Hugh J. Grant served as mayor of New York City

New York City

New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

 for two terms from 1889 to 1892. He remains the youngest mayor in the city's history. He is also one of the youngest mayors of a major United States city and one of the earliest Roman Catholic mayors of New York City.

Biography

Hugh Grant, whose father had grown rich in politics and real estate, was born on West 27th Street in New York City, on September 10, 1858. He was orphaned young and raised by his guardian, a man named McAleer. He attended both public and private schools, spent two years at Manhattan College

Manhattan College

Manhattan College is a Roman Catholic liberal arts college in the Lasallian tradition in New York City, United States. Despite the college's name, it is no longer located in Manhattan but in the Riverdale section of the Bronx, roughly 10 miles north of Midtown. Manhattan College offers...

, another year studying in Germany, and two more at Columbia Law School

Columbia Law School

Columbia Law School, founded in 1858, is one of the oldest and most prestigious law schools in the United States. A member of the Ivy League, Columbia Law School is one of the professional graduate schools of Columbia University in New York City. It offers the J.D., LL.M., and J.S.D. degrees in...

. Though the earliest data, including the United States census of 1860 and 1870 and Grant's 1878 passport application, establish his birth year as 1858, early in his political career he began to present himself as born several years earlier in 1852 or 1853, perhaps to avoid calling attention to his youth. A Tammany Hall

Tammany Hall

Tammany Hall, also known as the Society of St. Tammany, the Sons of St. Tammany, or the Columbian Order, was a New York political organization founded in 1786 and incorporated on May 12, 1789 as the Tammany Society...

 Democrat, he began his political career as a city alderman from 1883–1884, where he managed to be one of only two alderman not caught up in a financial scandal related to the Broadway Surface Railroad

Broadway Line (Lower Manhattan surface)

The Broadway Line is a public transit line in Manhattan, New York City, United States, running mostly along Broadway and Seventh Avenue from Lower Manhattan to Central Park. Originally a streetcar line, it is now the southbound direction of the M5 bus route, operated by the New York City Transit...

. 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

Richard Croker

Richard Croker, Sr. was an American politician, a leader of New York City's Tammany Hall.-Biography:...

.

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 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. He declined to run again at the end of his second term, but ran once more in 1894 and lost.

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

Fassett Investigation

The Fassett Investigation, or Fassett Committee, was an 1890 probe by the New York State Senate into political corruption in the City of New York. The committee was mainly looking for evidence of bribery among appointed officials and the Board of Aldermen...

 of 1890. Grant's role included $25,000 in cash made to Croker’s daughter Flossie - supposedly gifts he made as god-father to the little girl. A grand jury described Grant's tenure as Sheriff as "tainted and corrupt." In February 1892, crusading reformist Rev. Charles Parkhurst

Charles Henry Parkhurst

Charles Henry Parkhurst was an American clergyman and social reformer, born in Framingham, Massachusetts. Although scholarly and reserved, he preached two sermons in 1892 in which he attacked the political corruption of New York City government...

 of the Madison Square Presbyterian Church

Madison Square Presbyterian Church, New York City (1906)

Madison Square Presbyterian Church was a Presbyterian church in Manhattan, New York City, located on Madison Square Park at the northeast corner of East 24th Street and Madison Avenue. It was designed by Stanford White in a High Renaissance architectural style, with a prominent central dome over a...

 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."

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

Harlem River Drive

The Harlem River Drive is a north–south parkway in the New York City borough of Manhattan. It runs along the west bank of the Harlem River from the Triborough Bridge in East Harlem to 10th Avenue in Inwood, where the parkway continues north as Dyckman Street. The portion of the Harlem River Drive...

, a track for horse racing, in association with Nathan Strauss. Strauss named one of his sons Hugh Grant Straus.

He died of a sudden heart attack or stroke at home on Nov. 3, 1910. After a funeral at the church of St. Ignatius Loyola

Church of St. Ignatius Loyola (New York City)

The Church of St. Ignatius of Loyola is a Roman Catholic parish located on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, New York City, administered by the Society of Jesus . The parish is under the authority of the Archdiocese of New York and was established in 1851 as St. Lawrence O’Toole’s Church....

 on Park Avenue and 84th Street, he was buried in Calvary Cemetery

Calvary Cemetery, Queens

The Roman Catholic Calvary Cemetery in Queens has the largest number of interments of any cemetery in the United States.The offices of Calvary Cemetery are located at 49-02 Laurel Hill Blvd. in Woodside in the New York City borough of Queens, New York. The cemetery is managed by the Trustees of...

.

Marriage

In Washington, DC, on April 30, 1895, Grant wed Julia M. Murphy, the daughter of U.S. Senator Edward Murphy, a political ally of and financial adviser to Richard Croker. After traveling for several years in Europe, they lived and raised three children in their 20-room townhouse at 20 East 72nd Street in New York City.

Julia Grant provided a financial bequest, originally anonymous, that provided the funds for establishing Regis High School

Regis High School (New York City)

Regis High School is a private Jesuit university-preparatory school for academically gifted Roman Catholic young men located on Manhattan's Upper East Side. Annual class enrollment is limited to approximately 135 male students from the New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut tri-state area...

 in 1914, 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 can not afford a Catholic education.

Their home became the residence of the Vatican's Permanent Observer to the United Nations

Permanent Observer of the Holy See to the United Nations

The Permanent Observer of the Holy See to the United Nations is the representative of the Holy See at the United Nations. The diplomatic mission does not have full ambassador status and thus cannot vote — a decision it has freely taken...

.

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)