Grant's Tomb (General Grant National Memorial)

Grant's Tomb (General Grant National Memorial) Review

Walk through upper Riverside Park and you're sure to notice this towering granite mausoleum (1897), the final resting place of Civil War general and two-term president Ulysses S. Grant and his wife, Julia Dent Grant. But who's buried here, as the old joke goes? Nobody—they're entombed in a crypt beneath a domed rotunda, surrounded by photographs and Grant memorabilia. Once a more popular sight than the Statue of Liberty, this pillared Classical Revival edifice feels more like a relic of yesteryear, but it remains a moving tribute. The words engraved on the tomb, "Let Us Have Peace," recall Grant's speech to the Republican convention upon his presidential nomination. Surrounding the memorial are the so-called "rolling benches," which are swoopy and covered with colorful mosaic tiles that bring to mind the works of architect Antonio Gaudí's Parque Güell, in Barcelona. Made in the 1970s as a public art project, they are now as beloved as they are incongruous with the grand memorial they surround.