{"id":958747,"date":"2026-07-25T17:37:19","date_gmt":"2026-07-25T17:37:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/958747\/"},"modified":"2026-07-25T17:37:19","modified_gmt":"2026-07-25T17:37:19","slug":"glimpses-of-new-york-citys-history-are-still-visible-heres-where-to-look","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/958747\/","title":{"rendered":"Glimpses of New York City\u2019s History Are Still Visible. Here\u2019s Where to Look."},"content":{"rendered":"

New York is a city of reinvention. It\u2019s where you move if you want to start over, forget your past and create a new identity. It embraces modernity with skyscrapers and 5G towers dotting its blocks. But traces of New York\u2019s past are still around, peeking through the pavement and glass in the forms of old streets, trees, fences and buildings.<\/p>\n

Neal Boenzi\/The New York Times<\/p>\n

This month saw the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, and to mark the occasion, The New York Times has identified several sites that existed around the time of America\u2019s founding, or even earlier, that can still be seen today. They tell the story of New York \u2014 and the country \u2014 in all its beauty and ugliness.<\/p>\n

The American Revolution \u201cwas a revolution for freedom and independence, but ultimately, it didn\u2019t abolish slavery, it didn\u2019t grant enfranchisement to women,\u201d said Asad Dandia, the Brooklyn borough historian.<\/p>\n

The anniversary comes at time when there have been efforts by the federal government to rewrite and cloak the country\u2019s history. In the past few years, public exhibits on slavery, civil rights, Indigenous history and more have been taken down.<\/p>\n

But looking closely at the sites that have stood through history can help us understand, and perhaps advance, the democratic ideals that shaped the country from its birth \u2014 fusing the past and present into one, becoming part of the forward-looking momentum that defines this city. Two hundred and fifty years ago, democratic deliberation and debate were largely limited to propertied white men, Mr. Dandia said, but \u201cthat doesn\u2019t mean that today we can\u2019t expand to include all of us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bowling Green Fence An 18th Century Fence <\/p>\n

\"An On July 9, 1776, dozens of angry people marched to Bowling Green. As many historians retell it, the crowd had just heard the freshly signed Declaration of Independence read aloud in Lower Manhattan and were moved to tear down the gilded, 4,000-pound statue of King George III that stood there. The patriots also knocked ornamental crowns off the fence that surrounded the statue. They rollicked around the streets with King George\u2019s head, and then much of the statue was turned into 42,088 musket balls to be used against British troops.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe fence reminds us of our origins and stands as a testament to the revolutionary fervor that drove the founding of this country,\u201d Mr. Dandia said. Lafayette College Art Collection, Easton, Pennsylvania, not to be reproduced without written permission<\/p>\n

The fence itself was eventually moved to Central Park, but was later reinstalled in Bowling Green, where it currently stands. Neal Boenzi\/The New York Times<\/p>\n

The removal of the statue of King George has a recent parallel with Confederate monuments being torn down. In 2020 alone, more than 160 such symbols were renamed or removed, according to one report<\/a>. \u201cThere were a lot of folks who were like, \u2018it\u2019s anti-American to take down the statues, and it doesn\u2019t comport to our values,\u2019\u201d Mr. Dandia said. \u201cI always like to remind folks that the American patriots took down a statue of King George in the summer of 1776, because they felt that it no longer represented their ideals.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cInside that fence was the first tangible expression of defiance to the crown,\u201d said Harold Holzer, the Manhattan borough historian. Todd Heisler\/The New York Times<\/p>\n

Broadway Originally the Wickquasgeck Trail <\/p>\n

\"An Before the arrival of European settlers in the 17th century, Mannahatta, as the Lenape called it, was a lush, hilly island of wetlands, forests and beaches. Through this abundant landscape, the Lenape carved the Wickquasgeck trail. Defined in large part by the natural terrain, the path connected Lenape village sites on the island, said Joe Baker, the executive director of the Lenape Center.<\/p>\n

The Dutch arrived in the early 1600s, and they widened it and called it Brede Wegh, meaning broad way. Then, in 1664, the British took over, and eventually the street became Broadway. \u201cFor Lenape people, Broadway represents a trail of exclusion and a trail of invisibility,\u201d Mr. Baker said. \u201cIt\u2019s the story of our displacement.\u201d<\/p>\n

The path dates back centuries and was used by the Lenape, the Dutch and the English. A Kalner<\/p>\n

Today, the road runs from Lower Manhattan through Westchester. It still follows the original line of the Wickquasgeck trail in places, said Michelle Young, the author of \u201cBroadway<\/a>,\u201d a history of the thoroughfare. Broadway, she said, is a \u201cremnant and repository of Manhattan\u2019s original geography.\u201d<\/p>\n

