Where in the ADK? Grant Cottage

Located in the Southern Woodlands of the ADK, this spot is designated as a National Historic Landmark.

This week’s “Where in the ADK?” is the Ulysses S. Grant Cottage National Historic Landmark, north of Saratoga Springs. It sits on the slope of Mount McGregor in the town of Moreau. 

Gravelly ill, Grant, the brilliant Civil War General and 18th President of the United States, spent the last six weeks of his life at the cottage loaned to him and his family by New York banker Joseph William Drexel.

The former President was broke, having lost all his wealth in a Ponzi scheme, and he knew he was dying. However, author and publisher Mark Twain gave Grant a $25,000 advance to write his memoirs (roughly $780k in today’s dollars). Grant was determined to finish his memoir, hoping its royalties would be enough to support his wife Julia after his death. 

View from the cottage.

Grant completed the manuscript just three days before he died on July 23, 1885. During the next two years, sales of the work netted his family nearly $450,000 in royalties, saving his widow, Julia, from poverty. To put that into perspective, $450k in 1887 is about $14.3 million today.

For decades after Grant’s death, thousands of Civil War veterans would make a pilgrimage to the cottage on the anniversary of his death. To this day, thousands more visit Mt. McGregor annually to see the original artifacts preserved at this historic site.

Visitors can tour the historic house museum, which was furnished precisely as it was on the day Grant died. The clock still reads 8:08 am, the time Grant died. His eldest son, Frederick Dent Grant, stopped the clock when his father died, then reached over and touched his father's forehead for the last time. 

Among the many artifacts on display, the cottage’s former dining room features massive displays of dried flowers sent to Grant as tributes following his death. Many of these displays remain nearly 140 years later. 

Here’s a fun story! I visited the cottage with my parents when I was just a Lil’ ADKer. When my parents turned their backs on my toddler self for just a moment, I decided it would be a great idea to climb on the large display of dried flowers. One of the cottage’s docents leapt into action and removed me from the display, and we were invited to enjoy any other historic site of our choosing as long as it was off the grounds of Grant Cottage. 

130+ year-old dried floral tributes, nearly crushed by yours truly at 3 years of age.

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