The 2nd-annual Lower Manhattan Independence Day Parade kicked off the holiday weekend on July 2, marching from the Irish Hunger memorial in Battery Park City down to Bowling Green.
Downtown celebrated the July Fourth weekend as only New York’s oldest neighborhood can, with a host of events celebrating the rich revolutionary history that actually took place here.
From Bowling Green, where patriots toppled the statue of King George III five days after the Declaration of Independence was signed, to Federal Hall, which served as our new nation’s first seat of government, Downtown marked America’s independence with more than just barbecues and mattress sales.
The parade culminated in a flag-raising ceremony at Bowling Green, the nation’s first public park.
Councilmember Margaret Chin, the first Asian-American woman to be elected to the Council, was one of the recipients of the Lower Manhattan Historical Society’s inaugural Alexander Hamilton Immigrant Achievement Award, which she accepted at Federal Hall on July 3.
The Veteran Corps of Artillery, formed in 1791 and the oldest active military unit in New York state, led a 50-round Salute to the Nation with a battery of four 75mm pack howitzers at Castle Clinton on July 4.
Historical reenactors portraying African-American soldiers from the Revolution to the Civil War conducted educational programs at Downtown’s African Burial Ground to mark the official end of slavery in New York State on the Fourth of July in 1827.
Historical reenactor Jack Sherry portrayed Ben Franklin at Federal Hall on July 4.
