Inside the Downtown Tavern Room Where Washington Once Bid Farewell to His Troops

George Washington’s birthday is on February 22. To mark it, we’re taking a trip back through time to remember the Long Room at Fraunces Tavern, which served an important role for Washington during the American Revolution.  

On the second floor of 54 Pearl St., in one of Manhattan’s oldest standing structures, you’ll find a room seemingly left in the past. Wooden chairs are arranged as if people were just there, with pewter cups and playing cards scattered across a long dining table — as though an 18th-century dinner had just come to a close. Dubbed the Long Room, it serves as a time capsule, preserving a glimpse into a revolutionary New York City.

54 Pearl St., better known as Fraunces Tavern, houses a restaurant and museum today. But its origins date back to the early 18th century, when merchant Stephen De Lancey built the structure in 1719. Although it’s unclear if the De Lancey family lived in the building, rooms at 54 Pearl St., including the Long Room, were rented out for use. One tenant was dance instructor Henry Holt, who used the Long Room as a dance hall between 1737 and 1739. The room’s ubiquitous name is believed to have come from this period when newspaper advertisements highlighting Holt’s dancing venture appeared. In 1739, the New York Gazette wrote: “Tomorrow (being Wednesday the 21st of February) will be performed in Mr. Holt’s Long Room.”

54 Pearl St. exchanged hands in 1762 when Samuel Fraunces, the building’s present-day namesake, bought the property from the De Lanceys. Fraunces reopened the building as a tavern and named it the Sign of the Queen Charlotte, later renaming it the Queen’s Head, after King George III’s wife. The tavern quickly became popular with sailors and locals alike, thanks both to its proximity to the Lower Manhattan waterfront and Fraunces’ culinary talents.

Fraunces Tavern wasn’t just a spot for good food and drink. By the early 1770s, with anti-British sentiment brewing in the colonies, the tavern had become a hub for rebellious debate. While the first floor was the public dining space, Fraunces would rent out the second and third floors, where the Long Room is now located, for private use. The New York Sons of Liberty, a group of colonists who sought to undermine British authority, likely rented and used the Long Room for clandestine meetings.

The tavern played an even more pivotal role when the American Revolution broke out in 1775, and Fraunces opened his tavern to the New York Provincial Congress. Founded in the Long Room, the Congress served as the colony’s temporary governing body. The building itself suffered casualties that year: After a skirmish with revolutionaries, a British Navy ship retaliated with cannon fire onto the city, and a cannonball crashed through the roof of the Tavern. Luckily, no other significant damage was done to the city in that incident.

The British Crown soon shifted its focus to New York, and in April 1776, George Washington, Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Army, arrived in the city to prepare for the looming threat. The Provincial Congress hosted a lively gathering in the Long Room to celebrate his arrival. A boisterous affair, Fraunces charged the party for “78 bottles of Madeira, 30 bottles of port, and for ‘wine glasses broken.’”

Despite the initial festivities, the summer and autumn of 1776 proved disastrous for Washington and the Continental Army. Massive losses at the Battle of Brooklyn (Long Island) and other battles around northern Manhattan forced Washington to retreat from New York City, which would remain a British stronghold until the war’s end. Fraunces himself also evacuated the city, leaving the Tavern under the management of his British Loyalist son-in-law.

Still, after years of triumphs and setbacks in the Revolution, the Americans emerged victorious in 1781. Two years later, on November 25, 1783, now known as Evacuation Day, British troops officially left NYC. Washington was welcomed back with a triumphant parade and banquet at Fraunces Tavern. The city celebrated for days, with fireworks lighting the sky and joyous parties filling the streets.

Celebrations came to a tender close on December 4, 1783. Washington invited his officers to the Long Room, where he bid a sentimental farewell. In his 1830 memoir,

the only known first-hand account of Washington’s farewell, American military officer and future Congressman Benjamin Tallmadge wrote: “ After a slight refreshment in almost breathless silence, the General filled his glass with wine and, turning to the officers, said, ‘With a heart full of love and gratitude, I now take leave of you. I most devoutly wish that your latter days may be prosperous and happy as your former ones have been glorious and honorable.’” After the farewell, Washington left the city and headed to Maryland to resign his military commission. 

As the country moved forward post-Revolution, the Tavern housed some of the government’s early offices from 1785 to 1790, when New York served as the nation’s capital. Other famous foundational characters came through its doors. For instance, in 1804, in celebration of the 4th of July, Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr attended a dinner in the Long Room just a week before their infamous duel. 

As times changed in New York City, so did Fraunces Tavern. After Samuel Fraunces died in 1795, the Tavern became a boarding house for most of the 1800s. In 1904, the building was restored and transformed into the structure many New Yorkers recognize today, and continues to serve as a reminder of the city’s revolutionary past.

You can learn more about Fraunces Tavern by visiting the Fraunces Tavern Museum, which has a collection of artifacts from the Revolutionary Era and the nation’s earliest days. The Fraunces Tavern Museum also hosts a reenactment of Washington’s farewell every year during the first week of December.

Theresa DeCicco-Dizon is a public historian and museum educator based in New York City.