Forget ‘sexy Paris lady' scents. This L.A. duo creates unisex perfumes that make you feel things
As you climb the staircase to Debbie Lin and Na-Moya Lawrence's second-story Hollywood apartment, a smell begins to materialize. It's earthy and calming — grounding, even — and by the time you open their door, the scent envelops you. That's because Lin and Lawrence have set up their artisan perfume company, Samar, in a corner of their home studio space. Sitting on a small foldaway table is a precision scale where the duo weighs out mixtures. Shelves along the wall are lined with hundreds of little bottles of essential oils and aroma chemicals.
'Have you smelled this?' Lin says, holding a bottle of green tea essential oil under my nose.
These headquarters may seem surprising for a duo that creates award-winning perfumes and has built a following of loyal fans. Their small-batch production, inspired by highly personal memories, challenges the norms of the industry. Rather than obsessing over fast growth, they embrace an ethos of exploration and creativity — along with a bit of humor.
Much of the messaging in the perfume landscape has been aspirational, Lawrence explains. ''I'm in Paris and I'm a sexy lady,'' she says, mimicking the traditional advertising. 'That's all great, but now you can smell like a dirty pond goblin if you want. And that's cool.'
Lin and Lawrence launched Samar in Seattle in 2022, succeeding at something many failed at: keeping a pandemic hobby alive. 'We were talking about the places we want to travel when we're able to, the things that we miss doing,' Lin says.
They tried various projects — at first, making pastries and later starting a skincare line — but realized that their real calling lay not in baking ('We're not morning people,' says Lawrence with a laugh) and the beauty endeavor was proving to be too ambitious.
Lawrence had a passion for unusual scents ever since college, when a roommate introduced her to the indie fragrance brand Amorphous Perfume. The duo soon started thinking about entering perfumery. There was just one problem: Lin didn't like perfume all that much. Lin told Lawrence that she had never encountered one she enjoyed.
For Lawrence? Mission accepted. She recalls thinking, 'There's no way there isn't something we could find for [Lin] to enjoy. And so as we were talking as very audacious queers, 'What if we just made it? But where the hell do we start?''
Down the rabbit hole they went, scouring message boards and subreddits, where they found lots of bad advice — some of it dangerous even. Finally, they stumbled upon Perfumer's Apprentice, Hermitage Oils and Pell Wall — material suppliers where you can order the fragrant oils and molecules that make up perfumes. 'We were like, 'Oh, this is the s—. This is the stuff we're supposed to be using,'' Lawrence says.
The two started making scents that were 'grounded in specific memories and emotions that we wanted to relive for ourselves and share with other people,' Lin says. Soon, Samar was born. The name has a dual meaning in Arabic for both 'fruits of paradise' and 'evening conversations with friends,' which nicely sums up the feeling of their perfumes. Their first fragrances were Garden Heaux (a green, vegetal perfume) and Happy Trails (a campfire and woodsy scent inspired by Lin's love of camping with friends in the wilderness near Seattle).
Now their home studio — the duo moved from Seattle to L.A. last April — is starting to take over parts of their apartment: A storage closet is full of bottles of finished perfume that's macerating, a term for when perfume sits for several weeks to let the chemical processes take place.
For each fragrance, one of them takes 'point' — for instance, on Garden Heaux, Lawrence acted as the perfumer and Lin as the fragrance evaluator, deciding whether the scent needed tweaking. It's an intimate working environment for the partners in both work and life. 'To be able to work closely together is really lovely,' says Lin. Because they have different palates, they're each able to pick up on certain notes much more strongly. 'So between the two of us, once we're both happy, then we know we have something that's really nice and balanced,' Lin adds.
Of course, there's not always an instant consensus. They found this out with Grove is in the Heart, the winner of an Art and Olfaction Award, presented in Lisbon in 2024. '[Lawrence] was like, 'No, it's not quite right. It should be sweeter, but not too sweet,'' says Lin. They rejiggered some materials but it was still missing something.
Lin says, 'And I'm just like, 'OK, what is it?' She's like, 'I don't know. You know the Trader Joe's candied orange slices? Like that.' So I taste it, and I'm like, 'Well, what about this? Because it already is zesty, and it already has a little sweetness and the rindiness,' and she's like, 'Juicy. It needs to be more juicy.''
