The Fraunces Tavern Museum is the oldest building standing in New York City. It has a very rich political history, as the meeting place for the Son’s of Liberty and later as the birthplace of various United States government agencies.

The event for which the building is most famous occurred two hundred and twenty-four years ago today. After reaching the end of the Revolutionary War, General Washington, on December 4, 1783, gave an emotional farewell address to his men just prior to resigning from military service. The picture below is a depiction of this scene which took place in the Long Room.

The Fraunce Tavern Museum gives an account of the meeting which can also be read in the Memoirs of Colonel Benjamin Tallmadge.