Jim Kaplan, president of the Lower Manhattan Historical Society, reported to the LMHS members in a recent letter. Excerpts follow:
LMHS scored another great success with its sponsorship of Evacuation Day celebrations. As you hopefully all by now know, Evacuation Day (November 25, 1783) was the day that the last British troops left New York City and the United States ending the American Revolution. It was celebrated as a major holiday here in New York City until the beginning of the First World War. The centerpiece of these celebrations was a reenactment of the raising of the American flag at Bowling Green.
There have been sporadic attempts by various groups to revive this holiday since then and the LMHS decided at our last meeting to move to the forefront of these efforts. As a result, Art Piccolo had commissioned the manufacture of a large 13 star flag similar to the one that flew over Bowing Green in 1783, which was paid for by John Herzog, the founder of the American Museum of Finance. This Flag was first publicly presented on November 24, 2014 at the annual Evacuation Day dinner held by the Sons of the Revolution at Fraunces Tavern, which was the exact location of the dinner held on November 25, 1783 by George Washington and New York Governor George Clinton in honor of the return of the City to patriot control. The next day, November 25, 2014, at 12pm the LMHS sponsored a ceremony at which this flag was raised by among others my daughter Caroline Kaplan at Bowling Green (see attached photos). In attendance at the ceremony were LMHS director Wes Oler, John Herzog, reenactors from the United Colored Troops 1st Rhode Island and Marblehead sailors regiments, Wesley Chen of the Chinatown history project, a group from the Evacuation Day walking tour sponsored by the American Museum of Finance, and last but not least our irrepressible director Art Piccolo of the Bowling Green Association, who acted as unofficial master of ceremonies….
In addition at 1:15 pm starting at the Manhattan Borough President’s office at the Municipal Building, I gave a walking tour of the City Hall area, including the history and iconography of the three great public buildings–City Hall, the Surrogate’s Court and the Municipal Building–in which effort after almost 20 years I was reunited with my former Law Department and walking tour leader colleague, the noted New York historian and lecturer Warren Shaw….
Our next project will involve much more recent Lower Manhattan history, a celebration of the 25th anniversary of the placement of Arturo Di Modica’s Charging Bull at Bowling Green park. . . . [Also under discussion are] such future possible projects as a celebration of the birthday of Albert Gallatin in January (Gallatin, who is buried in Trinity Churchyard, was Jefferson’s Secretary of the Treasury and the founder of NYU); a celebration of the 175th anniversary of the first time Silent Night was sung in the United States, which took place around Christmas at Trinity Churchyard; and a celebration honoring Alexander McDougall, a leading New York patriot from the Revolutionary War.