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The 18th President of the United States Ulysses S. Grant. Photo outsourced from

10 Best Facts about General Grant National Memorial

Grant’s Tomb, officially the General Grant National Memorial, is the resting place of Ulysses S. Grant and his wife, Julia Grant. Standing in the Morningside Heights neighborhood of Upper Manhattan in New York City, it commemorates the life and accomplishment of Grants, the 18th president of the United States.

The memorial is a prominent classical domed architectural land feature visible from the Hudson River. It has been a national memorial since 1958, added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1966 and was designated an official New York City Landmark in 1975.

Here are 10 best facts about General Grant National Memorial.

1. General Grant National Memorial is the Resting Place of Ulysses S. Grant

The memorial is the final resting place of Ulysses S. Grant, the 18th president of the United States, and his wife, Julia Grant. After the death of Grant in 1885, his wife revealed he had wished to be buried in New York.

The Grant Monument Association (GMA) committee was in charge of constructing the tomb. The committee appealed for funds, but its progress was slow initially since many believed the tomb should be in Washington, D.C.

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2. The Grant’s Tomb Was Designed by John Hemenway Duncan

Photo by Shoobydooba-

On February 4, 1888, the Grant Monument Association publicly announced the detail of a design competition to architects, artists, and sculptors. The GMA proposed the estimate for the monument’s cost, which ranged from $500,000 to $1 million. 

The first design competition received 65 designs, 42 of which came from international entries. GMA didn’t award an overall winner, and a second design competition was ordered.

In April 1890, the GMA selected from only five commissioned entries and the design of John Hemenway Duncan, who estimated his design would cost between $496,000 and $900,000 won and he worked on the design.

3. General Grant National Memorial is a Classical Domed Mausoleum

Architect John H. Duncan’s design included elements from the famous Mausoleum of King Maussollos at Halicarnassus and from the burial places of other great men. The tomb exterior is grey granite and rises in three stages to 150 feet in height, and the lower stage is 72 feet high and square in plan.

The entrance is marked by a projecting portico of six heavy Doric columns. Massive bronze doors lead into the white marble interior, which centers around an open crypt on the lower level containing the red marble tombs of Ulysses and Julia Dent Grant, among many other spectacular interior details.

4. General Grant National Memorial Was Dedicated in 1897

Photo by Gigi alt-

Grant’s remains were quietly transferred to an 8.5-to red granite sarcophagus on April 17, 1897, and placed in the mausoleum. Ten days later, the monument was dedicated on April 27, 1897, on the 75th-anniversary ceremony of Grant’s birth on April 27, 1822.

Grant’s wife, Julia Dent Grant, died five years later in 1902 and was placed in a matching sarcophagus and laid to rest in the mausoleum beside her husband.

5. Concerts Are Regularly Held Outside General Grant National Memorial

Concerts are regularly held at or right outside the Grant’s Tomb. Every year on April 27, the anniversary of Grant’s birth, a ceremony is held to celebrate Grant’s life at the memorial.

Some of the concerts include Jazzmobile, Inc’s annual Free Outdoor Summer Mobile Concerts and the annual Grant’s Tomb Summer Concert, which in 2009 featured West Point’s United States Military Academy Band.

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6. Grant’s Tomb Has a Sculpture Consisting of Seventeen Concrete Benches

The tomb has a sculpture, The Rolling Bench,’ consisting of seventeen concrete benches with spectacular mosaics created around the monument in the early 1970s. The artist Pedro Silva and the architect Phillip Danzig designed the sculpture.

The sculpture project was sponsored by CITYarts ( a non-profit organization founded in 1968) to create public art by bringing artists and children together. The project was built with the help of hundreds of neighborhood children for over three years.

During the summer of 2008, the sculpture underwent restoration under the supervision of Silva.

7. The Tomb is Managed by National Park Service (NPS)

Inside the memorial, where the sarcophagi are stored. Photo by NPS-

The National Park Service has managed the tomb since 1958 after the authority was granted to them to oversee it. According to a report by a historian, when NPS assumed authority over the tomb, they had no program for the site, which led to great neglect of the site, particularly in the maintenance of the monument.

In 1991, Frank Scaturro, a student at Columbia University and Volunteer with NPS, launched an effort to restore the tomb and brought concerns to Congress. After a long fight for the restoration, on April 27, 1997, the restoration effort sanctioned by Congress was completed and the tomb re-dedicated.

8. The Initial Restoration Project of the Tomb Began in 1935

Thirty-eight years after the tomb opened, the initial restoration project of restoration began in December 1935, when Work Progress Administration (WPA) laborers installed new marble flooring in the atrium.

Shortly after the restoration project began, the old New York City Post Office was being demolished, and donated two statues of eagles to decorate the front of the Grant Monument. The laborers of the WPA worked on roof restoration, electric lighting, heating systems, and removing the purple stained glass windows.

The WPA installed five busts in the circular wall of the atrium surrounding the sarcophagi. After many contributions of the WPA, the Grant Monument Association held a re-dedication of the tomb on April 27, 1939.

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9. The Grant’s Tomb is Open to the Public

Grant’s Tomb, Riverside Dr., NY. Photo by BriYYZ-

The tomb is a peak-doomed complex where visitors can see and learn about Grant’s life and achievements. Visitors can embark in self-guided tours, and there are free public tours hourly from 11 am to 3 pm.

The visitors center, which contains memorabilia, a bookstore, a movie about Grant’s life, and restrooms, is open from 9 am to 5 pm and the tomb from 10 am to 5 pm. Both the visitors center and tomb are open Wednesday through Sunday.

Photography is allowed inside the tomb; however, flash photography is discouraged. Cellphone use, eating, drinking, gum chewing, and smoking are not permitted. Additionally, the benches around the mausoleum are a great spot to sit and relax as you see the views around.

10. The Tomb Funding Was from Public Support

The idea of building a monument in Grant’s honor drew public support from Western Union to private industries such as insurance and iron-trading companies and from the general public.