HistoricSiteMarkers
American RevolutionEarly Republic

City Arms Tavern & Veteran Corps of Artillery

New York, New York, New York

Marker Inscription

The late 18th century City Arms Tavern stood on this site. On November 25th, 1790, known as "Evacuation Day" because it marked the anniversary of the departure of the last British troops from New York in 1783, a group of patriotic citizens met at the Tavern to discuss the defense of their state and nation from possible foreign aggression. As veterans of the corps of artillery of the Continental Army, they formed the Veteran Corps of Artillery of the State of New York. Since that date this historic military command has served the state and nation continuously, in both peace and war.

The Story

On the site of the late-eighteenth-century City Arms Tavern, a group of patriotic citizens gathered on November 25, 1790 — Evacuation Day, marking the 1783 departure of the last British troops from New York. Veterans of the Continental Army's artillery corps met to plan for the young nation's defense and organized themselves into the Veteran Corps of Artillery of the State of New York. That military command has served continuously ever since.

Why it matters

It records the founding of one of the oldest continuously serving military units in the United States, born from the veterans of the Revolution.

The story behind this marker

AI context

The era

Picture lower Manhattan in the years just after the Revolution: a compact, bustling port city crowded onto the tip of the island, its streets lined with taverns, counting houses, and the wharves that made New York one of the young nation's busiest harbors. Taverns were not merely places to drink. They were the town's living rooms and meeting halls, where merchants struck deals, newspapers were read aloud, and citizens gathered to argue the great questions of the day.

The 1780s and 1790s were an anxious, hopeful time. The war was won, but the peace felt fragile. A new federal government was still finding its footing, the ink barely dry on the Constitution, and Americans looked warily across the Atlantic at the great powers of Europe. Independence had been declared and defended, but no one could be sure it would last.

Into that mood of watchful pride stepped the men who founded the command remembered here. They had fought a long war and were not inclined to assume the fighting was finished for good. On this ground stood the City Arms Tavern, and it was under its roof that some of them chose to act.

People & events

The date they chose was no accident. November 25 was known across the city as Evacuation Day, the anniversary of the moment in 1783 when the last British troops finally sailed out of New York Harbor, ending years of enemy occupation. For a generation of New Yorkers, it was as charged a holiday as any on the calendar — a day of parades, cannon, and long memories.

On that day in 1790, a group of citizens who had served as artillerymen in the Continental Army came together at the City Arms Tavern. These were veterans who knew the weight of a gun and the cost of a war. Their purpose was serious: to organize themselves for the defense of their state and their still-young nation against the possibility of future aggression.

Out of that meeting came the Veteran Corps of Artillery of the State of New York. What began as a gathering of old soldiers in a tavern became a standing military command — one that, by the marker's account, has served continuously ever since, through peace and war alike.

Its place in the American story

There is something deeply American about a nation's defense being organized not by decree from above but by citizens choosing to band together. The men here were not conscripts or courtiers. They were volunteers who had already given years to the Revolution and decided, on their own initiative, to keep serving.

That impulse — the citizen-soldier who lays down the plow or the ledger to take up arms and then returns to civilian life — runs through the whole story of early America. It shaped the militias of the Revolution and the traditions of civic duty that followed. A command founded by veterans, on the anniversary of the enemy's departure, embodies that ideal almost perfectly.

To trace an unbroken line of service from the era of the founders down to the present is rare. Very few institutions in American life can claim continuity reaching back to George Washington's own generation. This one links the roadside where you stand directly to the soldiers who won independence.

If you visit

You are standing at the toe of Manhattan, in the oldest part of the city, where the streets still follow their crooked colonial paths and the modern towers press close overhead. The tavern itself is long gone, but that is part of the pleasure here: history in New York is layered, and you are reading one page of a very deep stack.

Take a moment to imagine the scene the marker describes — a public house full of former soldiers on a cold late-November day, the harbor nearby, the memory of the British fleet's departure still fresh in living memory. Then look around at what fills the same ground now, and feel the distance the city has traveled.

This spot rewards the walker. The financial district around you is dense with Revolutionary and early-Republic history, and a marker like this fits naturally into a slow, on-foot exploration of lower Manhattan. Come with good shoes and a curious eye, and let this quiet plaque be one stop among many.

Written by AI to add context, grounded in the marker’s inscription and the historical record. The inscription above is the original, unaltered text.

Plan your visit

Nearby

Make a day of it — museums, food, and places to stay near this marker.

Museums & culture

Attractions

Food & drink

Places to stay

Places data © OpenStreetMap contributors. Hours and details change — call ahead.

Own a business near here? Add it to the map.

Related events

  • · Evacuation Day
  • · Founding of the Veteran Corps of Artillery, 1790

Themes & tags

American RevolutionLandmark

Nearby & related markers

Soldiers' Monument

New York, NY

In June 1852, New York City's citizens gathered at City Hall and resolved that Trinity Church should raise a fitting monument to American patriots who perished in the struggle for independence — among them many who died as prisoners in British hands. The resulting Gothic memorial still stands in Trinity's churchyard near Wall Street. Its inscriptions turned a churchyard into a place of civic remembrance for the Revolution's forgotten dead.

American Revolution

George Washington

New York, NY

On April 30, 1789, George Washington stood on the balcony of Federal Hall in lower Manhattan and took the oath as the first President of the United States. New York City served as the nation's first capital, and this moment set the young republic's experiment in self-government into motion. The stone marked here commemorates the physical spot where that history began.

American Revolution

Bowling Green Fence

New York, NY · est. 1964

Erected by the Common Council in 1771, this iron fence surrounds Bowling Green, New York's oldest park, leased back in 1733 for use as a bowling lawn at a token rent of one peppercorn a year. In 1776, patriots toppled the nearby equestrian statue of King George III and, by tradition, sheared the royal crowns from the fence posts. The fence itself has survived for more than two centuries.

American Revolution

Fraunces Tavern

New York, NY

On December 4, 1783, days after the last British troops left New York, George Washington gathered his officers in the Long Room of Fraunces Tavern to bid them an emotional farewell, the Revolutionary War won and his command soon to be surrendered. The tavern was kept by Samuel Fraunces, a man of West Indian origin who had long served the patriot cause. The scene — a victorious general voluntarily taking leave of his army — became one of the enduring images of the new nation.

American Revolution