Lawrence laughs at this story, mentioning that sometimes they can go 13 or 14 trials before they succeed in satisfying both perfumers. 'I wanted it juicier, but there I was standing with a dried orange slice in my hand,' she says.
'I would have never gotten there,' banters Lin.
Where they do align easily is in their commitment to making fragrance available and emotionally resonant. As a small business, Samar doesn't benefit from the discounts enjoyed by major brands — big companies buy literally tons of essential oil at a discounted rate. So the brand reflects that smaller scale by offering smaller sizes at more approachable price points (bottles cost between $10 and $55). Each perfume comes in 2.25mL, 5mL or 10mL sizes, smaller than the industry standard of 30mL or 50mL. 'A lot of people are samplers,' Lawrence says. 'We're samplers.'
Samar's inclusiveness goes beyond their pricing. In L.A., they are surrounded by friends in the fragrance community, notably Orange County-based perfumers James Miju Nguyen and Kael Jeong, who run artisan perfume brands d.grayi and KST Scent, respectively. They've formed something of a queer indie perfumer club. For these makers, gender isn't on the radar — a perfume can be enjoyed by all. In an Instagram post, Samar explained that at in-person shows, the company asks customers to suspend their beliefs about masculinity and femininity, and found that most men gravitate toward its more floral-forward and sweet perfumes like Beach Berry and Great Lei.
One of Samar's most distinct creations, Speakeasy, was inspired by 1920s underground queer bars and the illicit moonshine that fueled the Prohibition era. 'It's one of our most polarizing scents, actually, but it's also one of my favorite ones that Debbie has made,' Lawrence says. They didn't shy away from the scent's complexity, leaning into the more unusual notes like gin, elderflower and leather. 'I really love the darkness to it,' Lawrence adds.
Their exploration of scent is boundary-pushing. On a recent trip to Thailand, they found themselves at a chocolate cafe called Chocolate Culture Club, where they struck up a conversation with the owner, a chocolatier named MK. MK suggested they create perfumes from fermented chocolate husks, and before they left Bangkok, he gave them several bags of cacao husks.
Lawrence bounds over to a shelf with several jars of a brown tinctured slurry, the results of which they'll use to create a cacao perfume. They'll send half of each batch to Thailand for Chocolate Culture Club to sell. The chocolate-vinegar scent isn't what one might think about when thinking of perfume, but that's part of the fun of trying to find that perfect blend.
Lawrence says she's intrigued by the potential for 'slightly off scents.'
The final result will be 'maybe beautiful, maybe just kind of weird,' she says. 'But weird is beautiful.'
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Eater
8 hours ago
- Eater
The Best Street Food in the West Village
New York is a damn expensive city, and no more is that evident than in the picturesque Greenwich Village and the West Village in particular. The affluent neighborhood is lined with cobblestoned streets brimming with luxe developments, high-end boutiques, and the West Village Girls fulfilling their Sex and the City aspirations. It wasn't always this way: But these changes have impacted its dining scene, where restaurants are reflecting what the newer crowds are seeking: see-and-be-seen places with stylish and often expensive food and drinks to match, much of it sit-down. But between the corner restaurants, bakeries, takeout windows, and quick-serve spots, there's plenty of excellent — and actually affordable — street food to be found. So the Eater NY team headed into the West Village for a food crawl, with a mission to find the best handheld snacks, grab-and-go bites, and under-$20 meals in the neighborhood. Lin & Daughters comes from Becky Lin, a first-time restaurant owner who opened her spot in 2023. Here, she's making home-cooked staples like beef noodle soup, grandma's peanut butter noodle salad, spicy cucumbers, and more. But it's the array of dumplings that are most satisfying – and portable – whether it's the pan-fried chicken curry number ($13.49), cumin beef, shrimp, or Lin's pork and chive dumplings ($12.49). Grab an order or two for a people-watching snack in the park. 181 W. Fourth Street, near Jones Street —Melissa McCart State fair corn dogs aren't the first food-on-a-stick that comes to mind when I think of New York street food, yet they're my go-to order when I frequent my beloved Cowgirl (formerly Cowgirl Hall of Fame), the longtimer since 1989. What amounts to a deep-fried corn muffin exterior surrounds a snappy little cocktail dog for a perfect $6 beer snack (or two for $12). There's also Frito pie and catfish fingers, but the corndogs are the best throwback, particularly when it comes to summertime savory snacks. Order some for takeaway and duck into this restaurant that's a reminder of the way the West Village used to be: quirky, eclectic, and cheap. 