Rewind: The Revolutionary Tavern of Samuel Fraunces

The Bowery Boys: New York City History

Tom Meyers

Places & Travel, History, Documentary, Society & Culture

4.7 • 3.9K Ratings

🗓️ 18 September 2020

⏱️ 56 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Fraunces Tavern is one of America’s most important historical sites of the Revolutionary War and a reminder of the great importance of taverns on the New York way of life during the Colonial era. This revered building at the corner of Pearl and Broad street was the location of George Washington‘s farewell address to his Continental Army officers and one of the first government buildings of the young United States of America. John Jay and Alexander Hamilton both used Fraunces as an office. As with many places connected to the country’s birth — where fact and legend intermingle — many mysteries still remain. Was the tavern owner Samuel Fraunces one of America’s first great black patriots? Did Samuel use his position here to spy upon the British during the years of occupation between 1776 and 1783? Was his daughter on hand to prevent an assassination attempt on the life of George Washington? And is it possible that the basement of Fraunces Tavern could have once housed a dungeon? ALSO: Learn about the two deadly attacks on Fraunces Tavern — one by a British war vessel in the 1770s, and another, more violent act of terror that occurred in its doorway 200 years later! PLUS: Where to find the ruins of Lovelace's Tavern, dating back to the days of New Amsterdam. boweryboyshistory.com frauncestavernmuseum.org This is a re-presentation of a show originally released on March 18, 2011 with new 2020 bonus material recorded for this episode. Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/boweryboys

Transcript

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0:00.0	The following is a special presentation in honor of all the historic houses and taverns
0:06.2	opening up in the city and across the country. This week, the museum at the historic
0:12.0	Francis tavern finally reopens. And so we're representing a show that was originally recorded
0:18.9	in 2011. And you can tell it's 2011 because we make a joke about Julie Tamor's Spider-Man musical.
0:26.7	Now this week just happens to be tavern week and a few other historic taverns across the
0:32.1	country are joining Francis in this celebration. Although around these parts, it's always tavern week.
0:39.3	And stay tuned until the end of the show where I'll have brand new history nuggets to share with you.
0:46.0	So please enjoy the show. Hey, it's the Bowry Boys.
0:49.8	Hey, support for the Bowry Boys is provided by our listeners. Join us for as little as a dollar
0:56.3	a month by visiting patreon.com slash Bowry Boys.
1:03.5	Hello there. Welcome to the Bowry Boys. This is Greg Young. And this is Tom Myers.
1:07.6	Good day to you, Tom. Good day to everybody. Good day to you, Greg. And we are going to go back
1:12.8	to the Revolutionary War era, a place that we haven't been for a little while. We're going to
1:17.2	spend a lot of time there as we visit everybody's favorite colonial era tavern.
1:24.0	I think that's accurate, Greg. I think it is all of our favorite colonial era bar.
1:28.4	At least in New York City. And that would be the tavern owned by one Samuel Francis. This is
1:34.7	Francis Tavern. I have to say, Greg, I have the impression just from the outset that this could be
1:40.5	our most patriotic podcast ever. It's clearly a principal stop on any tour of Revolutionary
1:46.7	War sites throughout America. Right. Because Francis tavern is not just a bar. It's been an
1:52.0	integral part of, well, the city's history and also the nation's history. And we're going to
1:56.4	talk about what it means to be a tavern around the colonial era. It's very different than anything
2:00.6	today. Like I know that I've been to more than a few taverns in my life, Tom. The things that
	...

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