thousands including President Grover Cleveland.

The tomb was a brick structure, designed by architect Jacob Mould.

Shortly after the burial, it was felt that the site was inappropriate and would lend an unfortunate funerary air to this part of Riverside Drive which had been considered a gala promenade.

Frederick Law Olmsted, the designer of Riverside Park, and Calvert Vaux were particularly concerned.

Meanwhile, the General Grant Monument Association had been organized to build the permanent structure. On September 13, 1885, several prominent architects wrote to the New York Times proposing that a competition be held to determine the final designee of the tomb.

In February of 1S36 the Association was formally incorporated, and by June 1887 a competition had been announced. The terms of the competition were sharply criticized by the Architectural League the next year. The Association had provided no cost estimate for the monument so that the architects did not know how much they could spend when designing it.

Designs of any scale bad also been accepted which made it hard to judge there. Worst of all, the Association kept all of the drawings and encouraged the architects to underbid each other for their services.

The Association extended the deadline several times but the competition was finally closed in 1889. Finally, the Association declared that none of the more than one hundred designs which had beer, submitted were deeded suitable. While New York procrastinated, a bill was introduced in Congress to have Grant's remains removed to West Point. Although the bill was defeated, it lent some urgency to determining the form that the tomb was to take.

In an editorial on February 21, 1890, the New York Times pointed out that the major flaw with the original competition was the fact that the entrants wore not recompensed for their submissions, consequently, only amateurs had participated.

Accordingly, a new competition was announced a month later, with the firms of Carrere & Hastings, Charles W. Clinton, Napoleon Lebrun, J. H. Duncan, and John Ord submitting designs for a tomb to cost about $500,000. On November 10, 1890, John H, Duncan was announced as the winner.