Out-of-towners don’t get a lot of respect in the Big Apple.
Just ask former Illinois resident Ulysses S. Grant, the president and Civil War general. But you might need to use a Ouija board. He’s dead and buried-in Grant’s Tomb.
The 8,000-ton granite tomb, in Riverside Park on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, has seen better days.
Only blocks from some of the poorer sections of Harlem, the spot is a hangout for muggers. Homeless men sleep in the surrounding park. Drug dealers make nighttime sales nearby. And graffiti has to be sandblasted regularly from the tomb’s walls and columns.
Few mentions of the monument are found in tourist brochures. Visitors to the site, which is open only five days a week, find nothing but a few plaques. The lighting is poor, the roof is leaky, there are no tour guides and no bathrooms.
In this behemoth city awash with people and problems, the fate of an out-of-the-way memorial to a man from Galena, Ill., has clearly not been a priority.
But now a 78-year-old Civil War buff from Queens wants to change all that. “It’s a shame. It used to be a nice place to go,” said George Craig, a retired Port Authority employee who founded the Friends of Grant’s Tomb in his home. “But this city is now so big and crowded. It just gets lost here.”
Craig, who has helped restore Civil War sites in upstate New York and Virginia, has sent out urgent letters requesting donations to repair the tomb of the Union’s leading commander. He has a costly wish list. He wants the large domed roof rebuilt, better lighting for the crypt, educational exhibits and, most important, bathrooms.
Craig admits the tomb is out of the way for many tourists, but he thinks the National Park Service, which runs the property, should do a better job of promoting the site and protecting it from vandals.
The tomb now has only three staffers: one to hand out pamphlets and two janitors. A park ranger, based downtown, stops by occasionally. New York police, responsible for patrolling the surrounding park, make periodic visits to try to discourage crime.
The Park Service claims Grant’s Tomb gets about 100,000 visitors a year, but Craig said the number is closer to 40,000. On a recent morning, no one was there except a reporter.
Craig’s efforts to arouse public interest in the project have met with little success so far. After writing 55 Civil War groups around the country, his fundraising effort has raised little. “If I’ve got $250, I’m lucky,” he said.
But Craig remains undeterred and plans more mailings soon. He’s also met several times with the Park Service about improving the tomb.
Joseph Avery, the Park Service’s acting superintendent of Manhattan sites, said after talking with Craig he put in a formal request to the Park Service for about $11.5 million.
“We’ll see,” he shrugged.
Among his requests are bathrooms. He also wants to buy the surrounding parkland from the city, so the park rangers can patrol it.
“We want to work with Craig,” he said. “But we can’t do everything.”
A local school group has been brought in occasionally to patrol for graffiti.
West Point, where Grant graduated, also has been approached about the idea of setting up a permanent honor guard.
Craig said he is counting on strong support from the Midwest.
John L. Simon, executive director of the Ulysses S. Grant Association based in Carbondale, said he plans to send a check soon to help restore the site.
“This whole problem is a matter of neglect and crime problems at night,” he said. “The Lincoln Memorial in Washington is open and guarded 24 hours a day. Why not Grant’s?”
Ralph Newman, a prominent Chicago bookseller who founded the Grant Association and the Chicago Civil War Roundtable, said part of the problem is Grant’s reputation. While other Civil War leaders like Abraham Lincoln and Robert E. Lee continue to grow in national stature, Grant’s reputation has not fared as well.
“He’s gotten a pretty bad deal,” Newman said.
Grant, who was president from 1869 to 1877, was extremely popular when he died in 1885. A simple man who had worked in his father’s leather shop in Galena, his string of hard-fought victories, from Shiloh to Appomattox Courthouse, made him a hero in the North. The Republican Party persuaded him to run for president.
Although personally beyond reproach, Grant’s second term was rife with scandal stemming from political leaders using their influence for profit. Unfounded rumors also spread that Grant had a drinking problem.
After he left the White House, the New York investment firm where he worked went bankrupt. Penniless and suffering from cancer, Grant spent his last days in upstate New York, writing the memoirs that became a bestseller after his death.
New York City, in a great show of civic pride, offered to build his tomb. And on its completion in 1897 it was an opulent tribute. More than 90,000 people across the country donated more than $600,000 to build the monument overlooking the Hudson River. The site was chosen for its breathtaking view and its proximity to his widow’s home in Manhattan.
The tomb was dedicated with parades and a speech by President William McKinley. Mark Twain declared that New York would always be a famous city because Grant was buried there.
But then New York grew up fast. Crime and congestion became the rule, and millions of immigrants arrived, many of whom knew little and cared less for Grant and the legacy of America’s bloodiest conflict.
“I’m going to need help from the rest of America,” Craig said, “because in New York people just have other things on their mind. Grant doesn’t mean too much.”
