Grant's Tomb, now formally known as General Grant National Memorial, is the final resting place of Ulysses S. Grant (1822–1885), the 18th President of the United States, and his wife, Julia Dent Grant (1826–1902). Completed in 1897, the tomb is located in Riverside Park in the Morningside Heights neighborhood of Upper Manhattan in New York City, across the street from the monumental Riverside Church. It was placed under the management of the National Park Service in 1958. According to NYC Parks, "some popular local folk art in Riverside Park contrasts strikingly with the Tomb's severity".[47] Concerts are regularly held at or right outside Grant's Tomb. Examples include Jazzmobile, Inc.'s annual Free Outdoor Summer Mobile Concerts at Grant's Tomb,[48] and the annual Grant's Tomb SUMMER CONCERT, which in 2009 featured West Point's United States Military Academy Band.[49] Grant's Tomb is a New York City-based band composed of conservatory trained jazz musicians "with a party mentality", who "got their name from Grant's Tomb Park a block away, a favorite band hangout".[50] On his radio and television show You Bet Your Life, comedian Groucho Marx often asked contestants, "Who was buried in Grant's Tomb?" The riddle is based on the use of the word "buried." The correct answer is "no one," since Grant and his wife are entombed in sarcophagi above ground in an atrium rather than being buried in the ground. However, Marx often still accepted the answer "Grant," and awarded a consolation prize to those who gave it. He used the question, among several other comically simple ones, to ensure that everyone won a prize on the show. Thirty-eight years after the tomb opened, the initial restoration project began in December 1935, when the Works Progress Administration's laborers laid down new marble flooring in the atrium.[30] The WPA played a large role in sustaining the monument. Joan Waugh explains that, "In the 1930s the tomb was kept afloat, barely, by funds from the Works Progress Administration."[31] Shortly after the restoration project began, the old New York City Post Office was being demolished and donated two statues of eagles to decorate the front of the Grant Monument.[32] The laborers of the WPA worked on several projects throughout the 1930s, including roof restoration, electric lighting and heating systems, and removing the purple stained glass windows.[30] The Pittsburgh Plate Glass Company installed amber glass to replace the purple stained glass.[33] Toward the end of the 1930s, a project began to restore the two reliquary rooms, where battle flags were displayed in trophy cases, and murals of the wars Grant had fought in were painted on the walls.[34] In 1938 the Federal Art Project selected artists William Mues and Jeno Juszko to design the busts of William T. Sherman, Phillip H. Sheridan, George H. Thomas, James B. McPherson, and Edward Ord.[34] The WPA installed five busts in the circular wall of the atrium surrounding the sarcophagi. After the many contributions of the WPA, the Grant Monument Association held a re-dedication of the tomb on April 27, 1939.[35] In 1958, the National Park Service (NPS) was granted authority to oversee the monument. According to a report by the NPS itself, a historian admitted that when the NPS first assumed authority over the tomb, they "had no program for the site."[36] This led to great negligence of the site, particularly in the maintenance of the monument. By the 1970s, the tomb was marred by vandalism and graffiti. Trash had hipped up around the monuments, its exterior recesses being used by drug users, the homeless and the criminals for hideouts. Graffiti covered the walls and pedestals, while the vandals chipped away at the masonry at will.[36] The NPS undertook a plan to remove the trophy cases in the reliquary rooms. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grant%27s_Tomb

• published: 26 Apr 2015
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