Scavenger Hunt: Stadt Huis & Fraunces Tavern

So... several months later, I'm finally getting back to blogging about my scavenger hunt adventures in NYC.  Miss them? To be honest, it's been hard to even think about writing these.  I missed NYC so much (until recently but more on that later) and it was actually painful to look at the photos.  After the holidays, I have emerged happier about where I live and the fact that most of my family/ friends are buried in snow right now when I got a tan hiking this past weekend contributes to that happiness.

Therefore, I bring you Fridays in NYC.  My goal is to start having an NYC adventure for you (and me) on Friday mornings.  I think this will work well for two reasons: 1) Posting once a week seems like a reasonable and doable goal and 2) Thursday nights I get the tv/ living room because of Project Runway, Grey's and Private Practice, which means I also have that time to blog without being interrupted.  Now, this may be disrupted for a few weeks close to the bar exam for obvious reasons but I hope to get back into it even with getting back to work.  I have a long way to go to catch up on this series of posts.  I've blogged about 64 of the 182 chapters.  So maybe if I post about 2+ chapters each week, I'll be done by 2013! LOL.

As you may remember, when Hurricane Irene was threatening NYC, I rushed downtown to the financial district to make sure I saw anything should the entire area flood, get cornered off and then be covered in mud when the surge eventually subsided.  These sites are from that adventure.

First up, Stadt Huis (Ch. 5).

Remnants of the excavation. 18th Century cistern.

 In 1647, Peter Stuyvesant arrived in New Amsterdam and led the town single-mindedly (curfew, second sermons on Sundays, penalties for serving beer on the Sabbath...) (Ch. 5). New Amsterdam, under Peter, became the first legally charted city in America, which had the practical effect of limiting Peter's control by establishing a council of alderman, chief magistrates and sheriff and district attorney. (Ch. 5) Of course, they were appointed by him so... At any rate, they met in a tavern on Pearl Street, which was renamed Stadt Huis (City Hall). (Ch. 5) Sometime during the next 330 years, the site became in disrepair and in 1979, when the lot was being developed for a skyscraper, NYC mandated an archaeological excavation. (Ch. 5) All that remains of the "beginnings of the political life" of NYC is an outline in yellow brick to mark where the Stadt Huis would have been. How many people do you think walk over this every day and have no idea what it is?

View from street.

Fast forward, 100 years later and down and across the street to Fraunces Tavern (Ch. 17).  After the successful conclusion of the American Revolution, Washington "held a banquet to honor his officers and say farewell". (Ch. 17)  He thought this would be his last time in NYC.  Anyway, during his "final" trip to NYC he used Fraunces Tavern as his home base and the proprietor of the establishment would eventually become Washington's personal steward. (Ch. 17)

Fraunces Tavern is still a working tavern with a museum on its upper floors.

Have you heard of the Sons of the Revolution? I hadn't. It's for the male lineal descendants of any one who actually assisted in the American Revolution.