Fraunces Tavern and Revolutionary New York: Inside Manhattan’s Forgotten Founding-Era History

Call it the Financial District, the Battery, or just plain Wall Street, the tip of Manhattan in the American Revolution was the place to be for tumbled statuary, noble deeds, intrigue aplenty, a stern, bleak occupation by the British, an inferno, and, yes, a tea party. It’s a great spot for historic preservation, too. I’d never been to Fraunces Tavern, on the corner of Pearl and Broad Streets, built in 1719 and considered the oldest surviving building in Manhattan.

Fraunces Tavern is a restaurant today, very cozy with lots of wood paneling, Colonial Revival furniture, creaky floors, plenty of Revolutionary War scenes on the walls, and a fireplace in every room. I had a tasty clam-chowder lunch. Unknown to most is the tavern’s first-rate, three-story museum centered on its time, before 1776, as the primary haunt of the Sons of Liberty, the place where Washington delivered one of his farewell addresses and, later, when New York City was the nation’s capital, the home of the nascent State, War, and Treasury Departments.

About the Author

Brian T. Allen

Brian T. Allen is National Review’s art critic.

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Call it the Financial District, the Battery, or just plain Wall Street, the tip of Manhattan in the American Revolution was the place to be for tumbled statuary, noble deeds, intrigue aplenty, a stern, bleak occupation by the British, an inferno, and, yes, a tea party. It’s a great spot for historic preservation, too. I’d never been to Fraunces Tavern, on the corner of Pearl and Broad Streets, built in 1719 and considered the oldest surviving building in Manhattan.

Fraunces Tavern is a restaurant today, very cozy with lots of wood paneling, Colonial Revival furniture, creaky floors, plenty of Revolutionary War scenes on the walls, and a fireplace in every room. I had a tasty clam-chowder lunch. Unknown to most is the tavern’s first-rate, three-story museum centered on its time, before 1776, as the primary haunt of the Sons of Liberty, the place where Washington delivered one of his farewell addresses and, later, when New York City was the nation’s capital, the home of the nascent State, War, and Treasury Departments.