Hip-hopping into History

Alexander Hamilton sites see surge of visitors thanks to hit musical

Kerissa Bearce, 35, an instructional technology coach from Fort Worth, Texas, visited all those sites and many more when she came to New York to see the show with two friends.

“I pretty much don’t remember anything about the founding of my country, but now I’m learning all of it,” Bearce said.

Bearce is among thousands of “Hamilton” fans boosting visitor numbers at historic sites that in the past were barely on tourists’ radars. Hamilton Grange, his Harlem home and a National Park site, had as many visitors in the first five months of this year as it did in all of 2015 — more than 35,000 people. And that’s a 75 percent increase over the 21,000 visitors who toured the Grange in 2014, the year before “Hamilton” opened. Artifacts at the site include a piano that Hamilton’s daughter Angelica played. A replica of the instrument is featured in the show.

But fans are also finding their way to more obscure spots, like the SchuylerHamilton House in Morristown, New Jersey, where Hamilton courted his wife, Eliza.

“We have 5-year-olds, 16-year-olds, 30-year-olds coming here now,” said Pat Sanftner, who gives tours of the Schuyler-Hamilton House. “We did not have that audience in our museum before. We had 60-year-olds. It’s wonderful to have these conversations now with visitors. We’re not just teaching. They’re questioning us and they’re thinking.”

Tourists have always visited Hamilton’s tomb in the graveyard at Trinity Church in Lower Manhattan. But now, not only are more people paying their respects, they’re also looking for the graves of Hamilton’s wife, sister-in-law, son and his buddy Hercules Mulligan. “Visitors also now leave flowers, stones, coins, notes, even a potted plant, at Hamilton’s monument and on Eliza’s stone just in front of it,” Trinity spokeswoman Lynn Goswick said.

The show’s star and creator, LinManuel Miranda, wrote part of “Hamilton” at the Morris-Jumel Mansion in Manhattan’s Washington Heights. The mansion’s executive director Carol Ward estimates

A plaque and a bust of Alexander Hamilton are shown at Hamilton Park in Weehawken, New Jersey, near the dueling grounds where Hamilton was fatally shot by Aaron Burr. “Hamilton” creator and star Lin-Manuel Miranda performs with the musical’s cast at...