519 Hudson Street, at West 10th Street — Melissa McCart Cariñito Tacos is a fusion-y taqueria hailing from Mexico City for a summer pop-up in an empty storefront — which, as these things go, I have to assume is a preview of something longer-term they are exploring in New York. As far as other hot new taco spots go, this is one of the more expensive ($7.50 to $9 each), with tacos ranging in varieties like a play on Katz's with pastrami, as well as Thai-flavored tacos with shredded pork belly, mint, and rice powder — all served atop a cornhusk blanket. Not all of them are worth it, bhe best value is the take on the Taco Bell Crunchwrap Supreme (one of a handful of places that pay homage to the original), which comes with Sichuan-spiced brisket and pork, Oaxacan cheese, avocado, fermented beans, and cabbage slaw. It's eat at the standing counter here – or on the street. Grab plenty of napkins. 86 University Place, near East 11th Street — Emma Orlow It seems like there's a gelato shop on every corner of the West Village, and debating which is best is like trying to decide who wrote the summer's best beach read. So instead of recommending a favorite gelato flavor, let's take a look at Gelateria Gentile's granita. Much like the corn dog, granita transports the person eating it, in this case, to an Italian summer. Stick with classics like lemon or coffee, in a cup or with brioche ($8.50). And if there's cantaloupe as the flavor of the day, order that, too. (This location of Gentile is so tiny that it's a given you're going to eat it on the street.) 43 Eighth Avenue, between Jane and Horatio streets — Melissa McCart What is there to say that hasn't already been said about the burrata slice ($5.50) at L'Industrie? This second location of the famed slice shop in Williamsburg has lines that have followed from Brooklyn. Yes, this is New York City, so yes, you can get a decent, cheaper slice without waiting in line in pretty much every neighborhood. But L'Industrie isn't about decent; it's about excellence. If you are interested in a taste of one of the standard bearers for pizza's new wave in New York, then it's worth queuing up for. It's crispy in all the right ways, but creamy from a bountiful serving of burrata. It's a total coincidence that it opened just down the street from the second location of Mama's Too. Together, this has made for one of the most important pizza corners in New York. And, possibly — not to be dramatic — the world. 104 Christopher Street, near Bleecker Street — Emma Orlow The motto here is rice-free burritos, which means none of the filler and all of the goodies. Takeout-only Son Del North first opened on the Lower East Side, before expanding with a second location in the West Village, and immediately catapulted to one of my favorite all-time New York burritos, doing justice to flour tortillas (yes, they make them themselves). I like the carne asada and the shrimp burritos, but at $9, the gooey bean and cheese is a filling and affordable move. Pre-order to beat the wait, and then post up at a bench at Demo Square across the street. 26 Carmine Street, at Bleecker Street — Emma Orlow Is this some of the best Indian food in Manhattan? Not necessarily, but the order-at-the-counter Taco Mahal has been really important to me over the years as one of those reliable, easy spots that have become all too rare. Taco Mahal provides naan and roti folded like a taco for a quick bite you can snarf down. Their best deal is a three-roti deal for $14 with filling options like chicken malai, sag paneer, and channa masala. There are seats both indoors and outdoors, which makes it easy to get in even at primetime on the weekend before a night out, no matter the weather. Ignore the fluorescent lighting. 73 Seventh Avenue South, West Village — Emma Orlow Wandering around NYU territory, I ducked into this tiny deli to grab the $12 chopped cheese sandwich. It's a very long sandwich on a sesame seed hero — enough for two meals for me — making the price well worth it. Co-owner and chef Antonio Barbieri knows what he's doing when it comes to food — he had been the executive sous chef at the fancypants Eleven Madison Park, before switching gears with this sandwich shop. The well-structured sandwich is evenly proportioned with cheesy, saucy chopped beef, crispy shredded lettuce, and slices of tomatoes. I was also glad for the bottle of Crystal hot sauce that was readily available because I needed just a little more spice in the sandwich. While there's minimal seating — two sets of double stools along the window — the tables make for a fun activity because you can browse through all of the pop culture stickers on the counter. 