Postcard Thursday: Fraunces Tavern + Talk at the Mid-Manhattan Branch of the New York Public Library

courtesy of the New York Public Library

Today's postcard comes from the voluminous digital archive of the New York Public Library (http://www.nypl.org/research/collections/digital-collections/public-domain). We will be drawing on this collection for a number of images for our talk a week from today at the Mid-Manhattan Branch of the library (more details below).

Fraunces Tavern was originally built as the home of Stephen DeLancey and his family, who are the subjects of the second chapter of Footprints in New York. As we write:

In 1700, Stephen married Anne van Cortlandt, the daughter of the former mayor and granddaughter of Oloff Stevenson van Cortlandt, whose Stone Street brewery had made him one of the richest early colonists.

As a wedding present, Stephen and Anne received a lot at Broad and Pearl Streets, one of the newest and best pieces of property in the city. Fourteen years earlier...the shoreline on the east side of Pearl Street had been back-filled to create new lots. Anne’s father, Stephanus van Cortlandt, was mayor at the time, and he’d purchased the corner property. Having never developed the land, he now presented it to Stephen and Anne, though they, too, would leave the lot undeveloped for almost two decades.... In 1719, Stephen applied for a strip of land on Pearl Street, three-and-a-half feet wide, to straighten his lot so that he might “build a large brick house, etc.” 

By 1720, the Pearl Street house was likely finished, and would have been the family seat until Stephen built their next home, ca. 1730, on Broadway near Thames Street.... It was a large house—a mansion, really, with fourteen fireplaces and a huge kitchen. I can picture the DeLancey children running around inside the house...so it’s jarring that the first thing I encounter upon entering the Pearl Street building is a sign for whiskey. 

But I shouldn’t be surprised—no one comes here anymore because it was Stephen DeLancey’s house; they come because this is Fraunces Tavern, George Washington’s final headquarters during the Revolutionary War. It’s this notoriety that has marked the building’s place in history. In some form or another, it has served as a tavern ever since.

Want to know more? Join us next Thursday as we explore all the chapters of Footprints in New York is a fast-paced, image-laden talk at the New York Public Library's Mid-Manhattan Library (40th Street and Fifth Avenue, across from the famous main branch).

We'll highlight some of our favorite stories from the book, including exploring the last days of Alexander Hamilton, the Edgar Allan Poe house in the Bronx, and Jane Jacobs's fight to save Soho.

 We look forward to seeing you there! Copies of both Footprints in New York and Inside the Apple will be available for purchase and signing.


Read more about the event on Facebook -- and follow us there if you haven't already: https://www.facebook.com/events/452455121618285/

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Read more about NYC history in

 

Footprints in New York: Tracing the Lives of Four Centuries of New Yorkers

Inside the Apple: A Streetwise History of New York City

Presentation at the Lower East Side Tenement Museum

On Monday, October 5, we will be giving a "Tenement Talk" at the Lower East Side Tenement Museum at 6:30 p.m.

The talk, illustrated with archival photos, prints, and paintings, will look at New York during the period between 1863 and the mid-1930s -- the years that the Tenement Museum's property, 97 Orchard Street, was an active apartment building. Instead of focusing on the immigrant history of the Lower East Side, we'll instead take a step back to look at the bigger picture, focusing on stories from Inside the Apple from that same era that show how the city was growing and changing during the Gilded Age, the City Beautiful era, and the Great Depression.

To RSVP for the talk, visit the Tenement Museum's website at http://www.tenement.org/vizcenter_events.php. The talk will take place at the museum's visitors center at 108 Orchard Street, just south of Delancey Street; complete directions are on the museum's site.

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Fraunces Tavern Museum Lecture

On Thursday, April 23, at 6:30PM, we will be speaking at Fraunces Tavern in Lower Manhattan. Because that neighborhood is steeped in New York's early history, our talk will focus on the area right about the tavern, starting with the Dutch and looking at the British takeover in 1664, the American Revolution -- in which Fraunces Tavern played a significant role -- and the growing mercantile nature of the neighborhood in the early 19th century.

The lecture costs $6 (or is free if you are a member of the museum). Come early to enjoy the museum's collection.

After the talk, there will be a reception and books will be available for sale and signing.

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New-York Historical Society Presents "Inside the Apple"

Next Wednesday, April 15, at 6:00PM, we will be giving an illustrated book talk at the New York Historical Society.

Like Inside the Apple, the talk will focus on the history of the city from Henry Hudson's arrival in 1609 to the present. We will pay special attention to some of the important New Yorkers who have shaped the city over the past 200 years and were also integral to the creation and early life of the New York Historical Society. The talk will also feature a brief "virtual tour" of the Upper West Side neighborhood where the society now resides, showing how Central Park West went from farmland to posh address at the end of the 19th century.

Copies of the book will be available for sale and signing afterward. We are also being filmed that evening for C-SPAN 2's "Book TV," so come with good questions for the Q&A!

The event is free and open to the public. The New York Historical Society is located at 170 Central Park West (at the corner of 77th Street).

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