February 15, 2008
Washington's and Lincoln's New York City haunts
NewYorkology contributor Christina Ziegler-McPherson is a public historian in one of New York's "sixth boroughs" -- Hoboken, New Jersey. A specialist in American immigration and social welfare policy, she regularly crosses the river to partake of New York's many historical sites, institutions, and events. She's the author of the upcoming book "Americanization in the States: Immigrant Social Welfare Policy, Citizenship, and National Identity in the United States, 1908-1929."
Although most Americans, including New Yorkers, associate George Washington most strongly with Virginia and, of course, Washington, D.C., Washington served the first year of his presidency in New York City from 1798 to 1790, before the capital moved temporarily to Philadelphia, and then to Washington, D.C.
There are several important Washington sites in Lower Manhattan, the most important being Federal Hall on Wall Street, where Washington was sworn in as the country’s first president and gave his inaugural address on April 30, 1789.
 A few blocks away is Fraunces Tavern, where the victorious Washington said farewell to his officers on December 4, 1783 before resigning his commission as General of the Continental Army. The original Fraunces Tavern suffered a number of serious fires starting in 1832, but was always rebuilt at the same location, at 54 Pearl St., map, on the corner of Broad Street.
Other worthwhile sites to visit and reflect on Washington’s influence on the presidency and the nation are St. Paul’s Church on Broadway, where Washington and members of Congress attended church after the inauguration, and two historic houses, one now an office building, the other demolished to build the Brooklyn Bridge.
The first New York home Washington slept in as president was the “Presidential Residence,” at 1 Cherry St. at the corner of Cherry and Pearl on Franklin Square. (It was not named for Benjamin Franklin but for Walter Franklin, a wealthy merchant who built the house in 1770.) A tablet commemorating the spot was installed in one of the anchorages of the Brooklyn Bridge by the Mary Washington Colonial Chapter in 1899.
Washington lived at the “Presidential Residence” from April 23, 1789 to February 23, 1790, when he moved to the Macomb Mansion at 39 Broadway by Trinity Church. The reason for the move: the Cherry St. house was a “great distance out of town” (according to a May 22, 1899 New York Times article about the plaque laying ceremony).
As for 39 Broadway, map, the mansion is long gone. It’s now an office building and was earlier the location of the Holland America shipping line in New York.
The Fraunces Tavern is having a series of events to commemorate and celebrate Washington’s life and career.
On Feb. 18, the tavern is holding Washington's Birthday Open House from noon to 5 p.m. with free admission all day.
On Thursday, Feb. 21 (Washington’s actual birthday was Feb. 22, 1732) at 6:30 pm, the Tavern is hosting the release party for Edward G. Lengel’s “This Glorious Struggle: George Washington’s Revolutionary War Letters.” For more about Washington’s papers see here.
The Presidents Day holiday also recognizes President Abraham’s Lincoln’s birthday, which was Feb. 12, 1809.
On February 27, 1860 Lincoln delivered an important anti-slavery speech at the Cooper Union before 1,500 New Yorkers curious to hear the Republican senator from Illinois. The speech, in which Lincoln used careful analysis of the words of the Founding Fathers to argue against the territorial expansion of slavery, helped launch him as a serious candidate for president.
The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art is still located at Cooper Square, between Third and Fourth Avenues at East Sixth Street.
Five years later, one million people watched Lincoln’s funeral procession as his body was transported from Washington D.C. to his home in Springfield, IL. On April 25, 1865, 18 bands led a 16-horse funeral car from City Hall, where the body had lain in state overnight, up Broadway to 14th Street, across Union Square to Fifth Avenue, and then north to the Hudson River railroad station. In a last-minute concession to the city’s black population, a small group of former slaves were allowed to walk in the procession, but at the back end.
Image source: Federal Hall (top) and Fraunces Tavern Museum, both Amy Langfield/NewYorkology.
Earlier: Wall Street Historic District added to National Register
Not quite Washington's Federal Hall
New York opens Heritage Tourism Center
February 15, 2008 02:55 PM in Cheap Stuff, Downtown, History, Kids, Museums, Sightsology
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