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Built on the site of the Etienne de Lancey estate (1719), the current is a
20th century recreation of a historical building. Purchased by Samuel
Fraunces in 1762, the de Lancey residence became the "Queen's Head" Tavern
-- a fashionable center of 18th century New York life, and site of many
important events in the early history of the United States.
Today the building contains a restaurant
and meeting rooms. Mersereau's reconstruction (following the fire of
1900) is a conjectural rebuilding of the original Fraunces Tavern, in
other words, it is a 20th century interpretation of the general
characteristics of Georgian Style architecture.
Fraunces Tavern was originally built as a
house for Oliver de Lancey, a member of the prominent Delancey family
that contended with the Livingstons for leadership in colonial New York.
The Delanceys sold the house to Samuel Fraunces, who operated it as a
tavern. Much of the Revolutionary history of New York revolved around
Fraunces Tavern. It was one of the meeting places of the Sons of Liberty
in the pre-war years.
During the tea crisis of 1765, a British
captain who tried to bring tea into New York was forced to give an
apology to the public at Fraunces Tavern. The patriots, dressed as
Indians as had the participants in the earlier Tea Party in Boston, then
dumped his tea into the harbor.
In August of 1775, Americans took
possession of cannons from the Battery at the tip of Manhattan and
exchanged fire with a boatload of British soldiers. They retaliated by
firing a 32-gun broadside on the city, sending a cannon ball through the
roof of Fraunces Tavern.
When the war was won and the Americans had
re-occupied the city, it was at Fraunces Tavern that hosted Washington and
his officers in a victory banquet. On Dec. 4, 1783, Washington was again at
Fraunces Tavern to say farewell to his officers in the Long Room. Saving
America from the fate of many republics that turned quickly to military
dictatorship, Washington quickly resigned his post and returned to civilian
life.
After the war, the tavern housed some
offices of the Continental Congress as the country struggled under the
Articles of Confederation. With the establishment of the Constitution
and the inauguration of Washington as president in 1789, Fraunces Tavern
became the home of several government agencies, including the
departments of Foreign Affairs, Treasury and War.
The tavern slowly deteriorated after the
capital moved to Philadelphia and then Washington, D.C., though the
building remained a functioning tavern through much of the 19th century.
The Sons of the Revolution began holding meetings in the building in the
late 1800s and purchased and restored it in the early 20th century.
Washington's Farewell To Officers At Fraunces Tavern At War's End
In 1762 an enterprising and ambitious
innkeeper named Samuel Fraunces purchased a three-story brick mansion
which had been built on one of Manhattan Island’s first landfills. Under
Samuel Fraunces’ proprietorship the building became a well-known
gathering place - - - a place for friends and strangers to meet, mingle
and share a drink. But Mr. Fraunces tavern was frequented by the leaders
of a revolution and thus became more than just a local watering hole.
Taverns were vital
centers of community activity in the 18th Century, as important as
the local church or Town Hall. They were a crucial link in a new and
growing society, places where strangers were introduced, where
merchants could conduct business, and where everyone could get the
latest gossip as well as the news on the growing political unrest in
the colonies.
Samuel Fraunces owned the tavern building for 23 years, during which
it witnessed unprecedented events that changed the course of
history. It was here, in 1768, that the first New York Chamber of
Commerce was born., Fraunces also played host to the Sons of Liberty
who galvanized popular support for the coming revolution, It was at
a meeting of the provincial Congress of New York, that Samuel
Fraunces first met George Washington. The two men developed a long
lasting friendship, which led to Fraunces’ appointment as Chief
Steward in our first President’s household.
Although many events of
great significance occurred at Fraunces Tavern, it is most often
remembered for its association with George Washington, who spent
many hours enjoying his host’s dinners and well appointed bar. It
was in the Museum’s Long Room, in 1783, that General George
Washington made his emotional farewell address to his officers.
By
the early 1770’s the political climate in the colonies was building
towards a tempestuous climax. Fraunces decided to put the tavern up for
sale. He failed to find a buyer but acquired the patronage and
friendship of George Washington with the result that, as disputed
between King and Colonies became more demonstrative, the “Queen’s Head”,
as the tavern was originally known, became a meeting place for those who
opposed the crown.
Fraunces
never lost the confidence or friendship of the patriot leaders evidenced
by the fact that when, on November 25, 1783, Governor Clinton gave a
great public dinner for General Washington in celebration of the British
evacuation, it was held at the Queen’s Head”. Soon thereafter, the
tavern was renovated, and the old sign bearing the portrait of Queen
Charlotte taken down.
December 4, 1783, in the tavern’s long room, saw General Washington, on
the eve of his retirement to Mount Vernon, bid an affectionate farewell
to his officers. After partaking of some wine, and with emotion too
strong to be concealed, the General said:
“With a heart full of love and gratitude, I now take leave of you. I most
devoutly wish that you later days may be as prosperous as you former one
have been glorious and honorable,”
The time of separation had come. Passing silently through a double
line of the light infantry, he walked on to Whitehall where a barge
ferried him from New York to Paulus Hook, New Jersey and the beginning
of the long journey home.
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Exhibits At
Fraunces Tavern® Museum
215-Year-Old U.S. Flag One of 100
On Display
An exhibit of more than 100 flags,
one dating form the time when New York was the nation's capital,
opens June 5 at Fraunces Tavern® Museum.
The "Liberty Tree" Flag, which
first flew in 1787, was exhibited in the centennial year of the
Battle of Lexington, 1875, but has not been seen by the public
for decades.
