Enter the mausoleum through massive bronze doors to see the open crypt holding the two sarcophagi of General and Julia Grant. A gallery inside the mausoleum illuminates key moments in General Grant’s life and also includes busts of his most important lieutenants. The visitor center, located in a separate building, offers additional exhibits and a film about Grant’s life.
The memorial is featured on a number of sightseeing tours, including walking and biking tours of Upper Manhattan and Harlem that include other area highlights, such as Central Park, Columbia University, the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine, or Alexander Hamilton’s Harlem home.
The General Grant National Memorial is popular with history buffs and architecture fans.
The memorial is free to enter.
Rangers or volunteer-led walking tours are sometimes available.
The visitor center is wheelchair accessible, but the Mausoleum is not.
The visitor center offers kids’ programs activity books and includes restrooms and a bookstore.
The General Grant National Memorial is located in Riverside Park, at 122nd Street, in Morningside Heights. To reach the site by subway, take the 1 train to 125th Street, exit onto Broadway, and head south. A number of buses also stop nearby, including the M4, M5, M11, and M104. Street parking is available but can be difficult to find.
The memorial is open Wednesday–Sunday but is closed on major holidays. The site hosts special events throughout the year, including an annual military ceremony on Grant’s birthday, April 27. Ranger-led programs change seasonally.
Grant is the only President interred in New York. He moved to New York after his two terms as president, and he spent the remainder of his life here. After his death, his widow, Julia, announced that it was his wish to be buried in New York. Despite some opposition from Washington D.C., the memorial was built here and inaugurated on the 75th anniversary of his birth, in 1897.
