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The parable of Frank Scaturro
The power of one.
| Avid readers of history will enjoy Louis L. Picone’s book about the obscure story behind the nation’s largest mausoleum: Grant’s Tomb: The Epic Death of Ulysses S. Grant and the Making of an American Pantheon. And anyone who cares about the power of citizen engagement will appreciate the book’s touching tribute to a little-known American hero: Frank Scaturro. Civil War General and 18th President Ulysses S. Grant is a towering figure in the nation’s memory, familiar both to amateur students and professional historians. His passing in 1885 grieved the North and the South alike, with former Confederate Generals Joseph Johnston and Simon B. Buckner serving alongside Union Generals William T. Sherman and Philip H. Sheridan as the late president’s pallbearers. The nation wanted to show its respect for the Hero of Appomattox in a memorable way; 12 years after his death, Grant’s body was moved to a classical domed mausoleum in New York City. (Famously, comedian Groucho Marx used to ask contestants who failed to answer basic questions on his trivia show, “Who’s buried in Grant’s Tomb?” According to a recent report from the New York Post, guests still pester Park Rangers with this question.)  Grant’s final resting place should have remained a great symbol of national pride. Indeed, its appearance in Frank Capra’s 1936 Mr. Deeds Goes To Town hints at such sentimentality:“What do you see?” Jean Arthur’s character asks as her co-star gawks at the tomb. “Oh, I see a small Ohio farm boy becoming a great soldier,” Gary Cooper’s titular protagonist responds. “I see thousands of marching men. I see General Lee with a broken heart surrendering. And I can see the beginning of a new nation, like Abraham Lincoln said. And I can see that Ohio boy being inaugurated as president. Things like that can only happen in a country like America.” By the late 1900s, however, the tomb had fallen into odious disrepair. A far cry from Capra’s romantic portrayal of the national monument, New Jack City, a gruesome, R-rated movie, recast the granite structure as the backdrop for a bloody gang shootout. Two years later, the Associated Press offered the following dismal description of the mausoleum: “Here, granite pillars scarred by vandals and neglect provide shelter for the homeless. Makeshift beds of plastic bags, newspapers and blankets lie beside a pile of trash. There’s a bottle of Thunderbird wine, just up the deteriorating steps from a bottle of malt liquor. Around the corner is an empty $10 bag of marijuana.” “Grant’s Tomb had lingered in a desperate state for almost three decades,” Picone added in his book, “but if there was a rock bottom, it occurred one morning in May 1993. Workers arrived that day to find a scene that was simultaneously repulsive and ridiculous. Looking down, they saw someone had defecated at the tomb entrance. Glancing up to the New York sky, they spied a garbage pail atop the flagpole. It was [as] if the pirate dregs of society had commandeered the tomb and claimed it for themselves.” In many ways, Grant’s ramshackle tomb serves as an allegory for Washington, DC — a national landmark with the potential to inspire, but which has, instead, become synonymous with rank corruption and moral decay. Lincoln Memorial may not be defiled by graffiti, the Washington Monument may not be stained by human waste, but the city overall suffers from a worse kind of disrepair. Fortunately, the tomb’s legacy doesn’t end there, and Washington’s doesn’t have to either. Enter Frank Scaturro — an 18-year-old student at Columbia University, a few blocks from the monument. Scaturro moved into his dorm in 1990, one year before New Jack City brought its less-than-flattering portrayal of the tomb to the big screen. The presidential history enthusiast became convinced that Grant deserved more respect (in 1999, long before H. W. Brands and Ron Chernow published their popular biographies reassessing the 18th president, Scaturro made his case in President Grant Reconsidered) and set out to salvage the wrecked grave. It did not go well. After years of badgering the National Park Service (NPS), Scaturro’s dream had become “almost a running joke.” But he refused to give up. Nearing the end of his time at Columbia, the dogged student crafted a lengthy report detailing the monument’s squalid condition and sent it “to everyone from President Clinton on down.” The project finally began to pick up steam. “[Grant’s] remains deserve better treatment than they get from the National Park Service, keeper of his massive tomb in New York City, the New York Times blasted in 1994. The article concluded, “the tomb’s lamentable condition demands more funds from Washington, at least enough to clean up, patch up and restore honor to the heroic commander who became the nation’s 18th President.” With newfound momentum, Scaturro successfully revived the Grant Monument Association, and the federal government, under increasing public pressure, including threats from the Grant family to reinter their beloved ancestor, eventually sanctioned the NPS to restore Grant’s tomb.  Today, the popular and vastly improved historical site stands as a testament to the power of one ordinary citizen who decided to take action. The parable of Frank Scaturro should remind us, as Mr. Deeds said, “Things like that can only happen in a country like America.” In this country, you don’t have to be a towering hero like Grant to make a difference. As you cast a glance at our nation’s capital and discover a city in shameful degradation, may you know it is not up to Congress or the president or the Supreme Court to fix the problem: it’s up to you. It won’t be easy. It will require patience, determination, and an unflappable spirit. But if you make it your personal goal — if you toil away at it even when others dismiss your dream as a “running joke” — perhaps you will become the next Frank Scaturro.  # | PETITION_WIDGET{petition_tag:comms_blog_NA_07/31/2025_theparableoffrankscaturro07312025;coalition_id:;anedot_url:} | # |
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| Created: | 2025-07-31 23:52 GMT |
| Updated: | 2025-08-07 07:00 GMT |
| Published: | 2025-07-31 23:00 GMT |
| Converted: | 2025-11-11 12:06 GMT |
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