Fraunces Tavern

Fraunces Tavern Block
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
U.S. Historic district
New York City Historic District
North and west fronts of Fraunces Tavern on Pearl Street at Broad Street
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Location	Bounded by Pearl Street, Coenties Slip, Water Street and Broad Street, New York, New York, USA
Built	Various
Architect	Various
Architectural style	Various
NRHP Reference #	06000713[1]
Significant dates
Added to NRHP	April 28, 1977
Designated NYCHD	November 14, 1978[2]

Fraunces Tavern is a landmark museum and former restaurant in New York City, situated at 54 Pearl Street at the corner of Broad Street. The location played a prominent role in history before, during and after the American Revolution, serving as a headquarters for George Washington, a venue for peace negotiations with the British, and housing federal offices in the Early Republic. It has been owned by Sons of the Revolution in the State of New York Inc. since 1904, which carried out a major conjectural reconstruction, and claim it is Manhattan's oldest surviving building. The museum interprets the building and its history, along with varied exhibitions of art and artifacts.^[4] The tavern is a tourist site and a part of the American Whiskey Trail and the New York Freedom Trail.^[5][6]

Early history

Pre-Revolution history

New York Mayor Stephanus van Cortlandt built his home in 1671 on the site, but retired to his manor on the Hudson River and gave the property in 1700 to his son-in-law, Etienne "Stephen" DeLancey, a French Huguenot who had married Van Cortlandt's daughter, Anne. The DeLancey family contended with the Livingston family for leadership of the Province of New York.

DeLancey built the current building as a house in 1719. The small yellow bricks used in its construction were imported from the Dutch Republic and the sizable mansion ranked highly in the province for its quality.^[7] His heirs sold the building in 1762 to Samuel Fraunces who converted the home into the popular tavern, first named the Queen's Head.

Before the American Revolution, the building was one of the meeting places of the secret society, the Sons of Liberty. During the tea crisis caused by the British Parliament's passage of the Tea Act of 1765, the patriots forced a British naval captain who tried to bring tea to New York to give a public apology at the building. The patriots, disguised as American Indians (like those of the subsequent Boston Tea Party), then dumped the ship's tea cargo into New York Harbor.

In 1768, the New York Chamber of Commerce was founded by a meeting in the building.^[8]

Revolution

In August 1775, Americans took possession of cannons from the artillery battery at the southern point of Manhattan and fired on HMS Asia. The British Royal Navy ship retaliated by firing a 32-gun broadside on the city, sending a cannonball through the roof of the building.

When the war was all but won, the building was the site of "British-American Board of Inquiry" meetings, which negotiated to ensure to American leaders that no "American property" (meaning former slaves who were emancipated by the British for their military service) be allowed to leave with British troops. Board members reviewed the evidence and testimonies that were given by freed slaves every Wednesday from April to November, 1783, and British representatives were successful in ensuring that almost all of the loyalist blacks of New York maintained their liberty and could be evacuated with the "Redcoats" when they left if so desired.^[9]

Washington's farewell to his officers

"Washington's Farewell to His Officers"

Engraving after painting by Alonzo Chappel
Date	December 4, 1783 (1783-12-04)
Location	Fraunces Tavern, Broad and Pearl Streets, New York Town

After British troops evacuated New York on Nov. 25th, the tavern hosted a week later, an elaborate "turtle feast" dinner on December 4, 1783, in the building's Long Room for U.S. Gen. George Washington where he bade farewell to his officers of the Continental Army by saying "[w]ith a heart full of love and gratitude, I now take leave of you. I most devoutly wish that your latter days may be as prosperous and happy as your former ones have been glorious and honorable." As he later asked to take each one of his officers by the hand for a personal word.^[10][11][12]

Post-Revolution

In January 1785, New York City became the seat of the Confederation Congress, the nation's central government under the "Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union." The departments of Foreign Affairs, Finance and War had their offices at Fraunces Tavern.

With the ratification of the United States Constitution in March 1789, the Confederation Congress's departments became federal departments, and New York City became the first official national capital. The inauguration of George Washington as first President of the United States took place in April 1789. Under the July 1789 Residence Act, Congress moved the national capital to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania for a 10-year period, while the permanent national capital was under construction in what is now Washington, D.C. The federal departments vacated their offices in the building and moved to Philadelphia in 1790.

19th and 20th centuries

Fraunces Tavern, between the 1890 alteration and the 1900 restoration.

The building operated throughout much of the 19th century, but suffered several serious fires beginning in 1832. Having been rebuilt several times, the structure's appearance was changed to the extent that the original building design is not known. The building was owned by Malvina Keteltas in the early 1800s. Ernst Buermeyer and his family leased part of the property in 1845 and ran a hotel called the Broad Street House at this location until 1860.^[13] After a disastrous fire in 1852, two stories were added, making the Tavern a total of five stories high. In 1890, the taproom was lowered to street level and the first floor exterior was remodeled, and its original timbers sold as souvenirs.

