so did the local minister in christiansted, a man named hugh knox.had connections in the north american mainland. so when hamilton was a teenager, he was sent to north america to be educated. the plan was to get him trained as a doctor, and he would come back to the islands and prap and the first plan was to send him to the college of new jersey, which is now princeton. that didn't work. so he went to king's college, which is now columbia, and which was then just up broadway from this building. this is the second important location in hamilton's life. the fact that he came here to new york rather than to philadelphia or to boston, which were the other significant cities in british north america. philadelphia was the largest. new york had passed boston to become second and was gaining on philadelphia. they were all commercial cities. but boston and philadelphia had been founded as holy cities. they were religious experiments. boston was the city on the hill. philadelphia was the city of brotherly love. and some of that atmosphere still clung to them.