218 Thompson Street, near West Third Street, Greenwich Village — Nadia Chaudhury The baked empanada mini-chain has a location right near the IFC Center, making it a good stop for a budget meal before seeing an indie movie. At $18.45 for a box of three, you can pick whichever empanadas you want. I got the classic Argentine malbec beef (which had a nice zip from the olives), the ooey-gooey ham and mozzarella, and, my favorite of the bunch, the smoked pulled chicken empanada made with well-balanced barbecue sauce. The empanadas themselves are flavorful enough that the extra order of chimichurri sauce for 50 cents isn't needed. On a nice day, it's pleasant to dine at one of the two tables out front. The 333 Sixth Avenue, near West Fourth Street, West Village — Nadia Chaudhury The Japanese bakery had been on my radar since it opened last year, so I was happy for the excuse to stop by. For my savory option, I went for the chicken katsu sandwich, which is $13 for the whole thing and $7 for half. The sandwich is filling, with fluffy milk bread and juicy breaded chicken, and everything is gluten-free. The cute, vibrant pop-colored setting doesn't hurt either — it's good for a photo or two. 31-33 Carmine Street, at Bleecker Street, West Village — Nadia Chaudhury I've been a fan of the Iraqi-owned Moustache Pitza since it was at its old location in the West Village (the original first opened in Brooklyn in 1988). A couple of years ago, it relocated to a bigger spot where there's plenty of space for dining in. If you're ordering for a group, shareables like labne and pita will go over well, but for takeout solo dining, the move here is the merguez sandwich, with spicy lamb sausage, lettuce, and tomato, which is very portable ($18); there's also a vegetarian-friendly falafel sandwich version at $12, a fraction of the cost. 29 Seventh Avenue South, near Bedford Street, West Village — Emma Orlow The splendor that is Tashkent's first Manhattan location will astound anyone feeling the weight of rising food costs in New York — as it's very easy to get out for under $10 here. This one-of-a-kind Eastern European supermarket has five locations in New York, including its famous Brighton Beach one, making it a well-oiled machine that still puts a lot of care into its food (there's a whole kitchen in the basement that keeps food moving and fresh upstairs). The by-the-pound salad bar, which includes items like plov and carrot salad, is fun. But the best street food item for a picnic in nearby Washington Square Park, probably their samsa, a Central Asian pastry with a variety of halal-friendly meat fillings and vegetarian options (like one with pumpkin). 378 Sixth Avenue, at West Fourth Street — Emma Orlow See More: Cheap Eats Dining Out in NY
Los Angeles Times
a day ago
- Los Angeles Times
Forget ‘sexy Paris lady' scents. This L.A. duo creates unisex perfumes that make you feel things
As you climb the staircase to Debbie Lin and Na-Moya Lawrence's second-story Hollywood apartment, a smell begins to materialize. It's earthy and calming — grounding, even — and by the time you open their door, the scent envelops you. That's because Lin and Lawrence have set up their artisan perfume company, Samar, in a corner of their home studio space. Sitting on a small foldaway table is a precision scale where the duo weighs out mixtures. Shelves along the wall are lined with hundreds of little bottles of essential oils and aroma chemicals. 'Have you smelled this?' Lin says, holding a bottle of green tea essential oil under my nose. These headquarters may seem surprising for a duo that creates award-winning perfumes and has built a following of loyal fans. Their small-batch production, inspired by highly personal memories, challenges the norms of the industry. Rather than obsessing over fast growth, they embrace an ethos of exploration and creativity — along with a bit of humor. Much of the messaging in the perfume landscape has been aspirational, Lawrence explains. ''I'm in Paris and I'm a sexy lady,'' she says, mimicking the traditional advertising. 'That's all great, but now you can smell like a dirty pond goblin if you want. And that's cool.' Lin and Lawrence launched Samar in Seattle in 2022, succeeding at something many failed at: keeping a pandemic hobby alive. 'We were talking about the places we want to travel when we're able to, the things that we miss doing,' Lin says. They tried various projects — at first, making pastries and later starting a skincare line — but realized that their real calling lay not in baking ('We're not morning people,' says Lawrence with a laugh) and the beauty endeavor was proving to be too ambitious. Lawrence had a passion for unusual scents ever since college, when a roommate introduced her to the indie fragrance brand Amorphous Perfume. The duo soon started thinking about entering perfumery. There was just one problem: Lin didn't like perfume all that much. Lin told Lawrence that she had never encountered one she enjoyed. For Lawrence? Mission accepted. She recalls thinking, 'There's no way there isn't something we could find for [Lin] to enjoy. And so as we were talking as very audacious queers, 'What if we just made it? But where the hell do we start?'' Down the rabbit hole they went, scouring message boards and subreddits, where they found lots of bad advice — some of it dangerous even. Finally, they stumbled upon Perfumer's Apprentice, Hermitage Oils and Pell Wall — material suppliers where you can order the fragrant oils and molecules that make up perfumes. 