Fraunces Tavern

Fraunces Tavern is a museum, bar and restaurant in New York City, situated at 54 Pearl Street at the corner of Pearl and Broad Streets in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan. Fraunces Tavern played a prominent role in history before, during, and after the American Revolution. Before the war, Fraunces Tavern served as a meeting place for the Sons of Liberty; as the British Army prepared to evacuate New York City, it was the site for proceedings known as "the Birch Trials" (the culminating event in the emancipation of thousands of Black Loyalists - one of the largest emancipations of Black people prior to the American Civil War); once the British Army left, it was the site where, in late 1783, General George Washington was honored at a banquet celebrating the British Army evacuation and, days later, where Washington bid farewell to his officers. Later, when the United States capital was located in New York City, Fraunces Tavern was rented in 1785-1788 by the Congress of the Confederation to house the departments of Foreign Affairs and War, and offices of the Board of Treasury – serving, in essence, as the Nation's first executive office building.

Fraunces Tavern has been owned since 1904 by Sons of the Revolution in the State of New York Inc., which carried out a meticulous restoration between 1904 and 1907 to preserve what is today the oldest surviving building in Manhattan. A museum on the premises interprets the history of the American Revolutionary era, including the Fraunces Tavern building and its history, along with exhibitions of furnishings, communications, documents, personal artifacts and artworks. The building is visited by thousands of domestic and international tourists and school children annually. The tavern is a tourist site and a part of the NYC Revolutionary Trail, New York Freedom Trail, and the American Whiskey Trail. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is a New York City designated landmark. In addition, the block on which Fraunces Tavern is located is a National Historic Landmark District and a New York City designated landmark district.