Unlike some of Manhattan\u2019s other famous streets, such as Madison Avenue or 5th Avenue, Broadway is crooked. It stretches diagonally through midtown, breaking up the island\u2019s rigid grid, which was adopted in 1811.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe grid system was imposed upon the island,\u201d said Mr. Baker, but the Wickquasgeck trail \u201cwas harmonious with the land itself.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cBroadway\u2019s angle enabled the formation of public spaces like Union Square, Madison Square and Times Square, and these public spaces have served as meeting grounds for the country\u2019s social movements,\u201d Ms. Young said. Dave Pickoff\/Associated Press<\/p>\n

The street\u2019s jaggedness can be a subtle reminder of the natural landscape that Manhattan once had. Ms. Young added, \u201cwithout Broadway, a gridiron New York City might have lost a sense of humanity to its urban streetscape.\u201d<\/p>\n

English Elm The Tree that Witnessed the Revolution <\/p>\n

\"An This tree, at the northwest corner of Washington Square Park, is one of the only living beings in the city that experienced the American Revolution. Estimated to be more than 300 years old, it\u2019s known as a \u201cwitness tree,\u201d said Harold Holzer, the Manhattan borough historian.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s often called the Hangman\u2019s Elm, but this is likely to be a misnomer. Georgia Silvera Seamans, an urban community forester, said there was no known documentation to support that name, but \u201cthere were rumors that traitors to the Revolution were hung on the tree.\u201d<\/p>\n

Washington Square was declared a public square in 1827, and at the time, the English Elm \u201cwould\u2019ve been one of maybe very few trees\u201d there, Ms. Seamans said. New York Public Library<\/p>\n

The English elm is popular among several creatures that we share the city with. One of its branches is curved in a way that makes it ideal for pigeons to perch and squirrels to splay out on, Ms. Seamans said. And when this reporter tried to go up to the tree on a recent June evening, a rat scuttled by near its base.<\/p>\n

These days, the English Elm stands tall and proud at more than 130 feet with an average canopy spread wider than a tennis court. Todd Heisler\/The New York Times<\/p>\n

The English Elm is literally living history, holding the collective breath of New York over three centuries. In her book \u201cWhen Trees Testify,\u201d the plant biologist Beronda L. Montgomery writes of how trees, through photosynthesis, capture the exhales of humans, which become part of their physical form. \u201cThat plants, including trees, hold the transformed breath of decades of human life in their physical form positions them as powerful vessels of the present, even as they represent and testify to history and those from their past.\u201d<\/p>\n

In this way, the English Elm has, in its body, the breaths of the centuries of people who\u2019ve visited Washington Square. It holds the breaths of the civil rights activists who\u2019ve rallied there, the jazz musicians who\u2019ve played there, the skateboarders who\u2019ve done flips on the fountain, the chess players who\u2019ve sat there for hours.<\/p>\n

African Burial Ground An Overlooked History <\/p>\n

\"An In 1991, preliminary work on a new 34-story office building in Lower Manhattan began. But shortly after, more than 20 feet below ground level, a shocking discovery was made: The site contained the remains of around 15,000 Africans, many of whom were enslaved to build the city.<\/p>\n

According to the National Park Service, the site is \u201cthe oldest and largest known excavated burial site in North America for both free and enslaved Africans.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cShut out of churchyards within the city, a burial ground for Africans developed on a plot of land outside of the city,\u201d wrote Christopher Moore, a historian, on the National Park Service site. Public Domain<\/p>\n

The burial ground dates back to the 1630s, and its discovery in the 1990s reshaped our understanding of the history of slavery in New York. Though often overlooked, around 40 percent of New York households had enslaved people in the early 18th century. It wasn\u2019t until 1827, more than 50 years after the start of the Revolution, that slavery was abolished in the state.<\/p>\n

\u201cSlavery was part and parcel of colonialism in the North as it was in the South,\u201d said Michael L. Blakey, an anthropology professor at the College of William and Mary who led the research project for the site.<\/p>\n

Following protests to stop the construction, in 2003, a reburial ceremony was held at the site. Nearly three years later, it was proclaimed a national monument. <\/p>\n

The practice of memorializing the dead is a deeply human characteristic. \u201cIt is as much a human trait as tool use, the ability to make fire, walking on two legs,\u201d Mr. Blakey said. \u201cWe all have some form of funerary rite.\u201d Chester Higgins\/The New York Times<\/p>\n

The burial ground is now a stark reminder of the harsh inequalities and inhumane aspects of the country\u2019s founding. It is also a powerful symbol of human dignity. Mr. Blakey said the burial ground showed how the individuals \u201ccelebrated their humanity.\u201d He pointed to an example of a child who was found with a silver earbob, one \u201cthat they might have exchanged for some money, these impoverished people, but instead put it in the burial of a child.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some historians view the burial ground as one of the first institutions that Black people controlled for themselves in New York.<\/p>\n