The exhibit includes a flag that
flew over Lafayette's grave after the liberation of Paris, along
with reproductions of two flags carried by his regiment during
the American Revolution. Flags from the 1800s include one dated
from the period of the War of 1812, a ship's flag with unusual
four-pointed stars, a pre-Civil War version of Old Glory with
applique stars, and an eight-foot pennant from the top of a
sailing ship mast.
A 38-star flag marks the admission
of Colorado in 1876, while 45- and 46-star flags in the exhibit
served after Utah and Oklahoma joined theunion in 1907 and 1912,
respectively.
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The Flag Gallery shows some of
the more than 200 Revolutionary War-era flags owned by the Sons
of the Revolution. Most are reproductions, but there are
originals, including a U.S. flag from 1787, and several from the
1800s. Pictured here are the flags of the Newburyport Company,
Washington's Cruisers, Hanover Associators, the Second
Pennsylvania Regiment of 1777 and Washington's Headquarters.
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Fraunces Tavern:
Forging a New Nation
On April 23, 1785, Samuel Fraunces
sold his tavern, ending his 23 years as owner of one of New York
City’s most famous gathering places. Eight weeks later a new
tenant moved in—the U.S. Government. Three vital components were
housed inside the walls of the tavern - The Department of
Foreign Affairs, the Deparment of War and the Department of
Treasury - where great early leaders such as John Jay, Alexander
Hamilton and Henry Knox would have jostled for space with
clerks, officeseekers and members of the public. Somehow, in
these cramped offices and noisy confines, the business of
running the Early Republic was carried out.
Secretary of Foreign Affairs John
Jay and his staff moved into four rooms of the building on June
19, 1785. Two more departments of the young American government
moved into the building over the next two years. Both the
Department of the Treasury and the Department of War established
offices here at Fraunces Tavern in April, 1787. The building, so
long a center of New York social life, now became a nerve center
for the new Republic.
The exhibit will include a
recreated office from the Foreign Affairs Department, as well as
paintings, artifacts and documents that reveal what business was
like for the new policymakers, as well as the steps taken to
forge a new government.
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John Jay - The first Secretary of
Foreign Affairs.
Cornelius Tiebout (1785) |
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George Washington:
"Down the stream of life"
He was a hot-tempered redhead with
little formal education. He stood nearly 6 feet 4 inches tall,
could crush walnuts with his bare hands, and loved to dance. A
natural athlete, he was called “The greatest horseman in
Virginia” by Thomas Jefferson. He explored the frontier, won the
heart of the most eligible widow on the continent, and helped
create a new nation by the force of his character. Why, then, do
so many Americans think of George Washington as the grumpy old
man on the dollar bill?
George Washington was, and remains,
the first “Action Hero” in American history. His powerful
physique and strength of character served him well, preparing
him for the challenges to come. His fifty years of public
service, from teenage Surveyor of Culpeper County to revered
elder statesman of the new American nation, have never been
equaled.
George Washington: “Down the stream of life,”
traces the stages of Washington’s remarkable life. Drawn from
Fraunces Tavern® Museum’s extensive collection of artwork, the
exhibit offers a glimpse of Washington in some of the familiar —
and unfamiliar — roles he was called upon to play. The real
George Washington emerges from these works as the man he truly
was — a hero for his time. And for our own.
The Long Room
The Long Room is the site of
General George Washington's famous farewell to his officers at
the end of the Revolution. Based on extensive research of
inventories and estates of tavern keepers of this period, the
Long Room is a re-creation of an 18th century public dining
room.
The Sons own an orderly book from
Washington's spymaster Benjamin Tallmadge, in which he describes
the farewell: "With 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."
The Long Room where Washington gave
his famous farewell to his officers. The room is on display at
the Museum.
The Clinton Room
The Clinton Room represents an
early 19th century private dining room. It is named for George
Clinton, the first American governor of New York, who hosted a
dinner party for General George Washington at Fraunces Tavern in
November 1783 to celebrate the British evacuation from New York.
The Sons of the Revolution own Clinton's sword, which hangs over
the fireplace.
The Clinton Room is named for
Patriot New York Governor George Clinton, who held a banquet at
Fraunces Tavern for George Washington on the day the British
evacuated New York, leaving America in defeat. The Clinton Room
displays the finer furnishings of an affluent family.
Sons Of The
Revolution
The Sons exhibit tells the history
of the organization and its founders, while offering a sampling
from its collection of Revolutionary War objects and documents.
The military objects in the Fraunces Tavern Museum collection
include this British army canteen, an engraved powder horn and a
bugle.
The exhibit includes a miniature of
the statue of Nathan Hale, which the Sons commissioned for City
Hall Park. It also tells of the organization's role in
discovering artist Frederick MacMonnies and the parts Augustus
St. Gaudens and Stanford White played in the project.
The display cases were constructed
for the Sons by Tiffany. The Revolutionary period objects
include a pistol owned by Lafayette. A section on the history of
Fraunces Tavern, tells of its role in Revolutionary War times
and includes parchment deeds to the building dating to the early
colonial period.
Sections are devoted to the
founders of the organization, John Austin Stevens and Frederick
Tallmadge, as well as information on the Sons efforts to mark
significant Revolutionary War sites in the city with plaques and
tablets of artistic value.
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Study of Washington at Valley Forge
E. Leutze (1858)
The Long Room displays period
furniture.
The Clinton Room
The military objects in the Fraunces Tavern Museum collection
include this British army canteen, an engraved powder horn and a
bugle.
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