'We were like, 'Oh, this is the s—. This is the stuff we're supposed to be using,'' Lawrence says. The two started making scents that were 'grounded in specific memories and emotions that we wanted to relive for ourselves and share with other people,' Lin says. Soon, Samar was born. The name has a dual meaning in Arabic for both 'fruits of paradise' and 'evening conversations with friends,' which nicely sums up the feeling of their perfumes. Their first fragrances were Garden Heaux (a green, vegetal perfume) and Happy Trails (a campfire and woodsy scent inspired by Lin's love of camping with friends in the wilderness near Seattle). Now their home studio — the duo moved from Seattle to L.A. last April — is starting to take over parts of their apartment: A storage closet is full of bottles of finished perfume that's macerating, a term for when perfume sits for several weeks to let the chemical processes take place. For each fragrance, one of them takes 'point' — for instance, on Garden Heaux, Lawrence acted as the perfumer and Lin as the fragrance evaluator, deciding whether the scent needed tweaking. It's an intimate working environment for the partners in both work and life. 'To be able to work closely together is really lovely,' says Lin. Because they have different palates, they're each able to pick up on certain notes much more strongly. 'So between the two of us, once we're both happy, then we know we have something that's really nice and balanced,' Lin adds. Of course, there's not always an instant consensus. They found this out with Grove is in the Heart, the winner of an Art and Olfaction Award, presented in Lisbon in 2024. '[Lawrence] was like, 'No, it's not quite right. It should be sweeter, but not too sweet,'' says Lin. They rejiggered some materials but it was still missing something. Lin says, 'And I'm just like, 'OK, what is it?' She's like, 'I don't know. You know the Trader Joe's candied orange slices? Like that.' So I taste it, and I'm like, 'Well, what about this? Because it already is zesty, and it already has a little sweetness and the rindiness,' and she's like, 'Juicy. It needs to be more juicy.'' Lawrence laughs at this story, mentioning that sometimes they can go 13 or 14 trials before they succeed in satisfying both perfumers. 'I wanted it juicier, but there I was standing with a dried orange slice in my hand,' she says. 'I would have never gotten there,' banters Lin. Where they do align easily is in their commitment to making fragrance available and emotionally resonant. As a small business, Samar doesn't benefit from the discounts enjoyed by major brands — big companies buy literally tons of essential oil at a discounted rate. So the brand reflects that smaller scale by offering smaller sizes at more approachable price points (bottles cost between $10 and $55). Each perfume comes in 2.25mL, 5mL or 10mL sizes, smaller than the industry standard of 30mL or 50mL. 'A lot of people are samplers,' Lawrence says. 'We're samplers.' Samar's inclusiveness goes beyond their pricing. In L.A., they are surrounded by friends in the fragrance community, notably Orange County-based perfumers James Miju Nguyen and Kael Jeong, who run artisan perfume brands and KST Scent, respectively. They've formed something of a queer indie perfumer club. For these makers, gender isn't on the radar — a perfume can be enjoyed by all. In an Instagram post, Samar explained that at in-person shows, the company asks customers to suspend their beliefs about masculinity and femininity, and found that most men gravitate toward its more floral-forward and sweet perfumes like Beach Berry and Great Lei. One of Samar's most distinct creations, Speakeasy, was inspired by 1920s underground queer bars and the illicit moonshine that fueled the Prohibition era. 'It's one of our most polarizing scents, actually, but it's also one of my favorite ones that Debbie has made,' Lawrence says. They didn't shy away from the scent's complexity, leaning into the more unusual notes like gin, elderflower and leather. 'I really love the darkness to it,' Lawrence adds. Their exploration of scent is boundary-pushing. On a recent trip to Thailand, they found themselves at a chocolate cafe called Chocolate Culture Club, where they struck up a conversation with the owner, a chocolatier named MK. MK suggested they create perfumes from fermented chocolate husks, and before they left Bangkok, he gave them several bags of cacao husks. Lawrence bounds over to a shelf with several jars of a brown tinctured slurry, the results of which they'll use to create a cacao perfume. They'll send half of each batch to Thailand for Chocolate Culture Club to sell. The chocolate-vinegar scent isn't what one might think about when thinking of perfume, but that's part of the fun of trying to find that perfect blend. Lawrence says she's intrigued by the potential for 'slightly off scents.' The final result will be 'maybe beautiful, maybe just kind of weird,' she says. 'But weird is beautiful.'
