General Grant NM and St. Paul's Church NHS

Before heading out of NYC, there were two more NPS sites that I wanted to visit.  General Grant National Memorial was just a 30 minute walk from our Airbnb.  Halfway there, we stopped for some breakfast at Kitchenette, a cute little place and then walked on to the monument.  The visitor's center is hiding across the road and down the stairway from the actual monument.  It's not a big place and I think it was in an old bathroom. As is expected, there was a small room with some displays and a movie.  We watched the movie and learned some things about General Grant.  I think most of what I knew previously focused on The Civil War.

The monument contains the tomb of General Grant and his wife.  It's very large and very grand.  There's some interesting architecture and artwork inside.

Also just down the street, is cathedral-like Riverside Church, a pretty impressive church, which was open when we were walking by, so we ducked in and took a look.

St. Paul's Church National Historic Site is located in Eastchester, NY, just 20 miles north of NYC.  It looked like you could possibly take a commuter rail or bus all the way there, but I was glad that we were driving.  It's in a rather industrial and uninviting part of town.  

The visitor's center is in a small building next to the church.  It was locked, so we had to ring the bell and wait for the ranger to let us in.  Needless to say, we were the only visitor's there.  The ranger immediately directed us to the movie about the church and then we looked through the exhibits. 

The church was originally established in 1665 and the current building is from 1763.  The church played an important role in The Revolutionary War.  It's no longer an active church, but they do hold concerts there periodically.  It's pretty basic inside with high walls around each pew designed so that you couldn't see anyone other than the pastor while attending church.   After seeing the church, the ranger walked us around the cemetery pointing out some of the notable graves.   The cemetery covers more than 5 acres and the oldest stone is from 1704.  It was interesting to see the different styles of stones used through the years.