President George Washington
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"The most splendid town in North America." - European visitor to colonial NYC
"Very little good breeding to be found...no modesty, poor manners, talk all together too loud and too fast" - John Adams on NYers, 1774
"When we assumed the soldier, we did not lay aside the citizen" - G. Washington, 1775
Our tour begins at City Hall. Site of the Liberty Pole and a favorite spot for rabble rousing, the triangle of land
City Hall now occupies was once the city's public gathering area known as "The Common" or "The Fields." We will continue
down Broadway (The Broad Way) where we'll stop at St. Paul's chapel. After a visit inside and a stop in the graveyard, we'll continue
along Broadway to John Street.
After a stop at John St. Methodist church we'll walk through Golden Hill, then head to the Fly Market and make
our way along the docks, through the commercial heart of colonial NYC. We'll stand across from Brooklyn Heights, site of the Continental
Army 's retreat from approaching British forces. Then on to Murray's Wharf and up Wall Street
to Federal Hall and the NY Stock Exchange
Fraunces Tavern
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Back at Broadway we'll visit Trinity Church and its famous graveyard, then continue along Broadway through what
was once the most elegant residential neighborhood in NYC. We'll stop for a rest in front of Gen. Washington's
headquarters at Bowling Green, and then it's on to Fraunces Tavern and our final stop, Battery Park
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As we walk, we'll pause along the route, taking time to imagine the city as it was in the 1770s, bustling with commerce
and filled with the sounds and smells of different cultures. We’ll talk about some of the larger than life New Yorkers and
how the things they did then laid the foundation for the kind of city we have today. And we won't forget the British Army officers
and the colonial agents who spied on them!
To bring it all to life you’ll see samples of newspapers and broadsides, pictures depicting the places and events we’ll discuss.
"...you did a wonderful job of winding the whole story together for me. The use of maps,
prints, broadsides, and personal stories was exactly the experience I was hoping for." - KL, Roseburg, OR