Business Insider
a day ago
- Business Insider
See inside Alexander Hamilton's historic New York City home where Lin-Manuel Miranda found inspiration for 'Hamilton'
Hamilton Grange is the historic former home of American Founding Father Alexander Hamilton. Located in Upper Manhattan, the home has been moved twice as New York City built up around it. The success of the "Hamilton" musical by Lin-Manuel Miranda tripled visitorship to the site. The former home of America's first treasury secretary was once a sleepy historic site in Upper Manhattan that received around a dozen visitors per day. Then came a little musical called " Hamilton." Written by and starring Lin-Manuel Miranda in the original Broadway cast, the show chronicles Alexander Hamilton's rise from impoverished orphan to Founding Father through rap and hip-hop. It became a cultural phenomenon as one of the most successful musicals of all time, winning 11 Tony Awards in 2016 and grossing a total of over $1 billion, Broadway News reported. Miranda, a longtime resident of Washington Heights in Upper Manhattan, visited Hamilton's home while writing the show to draw inspiration for the titular character. When "Hamilton" moved to Broadway in 2015, visitorship to the site, known as Hamilton Grange, tripled overnight, supervisory park ranger Callie Tominsky told Business Insider. Tour buses would pull up and create lines around the block as fans of the show waited to enter the small visitors center managed by the National Park Service and tour the 2,700-square-foot home. "Hamilton" marked its 10-year anniversary on Broadway with a performance by the original cast at the 2025 Tony Awards. Even a decade later, Tominsky says visitorship at Hamilton Grange remains high. "This is the only monument to Hamilton in the country," Tominsky said. "He does not have a Washington Monument. He does not have a Jefferson Memorial. He doesn't have any of that, but he has his humble home in Upper Manhattan on the same plot of land that he fell in love with over 200 years ago." I visited Hamilton Grange in June to explore the historic site. Take a look inside. Representatives for Miranda did not respond to a request for comment. Hamilton Grange is located in the Hamilton Heights neighborhood in northern Manhattan. Measuring approximately 2,700 square feet, Hamilton Grange was designed by architect John McComb and largely completed in 1802. Hamilton only lived in the home for two years before he was killed in a duel with rival Aaron Burr in 1804, but his wife, Eliza Hamilton, lived there for another 30 years. Burr later spent time living nearby at Morris-Jumel Mansion at what is now 162nd Street. Hamilton's home was moved twice before arriving at its permanent location in St. Nicholas Park. Hamilton Grange was originally situated on 32 acres of land near what is now 143rd Street in Harlem. The 300-ton home was lifted off its foundation and moved twice as part of preservation efforts. The first move was in 1889, when it was placed on a platform and hauled by horses to prevent it from being demolished as Manhattan's street grid expanded. The Grange was moved for the second and final time in 2008, when hydraulic jacks lifted the home 38 feet in the air to extricate it from between a church and an apartment building. "People take for granted that this exists, but it really was years and even lifetimes of collaborative effort that kept the house here and available for people," Tominsky told BI. The National Park Service operates the historic site and leads tours of Hamilton Grange. Hamilton Grange is open Wednesday through Sunday. Admission is free, and tours are first-come, first-served. The full tour schedule can be found on the National Park Service's website. The lower floor of Hamilton Grange functions as a visitor center with a museum and gift shop. The gift shop sells souvenirs featuring nods to the Broadway musical "Hamilton." "It's Quiet Uptown," a song from the musical's second act, chronicles Alexander and Eliza Hamilton's move to the Grange while grieving the death of their son Phillip. The gift shop also features a glimpse at the home's "scratch coat," or base layer of plaster. The restored upper floor of Hamilton Grange is accessible through a narrow, winding staircase once used by staff. The visitor center on the lower floor was once the location of the kitchen and staff quarters. Upstairs, the first stop on my tour was the foyer, where Hamilton greeted important guests when they walked through the front door. Hamilton Grange was built in the Federalist style with columns and tall, open ceilings, a departure from tighter, boxier Colonial-style architecture. A copy of a full-length portrait of