Old Fraunces Tavern, 54 Pearl St.

This is a vintage photograph (on the right), about 1888, depicting the old Fraunces Tavern at 54 Pearl Street, corner of Broad Street, in Lower Manhattan. Source: Fraunces Tavern Museum. Below, an illustration by Charles A. Vanderhoof, based on this photograph, published in the Century Magazine, April 1889, in an article about the Inauguration of Washington.

Fraunces Tavern is a New York landmark. The original building began to be erected in 1719 by Stephen de Lancey. Samuel Fraunces purchased the building in 1762 and established a tavern on it. In the 19th century, the building was partly destroyed by fires in 1831, 1837 and 1852. It was reconstructed or renovated a few times, modifying its original architecture. In 1906/1907, a restoration sought to restore the architecture of the original building.

At the time of this photo, Jacob Etzel ran the tavern and the Jacob Etzel Hotel in the building. The place was known as "Washington's Head Quarters" and the address of the hotel was 101 Broad Street. In the 1880s there was a barber shop in the ground floor with address 54 Pearl Street.

The external fire escapes in the Pearl Street front were installed in the 1870s or 1880s.

Utility poles and wires (like the ones in the photo) were installed in the urban area of the City of New York in the late 1860s, including Wall Street and Broad St. They were took down after the blizzard of March 1888, until about 1891.