New York History

Castle Clinton is a circular sandstone fort, sitting prominently at the southern tip of Manhattan. Constructed between eighteen oh eight and eighteen eleven, it was one of several fortifications built to protect New York Harbor from the…

Bowling Green is a small, teardrop-shaped park located at the southern end of Broadway, set apart from the surrounding streets by an eighteenth-century wrought-iron fence. As the oldest public park in New York City, it sits on land that…

Fraunces Tavern is identifiable by the small, yellow bricks that form its exterior walls, a distinct feature dating back to the building's construction in seventeen nineteen. Originally built as a private residence for Étienne De Lancey,…

Federal Hall National Memorial is distinguished by a large, bronze statue of George Washington standing on its front steps, his right hand raised as if swearing an oath. This Greek Revival structure, finished in eighteen forty-two, sits at…

St. Paul's Chapel is Manhattan's oldest surviving church building, finished in seventeen sixty-six. Constructed of Manhattan mica-schist with brownstone quoins, it originally served as a chapel-of-ease for congregants who found the walk to…

The African Burial Ground National Monument features a twenty-four-foot-tall green granite memorial designed by Rodney Léon. You can identify the site by its layout of seven symbolic earthen mounds, which represent the burial of four…

The Foundation Building is an Italianate brownstone structure that you can identify by its flat-topped silhouette and deep, reddish-brown masonry. Built by industrialist Peter Cooper in eighteen fifty-nine, it was the first building in New…

The Stonewall Inn occupies two modest buildings at fifty-one and fifty-three Christopher Street, distinguished by a continuous, fifty-foot-wide facade that has remained largely unchanged since the nineteen sixties. Originally constructed…