Name: 50 Years of American Independence at the Mount Vernon Hotel
Start: 2025-02-07T12:00:00-05:00
End: 2025-02-07T13:30:00-05:00
Location: Mount Vernon Hotel Museum & Garden

Explore letters, portraits and innovations from founding fathers and experience celebrations of 50 years of independence
About this Event

Please join us for our new First Fridays series! On the first Friday of the month (or most months!) at 12 noon, we will be offering a themed program and tour of the Mount Vernon Hotel Museum & Garden.

Some topics will feature our 1799 landmark building and its uses over the last 225 years, including its role as a day hotel from 1826 to 1833 -- the time period that our museum interprets through its 8 historic rooms and garden. Other topics will address aspects of colonial and early 19th-century American history, specifically as they relate to New York City and the Mount Vernon Hotel.

To kick off the series, we will honor the upcoming Presidents’ Day with a First Friday on February 7, 2025 featuring our new program, “50 Years of American Independence at the Mount Vernon Hotel.” Stay tuned for future programs and dates in this new series!

First Friday Program, February 7, 2025

“50 Years of American Independence at the Mount Vernon Hotel”

12 to 1:30 pm

All tickets: $20

This program is a fantastic opportunity to immerse yourself in America’s rich history as experienced at a NYC day hotel, learn about our founding fathers and their impact in the early 19th century, and understand how the successor generation of the 1820s and 30s, which included guests at our day hotel, honored the founding generation and celebrated the 50th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence in 1826. Whether you’re a history buff or simply curious about our nation’s past, this event is not to be missed!

Participants will see letters from our collection written by John Adams and George Washington, portraits created to honor the memory of George Washington and the Marquis de Lafayette, and a fragment from a tent used by George Washington during the Revolutionary War. They will also see innovations in our period rooms introduced by founding fathers Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin. Through these letters, portraits, and innovations, we will appreciate the importance of the founding fathers and July 4th traditions in 1826, including how New Yorkers celebrated, feasted, and toasted the jubilee of the Declaration of Independence.

“50 Years of American Independence at the Mount Vernon Hotel” was funded in part through a grant approved by the Americana Corner Preserving America Grant program.