Recent efforts to remove informational exhibits on slavery have been erasing history, Mr. Blakey said. For example, this year, in response to an executive order<\/a> from President Trump, the National Park Service took down an exhibit that discussed how George Washington owned enslaved people at the site of his home in Philadelphia.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re being asked now to look away,\u201d Mr. Blakey said. But looking closer can reveal a larger truth. \u201cThe African Burial Ground project provided the corporal evidence to defy the omissions and distortions of the past,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

James Brown House A Pub with a Past <\/p>\n

\"An The two-and-a-half story building near SoHo is currently home to the Ear Inn, a neighborhood bar beloved by locals and tourists alike.<\/p>\n

The lore of the site\u2019s revolutionary significance is tied to its previous ownership: Before it was Ear Inn, the home reportedly belonged to James Brown. Brown is believed to have been an enslaved man who was freed, and aided George Washington during the Revolutionary War.<\/p>\n

Some people think that Brown is the Black man depicted in Emanuel Leutze\u2019s famous \u201cWashington Crossing the Delaware\u201d painting, which shows Washington and soldiers fiercely crossing the treacherous, icy waters. Metropolitan Museum of Art<\/p>\n

But Brown\u2019s story is not entirely clear, and the evidence to support the popular tale is scant. The 1851 painting<\/a>, \u201cWashington Crossing the Delaware,\u201d is believed to have been created as an artistic and ennobled expression of freedom, not necessarily a precise representation of events.<\/p>\n

There is debate over when exactly the house was constructed as well. Some preservationists believe it was built in the early 1800s<\/a>, while it\u2019s also often stated \u2014 including on the bar\u2019s website<\/a> \u2014 that it was erected around 1770<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Landmarks Preservation Commission said in a report that the house was built in 1817. Rip Hayman, the owner of the building, said that he believed the house dated further back and that 1817 was when it \u201cwas entered into the city record.\u201d<\/p>\n

When it was being renovated around 1999, Mr. Hayman said, he worked with architectural historians who surveyed the building and found timber that had been burned and may have been salvaged out of the Great Fire of 1776.<\/p>\n

The stories of Black people, women and people of color throughout history are often not well documented. But if James Brown was indeed a Black man who played a role in the Revolution, it might not be all that surprising. \u201cThe American Revolution was not just a fight between white men versus white men,\u201d Mr. Dandia, the Brooklyn historian, said. \u201cThere were women that were involved on both sides. There were people of color involved on all sides.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even if its history is difficult to trace, the revolutionary spirit can still be found in Ear Inn today, Mr. Hayman said. \u201cThe Ear Inn pub is still a den of conspiracies and plots and revolutions,\u201d he said. Todd Heisler\/The New York Times<\/p>\n

The Lovelace Tavern The Tavern that was City Hall <\/p>\n

\"An Francis Lovelace, New York\u2019s second English governor, built his own tavern around 1670. Next door was the Stadt Huys, which served as the first city hall in New York and was originally built as a tavern. When the Stadt Huys was declared unsafe for use in the 1690s, Lovelace\u2019s tavern became the temporary city hall.<\/p>\n

During an excavation in the Financial District around 1979, remnants of the Lovelace Tavern were unearthed.<\/p>\n

Decades back, the excavation in Lower Manhattan revealed pieces of lost New York history. Neal Boenzi\/The New York Times<\/p>\n

When archaeologists first discovered the vestiges of the site, they found watermelon seeds, pottery, wine bottles, tobacco pipes, the remains of wells and more. The Museum of New York City<\/p>\n

Back then, it was the norm for government officials to gather in taverns, which played an important role in the early days of the city. \u201cNew York was a tavern town,\u201d Mr. Dandia said. The tavern was where people met \u201cto discuss and debate ideas around citizenship and belonging.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now, at the Goldman Sachs plaza, passers-by can look down through a glass portal, which reveals parts of the foundation wall of the Lovelace Tavern. Todd Heisler\/The New York Times<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New York is a city of reinvention. It\u2019s where you move if you want to start over, forget…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":958748,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5122],"tags":[5229,46136,353939,405,403,5226,5225,5228,5227,67,586,338686,132,5230,61909,68,2969,10901],"class_list":["post-958747","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-america","tag-historic-buildings-and-sites","tag-history-academic-subject","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-newyork","tag-newyorkcity","tag-ny","tag-nyc","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-united-states-semiquincentennial-2026","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-urban-areas","tag-us","tag-usa","tag-vis-design"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116981837169667083","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/958747","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=958747"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/958747\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/958748"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=958747"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=958747"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=958747"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}