Hugh J. Grant

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For other people named Hugh Grant, see Hugh Grant (disambiguation).
Hugh J. Grant
88th Mayor of New York City
In office
1889–1892
Preceded byAbram Hewitt
Succeeded byThomas Francis Gilroy
Personal details
Born(1858-09-10)September 10, 1858
Calvary Cemetery
Political partyDemocratic
SpouseJulia M. Murphy
Children3

Hugh John Grant (September 10, 1858 – November 3, 1910) served as the 88th

Roman Catholic mayor of New York City
.

Biography

Hugh Grant, whose father John Grant had grown rich in politics and real estate, was born on West 27th Street in New York City,

Broadway Surface Railroad. For the remainder of his public career, however, he was a compliant member of Tammany under the patronage and control of its leader Richard Croker.[2][5]

Grant lost the race for mayor as Tammany's candidate in 1885, but won the office of sheriff in 1886. He was

Sheriff of New York County from 1887 to 1888. He was Mayor of New York City from 1889 to 1892, appointing Croker as New York City Chamberlain
in 1889. His administrative accomplishments included the reorganization of city administration and the initial stages of placing the city's electrical system underground.

In response to foot-dragging by the hesitant electric companies, Grant took a heavy-handed approach to placing the lines underground.

Blizzard of 1888 and a severe wind storm in January 1891[8] – both of which badly damaged the city's growing net of above-ground wiring – and a spate of accidental electrocutions by low-hanging wires in Manhattan in late 1889.[9]

Grant declined to run again at the end of his second term in 1891, but ran once more in 1894 and lost.[10]

The details of Croker's and Tammany's bribes and involvement in criminal activity came to light through the work of the

Madison Square Presbyterian Church denounced his administration: "every step that we take looking to the moral betterment of this city has to be taken directly into the teeth of the damnable pack of administrative blood-hounds that are fattening themselves on the ethical flesh and blood of our citizenship." He called Grant and his political colleagues "a lying, perjured, rum-soaked, and libidinous lot" of "polluted harpies."[14]

Grant's business interests ranged from serving as receiver of the St. Nicholas Bank to promoting the development of the Harlem River Speedway, later to become the Harlem River Drive, a track for horse racing, in association with Nathan Straus.[15] Straus named one of his sons Hugh Grant Straus.[16]

A resident of

Calvary Cemetery.[17]

Marriage

On April 30, 1895, Grant wed Julia M. Murphy, the daughter of U.S. Senator

Edward Murphy. She had been born on March 11, 1873, the oldest of the Senator's eleven children. When her father went to Washington, D.C., to serve in the U.S. Senate, she accompanied him and acted as his hostess.[18]

Cardinal James Gibbons of Baltimore granted special dispensation for the wedding celebration to be held at the Murphy home at the corner of K and 17th Streets in Washington, D.C., rather than in a church. Archbishop Michael Corrigan of New York officiated, assisted by several priests.[19] Senator Murphy was, like Grant, a political ally of and financial adviser to Richard Croker.[20] After traveling for several months in Europe, the Grants lived and raised three children in their 20-room townhouse at 20 East 72nd Street in New York City.[21][10]

In 1914, Julia Grant provided a financial bequest, originally anonymous, that provided the funds for establishing Regis High School, a Jesuit high school in New York City that, following her instructions, provides a free education for Catholic boys with special consideration given to those who cannot afford a Catholic education.[22] She did not remarry after her husband's death in 1910 and died at home in May 1944.[23][24] She was buried alongside her husband in the family mausoleum. Her estate, based entirely on a trust established by her husband, was valued in 1944 at more than $13 million.[25] In 1948, Auxiliary Bishop Stephen J. Donahue dedicated the chapel of Archbishop Stepinac High School as a memorial to her.[26]

Her heirs donated the Grants' home in New York City, a five-story, 11,000-square-foot (1,000 m2) townhouse on Manhattan's Upper East Side in which the family had its own chapel, to the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York. It then became the residence of the Vatican's Permanent Observer to the United Nations and the temporary residence of popes who have visited the city.[27][28][29]

Legacy

The Grants had three children, Julia M. Grant (1896–1962), Edna M. Grant (1898–1968),[30] and Major Hugh John Grant, Jr., (1904–1981).[27]

Hugh Grant is memorialized in the 1.11-acre (0.45 ha) Hugh J. Grant Circle park in the

Bronx, on Westchester Avenue between Virginia Avenue and Metropolitan Avenue. A sign in the park reads:[31]

This park was named after former New York City Mayor Hugh J. Grant (1857 [sic] - 1910) on December 5, 1911 by the Board of Aldermen. A native New Yorker, Grant was educated in Catholic schools in the United States and Berlin before attending Columbia University Law School. His father, the owner of several west side taverns, helped Grant make connections with many local Irish-American organizations that aided his political career. Backed by Tammany Hall, Grant became a New York Alderman in 1882, sheriff of New York in 1885, and finally mayor in 1889. Inaugurated at only 31 years of age, Grant is remembered as New York City's youngest mayor.

The film

Life With Father (1947) contains a scene where Mr. Day (William Powell
) rails angrily against Mayor "Honest" Hugh Grant. As the film purports to be set in 1883, six years before Grant took office, this is an anachronism.