Restoration

Valentine's "City of New York" guide book (1920) by Henry Collins Brown, featured the tavern on the cover.

In 1900, the tavern was slated for demolition by its owners, who wanted to use the land for a parking lot. A number of organizations, most notably the Daughters of the American Revolution, worked to preserve it, and convinced New York state government leaders to use their power of eminent domain and designate the building as a park (which was the only clause of the municipal ordinances that could be used for protection, as the city's laws were not envisioned at the time for the subject of "historic preservation", then in its infancy). The temporary designation was later rescinded when the property was acquired in 1904 by the Sons of the Revolution In the State of New York Inc., primarily with funds willed by Frederick Samuel Tallmadge, the grandson of Benjamin Tallmadge, George Washington's chief of intelligence during the Revolution (a plaque depicting Tallmadge is affixed to the building). An extensive reconstruction was completed in 1907 under the supervision of early historic preservation architect, William Mersereau.^[14] Guide book of the era called the tavern "the most famous building in New York".^[15]

Historian Randall Gabrielan wrote in 2000 that "Mersereau claimed his remodeling of Fraunces Tavern was faithful to the original, but the design was controversial in his time. There was no argument over removing the upper stories, which were known to have been added during the building's 19th Century commercial use, but adding the hipped roof was questioned. He used the Philipse Manor House in Yonkers, New York as a style guide and claimed to follow the roof line of the original, as found during construction, traced on the bricks of an adjoining building."^[16] Architects Norval White and Elliot Willensky wrote in 2000 that the building was "a highly conjectural reconstruction – not a restoration – based on 'typical' buildings of 'the period,' parts of remaining walls, and a lot of guesswork."^[17]

The building was declared a landmark in 1965 by New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission, and the building's block bounded by Pearl Street, Water Street, Broad Street and Coenties Slip was included on November 14, 1978.^[2] The building's block was included on April 28, 1977^[1] on the National Register of Historic Places by National Park Service, and the building was included on March 6, 2008.^[18]

Bombing

A bomb planted in the tavern exploded on January 24, 1975, killing four people and injuring more than 50 others. The Puerto Rican extremist nationalist group "Fuerzas Armadas de Liberación Nacional Puertorriqueña" (Armed Forces of Puerto Rican National Liberation, or FALN), which had executed other bomb incidents in New York in the 1970s, claimed responsibility. No one had been prosecuted for the bombing as of April 17, 2013.^[19][20]

Among the victims who died was a young banker, Frank Connor (33), who had worked his way up over 15 years from clerk to assistant vice president at Morgan Guaranty Trust. Connor left behind his wife and two sons. A second New York worker was Harold H. Sherburne (66), whose career on Wall Street spanned four decades. Two executives, James Gezork (32), of Wilmington, Delaware, and Alejandro Berger (28), who worked for a Philadelphia-based chemical company, had traveled to New York for business meetings. Sherburne, Connor, and Berger died at the scene; Gezork died later at the hospital.

In a note police found in a phone booth nearby, the FALN wrote, “we … take full responsibility for the especially detornated (sic) bomb that exploded today at Fraunces Tavern, with reactionary corporate executives inside.” The note explained that the bomb — roughly 10 pounds of dynamite that had been crammed into an attaché case and slipped into the tavern’s entrance hallway — was retaliation for the “CIA ordered bomb” that killed three and injured 11 in a restaurant in Mayagüez, Puerto Rico two weeks earlier. As of December 2012 a memorial plaque with some victims' names is hung in the Tavern's large dining room.

Recent uses

Since 1907, the Fraunces Tavern Museum on the second and third floors has helped to interpret the Fraunces Tavern and the collection of artifacts that it holds. The museum comprises nine galleries: The John Ward Dunsmore collection of painted scenes of the American revolution; the Elizabeth and Stanley DeForest Scott gallery of portraits of George Washington; the Long Room, the site of General George Washington’s famous farewell dinner; the Clinton Room, a recreation of a federalist style dining room; the McEntee Gallery, depicting the history of the Sons of the Revolution; the Davis Education Center (Flag Gallery); and a number of other galleries and spaces used for periodic exhibitions. In 2014, for example, the museum exhibited 27 maps from the 1700 and 1800s, including a never before seen map from 1804 depicting the United States’ postal routes.^[21]

The building served as the location of the General Society, Sons of the Revolution (a similar but different heritage organization from the competing "Sons of the American Revolution") office until 2002, when the General Society moved to Independence Missouri. They moved again in 2012 Williamsburg, Virginia. The Fraunces museum maintains several galleries of art and artifacts about the Revolution including the McEntee "Sons of the Revolution" Gallery that displays much of the history of the Society.^[22]

The Tavern was used as a filming location in Two Weeks Notice.

Gallery

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Fraunces Tavern.

• Official website (Fraunces Tavern Museum)
• Fraunces Tavern's channel on YouTube
• Official website (Fraunces Tavern Restaurant)

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