Hamilton, originally painted by John Trumbull in 1792, hung on one of the walls. In the portrait, Hamilton is shown holding a quill, symbolizing his influential writings that helped shape America's political and financial system such as the Federalist Papers. The foyer also displayed a replica of a marble bust of Hamilton carved by Italian sculptor Giuseppe Ceracchi. Ceracchi's bust was intended to be part of a larger monument depicting Hamilton among other Founding Fathers, but Congress decided not to fund it. Hamilton then purchased the bust from Ceracchi in 1796. The bust was displayed at Hamilton's actual height of 5 feet 7 inches, so I stood next to it to compare my stature with his. I'm pretty short, so my eye level would have reached Hamilton's chin if we'd met face-to-face. Looking out the windows in the foyer, I was struck by the historic home's proximity to the modern streets of New York City. In Hamilton's time, the Grange featured clear views of the Harlem and Hudson Rivers and the shores of New Jersey. Today, high-rise apartments and office buildings dot the streets outside. Next, the tour proceeded to the dining room, where Hamilton hosted guests at dinner parties. Mirrored doors across from the windows helped reflect more light to brighten the space. Much of the room was staged with reproductions of Hamilton's possessions, such as a replica of a wine cooler gifted to him by George Washington. Many of Hamilton's possessions were sold in auctions after his death and bought by private collectors. The original wine cooler sold for $782,500 at a Christie's auction in 2012. National Park ranger and tour guide Tom Ward said that original items from the home are often sold at prices "well past our operational budget." "The only way we're really able to get our hands on these kinds of artifacts is through donation," he said. One original item remaining from Hamilton's time was a silver candle tray on the dining room table. Hamilton and his family also entertained visitors in the parlor. Five of the Louis XVI-style chairs in the parlor are original to the home, and five are reproductions. The secret to determining which is which, Ward told our group, is underneath the chairs. The originals feature burlap upholstery beneath the cushions, while the replicas were upholstered with white nylon mesh. The portrait of George Washington on display at the Grange is a copy, but Hamilton had the original 1797 work by Gilbert Stuart, now housed at the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Arkansas. One of the Grange's most notable original artifacts is the pianoforte gifted by Hamilton's sister-in-law, Angelica Schuyler Church. Church purchased the piano in London in 1795. Hamilton was a skilled player, as was his daughter, Angelica Hamilton. The two would often play tunes together. "This piano, for me, is a symbol for the family ties of the Hamiltons," Tominsky said. "When you think about Hamilton, you think about this political juggernaut who was making huge impacts on the formation of the country. But then this piano reminds us that he was also a family man." The green walls of Hamilton's study inspired the color of Hamilton's costume in the Broadway musical. In the PBS documentary "Hamilton's America," costume designer Paul Tazewell said that Lin-Manuel Miranda requested a green outfit for the character of Hamilton after visiting the Grange and seeing the color of the walls in his study. The study featured a replica of Hamilton's Federal-style desk. Hamilton also had a traveling desk that went with him on trips. Books that belonged to Hamilton sat on a table in the study. A map from 1776 hanging in the study showed just how small New York City was at the time. The entire city of New York was concentrated in what is now the Financial District of Lower Manhattan. What is now Upper Manhattan was mostly farmland and forest. Two unrestored back rooms, which served as guest quarters, included additional exhibits about the history of Hamilton Grange. The displays showed original artifacts such as keys, locks, and screws from the home that helped preservationists learn more about how it was constructed. On the outside, much of the siding is still original, though some pieces have been replaced. With hot summers, cold winters, frequent rain, air pollution, and constant construction, preserving a historic home in Manhattan can be a challenging endeavor. Hamilton Grange remains a fascinating site for history buffs and musical theater fans alike. Tominsky said that visitors occasionally burst into songs from the "Hamilton" musical while touring the Grange. Park rangers have been known to sing along. "We're all big fans of it too," she said.