References

  1. ^ a b c Pollak, Michael (15 April 2011). "Answers to Questions About New York". The New York Times. Retrieved 16 January 2024.
  2. ^ a b Hamersly, p. 165.
  3. ^ a b "Ex-Mayor Grant Dies Suddenly - Falls on the Stairs of His Home on Returning from an Outing and Expires - Twice Mayor of the City - Formerly High in the Councils of Tammany Hall, He Lost His Prestige with Croker's Retirement" (PDF). New York Times. November 4, 1910. p. 1. Retrieved January 31, 2013.
  4. ^ Who Was Who in America, IV, 1968.
  5. ^ Connable and Silberfard, p. 204ff.
  6. ^ “The Troublesome Wires: Mayor Grant Threatens a Crusade Against Unlawful Poles on Both Sides of the Street.” The Sun. Newspapers.com Archive. 12 March 1891. p. 6.
  7. ^ “Down Go Poles and Wires.” The Sun. Newspapers.com Archive. 17 April 1889. p. 1.
  8. ^ “Out of the World Again: New York Catches It Once More From Old January; Amazing Wreck of Wires…Miles of Poles Down Flat, City Streets Cumbered With the Dangerous Wreckage.” The Sun. Newspapers.com Archive. 26 January 1891. pp. 1-3.
  9. ^ “The Safety of the Streets.” The Sun. Newspapers.com Archive. 11 December 1889. p. 6
  10. ^ a b Doyle News: "The Collection of Hugh J. Grant and Lucie Mackey Grant" Archived 2016-03-03 at the Wayback Machine
  11. ^ "Senator Fassett Smiles" (PDF). New York Times. April 27, 1890. Retrieved January 31, 2013.
  12. ^ Allen, pp. 179-180; Werner, p. 320-323; Connable and Silberfarb, p. 209.
  13. ^ Werner, p. 323.
  14. ^ Peter Hartshorn, I Have Seen the Future: A Life of Lincoln Steffens (Counterpoint, 2011), p. 42.
  15. ^ Hamersly, p. 166.
  16. ^ Straus Historical Society: Strauss Family Newsletter, "Nathan Straus, 1848-1931," v. 6 no. 2 (August, 1998), 5 Archived 2009-01-07 at the Wayback Machine, accessed April 6, 2010.
  17. ^ "Crowd at Grant Funeral" (PDF). New York Times. November 8, 1910. Retrieved January 31, 2013.
  18. ^ Andreassi, Anthony D. (2014). Teach Me to Be Generous: The First Century of Regis High School in New York City. The Bronx, N.Y.: Fordham University Press. p. 23.
  19. ^ "Ex-Mayor Grant Married - Miss Julia M. Murphy, Daughter of Senator Murphy, the Bride - Archbishop Corrigan Officiates - The Ceremony Takes Place in Senator Murphy's Washington House - Elaborate Floral Decorations" (PDF). New York Times. May 1, 1895. Retrieved January 31, 2013.
  20. ^ Stoddard, pp. 72, 127, 149, and 201-202.
  21. ^ Andreassi, pp. 25-26.
  22. ^ Andreassi, 26ff.
  23. ^ Andreassi, pp. 94-96.
  24. ^ "Mrs. Hugh J. Grant - Widow of Former Mayor of New York Dies in Home" (PDF). New York Times. May 8, 1944. Retrieved August 7, 2014.
  25. ^ "Grant Estate $13,110,296" (PDF). New York Times. February 9, 1945. Retrieved August 7, 2014.
  26. ^ "Dedicates School Sunday - Spellman to Name Institution for Stepinac of Yugoslavia" (PDF). New York Times. September 10, 1948. p. 25. Retrieved August 7, 2014.
  27. ^ a b "Hugh J. Grant, Lawyer And Philanthropist, 76". New York Times. March 25, 1981. Retrieved 18 August 2016.
  28. ^ Andreassi, pp. 124-125.
  29. ^ Yee, Vivian (September 22, 2015). "Pope Francis, in New York, Will Live Like a Diplomat". New York Times. Retrieved September 23, 2015.
  30. ^ "Deaths". New York Times. October 28, 1968. p. 47. Retrieved 18 August 2016.
  31. ^ "Hugh Grant Circle". City of New York Parks and Recreation.

Sources

  • Oliver E. Allen, The Tiger: The Rise and Fall of Tammany Hall (Addison-Wesley, 1993)
  • Alfred Connable and Edward Silberfard, Tigers of Tammany: Nine Men who Ran New York (NY: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1967)
  • Lewis Randolph Hamersly, First Citizens of the Republic: An Historical Work Giving Portraits and Sketches of the Most Eminent Citizens of the United States (NY: L.R. Hamersly & Co., 1906)
  • Lothrop Stoddard, Master of Manhattan: The Life of Richard Croker (NY: Longmans, Green and Co., 1931)
  • M.R. Werner, Tammany Hall (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, Doran & Company, 1928)

External links

Hugh J. Grant at Find a Grave

Political offices
Preceded by Mayor of New York City
1889–1892 		Succeeded by
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