1719 Pearl Street tavern and museum where George Washington bid farewell to his officers in 1783, with reported phantom footsteps and a basement murder-suicide ghost.
54 Pearl Street, New York, NY 10004
Age
All Ages
Cost
$$
Restaurant and bar open to the public; museum admission charged separately. Seasonal Haunted History Tour ticketed.
Access
Wheelchair OK
Restored 18th-century tavern with restaurant on the ground floor and museum on upper floors; elevator access available.
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1719 · Oldest Surviving Building In Manhattan · George Washington's Farewell To His Officers 1783 · Revolutionary War Headquarters · 1975 FALN Bombing Site
The brick Georgian building at 54 Pearl Street, on the corner of Pearl and Broad Streets in Lower Manhattan, was constructed in 1719 as the residence of merchant Stephen DeLancey. The DeLancey house was one of the most substantial private homes in the colonial city and reflected the wealth of the merchant elite operating out of the East River waterfront.
In 1762, Samuel Fraunces, a tavern-keeper of disputed origin variously identified as West Indian or French, purchased the building for £2,000 and converted it into the Queen's Head Tavern, soon a center of New York political and commercial life. Fraunces hosted meetings of the Sons of Liberty in the run-up to the Revolution and operated the tavern through the war years.
Fraunces Tavern's most famous historical event occurred on December 4, 1783. Nine days after British troops evacuated New York, General George Washington gathered his Continental Army officers in the Long Room on the building's second floor to bid them farewell. The emotional scene — Washington raising a glass and embracing each officer in turn — has been depicted in numerous paintings and is among the most-mythologized moments in American Revolutionary history.
The building subsequently housed multiple federal offices, including portions of the Departments of War, Treasury, and Foreign Affairs during the brief period in which New York served as the national capital. The structure suffered fires and modifications over the 19th century and by 1900 was in poor condition.
In 1904 the Sons of the Revolution in the State of New York purchased the building and commissioned architect William Mersereau to undertake a sweeping restoration intended to return the structure to its 18th-century appearance. The restored building opened as the Fraunces Tavern Museum in 1907, with a tavern restaurant operating on the ground floor.
On January 24, 1975, a bomb planted by the Puerto Rican nationalist organization Fuerzas Armadas de Liberación Nacional Puertorriqueña (FALN) exploded in the entrance vestibule of the Anglers Club at 101 Broad Street, part of the Fraunces Tavern complex, killing four people and injuring more than fifty. The bombing remains one of the deadliest acts of domestic terrorism in pre-September 11 New York City.
Today the museum is operated by the Sons of the Revolution in the State of New York, and the ground-floor restaurant operates independently as Fraunces Tavern restaurant. The Long Room has been preserved and is open to the public as part of the museum.
Sources
According to the Fraunces Tavern Museum's own Haunted History tour materials and a 2024 NY1 feature, the most frequently cited paranormal narrative at Fraunces involves a 1799 murder-suicide that took place in a basement-level apartment of the building. A former resident, in a fit of jealousy, is said to have killed his ballerina wife Anna Gardy and then taken his own life. The Fraunces Tavern Museum's events page notes that female kitchen staff have repeatedly reported encounters with an apparition descending the basement stairs and that the lower level is associated with a heavy emotional atmosphere described by staff as 'sadness.'
The NY1 feature recounts an account from a former night porter who reported hearing the sounds of a party in progress — clinking glasses, voices in conversation — after the tavern had closed and he was alone in the building. The Long Room on the second floor, where George Washington gave his farewell address, is associated with reports of unexplained footsteps and a sense of presence by visiting paranormal investigators and museum staff.
The Boroughs of the Dead 'Haunted Places in New York City' survey reports that paranormal investigators working in the building have recorded electronic voice phenomena and unidentified noises during overnight investigations, though the museum has not endorsed any specific identification of the entities involved.
The museum frames its Haunted History tour as a presentation of folklore and witness accounts rather than as a paranormal investigation, and its public materials are notable for treating the haunting narrative as part of the building's broader cultural history rather than as proven phenomena.
Notable Entities
Media Appearances
Dine in the ground-floor tavern operated as a restaurant in continuous use as a drinking establishment since the 18th century. The restaurant occupies multiple rooms with period furnishings and serves contemporary American fare with a focus on history and tradition.
Tour the upper-floor museum operated by the Sons of the Revolution in the State of New York. Permanent exhibits cover Samuel Fraunces's tavern, George Washington's December 4, 1783 farewell to his officers in the Long Room, and the 1975 FALN bombing that killed four people in the building's entrance vestibule.
Seasonal guided tour offered by the Fraunces Tavern Museum around Halloween. The program covers the 1799 basement murder-suicide of ballerina Anna Gardy, staff and visitor reports of phantom party sounds and footsteps in empty rooms, and the building's centuries-long association with violent events including the 1975 FALN bombing.
Every HauntBound history is researched from documented sources. We clearly separate verified historical fact from paranormal folklore.
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