Fraunces Tavern Museum

Edification value  3/5
Entertainment value  3/5
Should you go?  4/5
Time spent 71 minutes
Best thing I saw or learned The 1883 commemorative china for the Sons of the Revolution’s Turtle Soup Feast marking the 100th anniversary of Washington’s farewell to his officers.  Cute turtle.Fraunces Tavern Museum

Fraunces Tavern Museum, ManhattanFraunces Tavern started out as a private home in 1719, then opened for business as a drinking establishment in the 1760s. It served as the venue for two important events:

  • The governor of New York, George Clinton, held a public dinner there to celebrate the withdrawal of the  British from New York (and the rest of the colonies), an event known as Evacuation Day.  Evacuation Day (25 November) used to be a major New York holiday, though it’s mostly forgotten now, except by the Sons of the Revolution (about whom more anon).
  • After the war, General Washington gathered some of his staff in one of the private dining rooms to retire and say farewell to them.  This was before the U.S. was the U.S., before the Constitution and before the country decided it needed a president (and what a fine idea that has turned out to be), and so before Washington knew he’d have another major role to play for his country.

If you’ve read any of my other historic place reviews, you can guess my questions:  when was Hamilton there?  And secondarily, what did he have to drink? Continue reading “Fraunces Tavern Museum”