There were no colleges on the island of St. Croix in Alexander Hamilton’s teenage years. Becoming educated—as only a single-digit percentage of men did at the time—was the point of Hamilton’s voyage to the American mainland.

After some preparatory tutoring and classes, Hamilon enrolled at what was then known as King’s College—and would later become Columbia University.

Hamilton planned to be graduated with the class of 1776. But war got in the way.

When the British occupied Manhattan in 1776, they not-so-gently used the college building as a barracks. When New York City was turned back over to Americans in late 1783, Hamilton was too long in the tooth to be a student. Moreover, King’s College was a shambles and bereft of funds.

So Hamilton joined the trustees of the college. He submitted an ambitious educational and organizational plan for the school, attended meetings every week, and helped raise money for it.

In 1925 the university president commented that exactly everything included in the “Hamilton Plan” for Columbia had been implemented. “Educator” should therefore always be included on Alexander Hamilton’s crowded resume.

In his lifetime, King’s College/Columbia Columbia was—like the rest of the city—far downtown: just west of Broadway on today’s Park Place (pictured).

In 1857. the college moved uptown to 49th St. and Madison Avenue. In another 40 years it would pack up and move again, this time to its present location in Morningside Heights at Broadway and 116th.