Fraunces Tavern Fraunces Tavern in New York City is a tavern , restaurant and museum housed in a conjectural reconstruction of a building that played a prominent role in pre - Revolution and American Revolution history . The building , located at 54 Pearl Street at the corner of Broad Street , has been owned by Sons of the Revolution in the State of New York Inc . since 1904 , which claims it is Manhattan ' s oldest surviving building . The building is a tourist site and a part of the American Whiskey Trail and the New York Freedom Trail . Pre - Revolution history . New York Mayor Stephanus van Cortlandt built his home in 1671 on the site , but retired to his manor on the Hudson River and gave the property in 1700 to his son - in - law , Etienne " Stephen " DeLancey , a French Huguenot who had married Van Cortlandt ' s daughter , Anne . The DeLancey family contended with the Livingston family for leadership of the Province of New York . DeLancey built the current building as a house in 1719 . The small yellow bricks used in its construction were imported from the Dutch Republic and the sizable mansion ranked highly in the province for its quality . His heirs sold the building in 1762 to Samuel Fraunces who converted the home into the popular tavern , first named the Queen ' s Head . Before the Revolution , the building was one of the meeting places of the Sons of Liberty . During the tea crisis of 1765 , the patriots forced a British naval captain who tried to bring tea to New York to give a public apology at the building . The patriots , disguised as American Indians ( like those of the subsequent Boston Tea Party ) , then dumped the ship ' s tea cargo into New York Harbor . In 1768 , the New York Chamber of Commerce was founded by a meeting in the building . Revolution history . In August 1775 , Americans took possession of cannon s from the artillery battery at the southern point of Manhattan and fired on the HMS Asia . The British ship retaliated by firing a 32 - gun broadside on the city , sending a cannonball through the roof of the building . When the war was all but won , the building was the site of " British - American Board of Inquiry " meetings , which negotiated to ensure to American leaders that no " American property " ( meaning former slaves who were emancipated by the British for their military service ) be allowed to leave with British troop s . Board members reviewed the evidence and testimonies that were given by freed slaves every Wednesday from April to November 1783 , and British representatives were successful in ensuring that almost all of the loyalist blacks of New York maintained their liberty . Washington ' s farewell to his officers . After British troops evacuated New York , the tavern hosted an elaborate " turtle feast " dinner on December 4 , 1783 , in the building ' s Long Room for U . S . Gen . George Washington where he bade farewell to his officers of the Continental Army by saying " [ w ] ith a heart full of love and gratitude , I now take leave of you . I most devoutly wish that your latter days may be as prosperous and happy as your former ones have been glorious and honorable . " Confederation Congress . The building housed some offices of the Confederation Congress as the nation struggled under the Articles of Confederation . With the establishment of the U . S . Constitution and the inauguration of Washington as president in 1789 , the departments of Foreign Affairs , Treasury and War located offices at the building . The offices were vacated when the location of the U . S . capital moved on December 6 , 1790 , from New York to Philadelphia . Damage , reconstruction and landmarks . Fires . The building operated throughout much of the 19th century , but suffered several serious fires beginning in 1832 . Having been rebuilt several times , the structure ' s appearance was changed to the extent that the original building design is not known . The building was owned by Malvina Keteltas in the early 1800s . Ernst Buermeyer and his family leased part of the property in 1845 and ran a hotel called the Broad Street House at this location until 1860 . After a disastrous fire in 1852 , two stories were added , making the Tavern a total of five stories high . In 1890 , the taproom was lowered to street level and the first floor exterior was remodeled , and its original timbers sold as souvenir s . The building was threatened in 1900 with demolition by its owners , who wanted to use the land for a parking lot . A number of organizations , notably the Daughters of the American Revolution , worked to preserve it , and convinced New York government leaders to use their power of eminent domain and designate the building as a park . The designation was rescinded when the property was acquired in 1904 by the Sons of the Revolution In the State of New York Inc . , primarily with funds willed by Frederick Samuel Tallmadge , the grandson of Benjamin Tallmadge , George Washington ' s chief of intelligence during the Revolution ( a plaque depicting Tallmadge is affixed to the building ) . An extensive reconstruction was completed in 1907 under the supervision of preservation architect William Mersereau . The building served as the location of the General Society Sons of the Revolution office until 2002 , when the general society moved to its current location at Independence , Mo . The museum maintains several galleries of art and artifacts about the Revolution including the McEntee " Sons of the Revolution " Gallery that displays much of the history of the society . Historian Randall Gabrielan wrote in 2000 that " Mersereau claimed his remodeling of Fraunces Tavern was faithful to the original , but the design was controversial in his time . There was no argument over removing the upper stories , which were known to have been added during the building ' s 19th - century commercial use , but adding the hipped roof was questioned . He used the Philipse Manor House in Yonkers , N . Y . as a style guide and claimed to follow the roof line of the original , as found during construction , traced on the bricks of an adjoining building . " Architects Norval White and Elliot Willensky wrote in 2000 that the building was " a highly conjectural reconstruction – not a restoration – based on ' typical ' buildings of ' the period , ' parts of remaining walls , and a lot of guesswork . " Bombing . A bomb was exploded in the building on January 24 , 1975 , killing four ( 4 ) people and injuring more than 50 others . The Puerto Rico nationalist group FALN , the Armed Forces of Puerto Rican National Liberation , which had other bomb incidents in New York in the 70 ' s , claimed responsibility . No one had been prosecuted for the bombing as of April 17 , 2013 . Among the victims who died was a young banker , Frank Connor ( Fair Lawn , NJ , ) 33 , who had worked his way up over 15 years from clerk to assistant vice president ( AVP ) at Morgan Guaranty Trust . Mr . Connor left behind his wife Mary ( Connor - Tully ) and two sons , Thomas , 11 , and Joseph , 9 . A second New York worker was Harold H . Sherburne , 66 , whose career on Wall Street spanned four decades . Two executives , James Gezork , 32 , of Wilmington , Del . , and Alejandro Berger , 28 , who worked for a Philadelphia - based chemical company , had traveled to New York for business meetings . Sherburne , Connor and Berger died on the spot . Gezork lost his fight for life later at the hospital . In a note police found in a phone booth nearby , the FALN wrote , “ we … take full responsibility for the especially detornated ( sic ) bomb that exploded today at Fraunces Tavern , with reactionary corporate executives inside . ” The note explained that the bomb — roughly 10 pounds of dynamite that had been crammed into an attaché case and slipped into the tavern ’ s entrance hallway — was retaliation for the “ CIA ordered bomb ” that killed three and injured 11 , one a child ( 6 yrs old , ) in a restaurant in Mayagüez , Puerto Rico two ( 2 ) weeks earlier . A memorial plaque with some victims ' names is hung in the newly restored / renovated Tavern ' s ( December 2012 ) large dining room . Landmarks . The building was declared a landmark in 1965 by New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission , and the building ' s block bounded by Pearl Street , Water Street , Broad Street and Coenties Slip was included on November 14 , 1978 . The building ' s block was included on April 28 , 1977 on the National Register of Historic Places by National Park Service , and the building was included on March 6 , 2008 .