Lower Manhattan hosted its first Independence Day parade in almost four decades last year. This year’s reprise will kick off from the Irish Hunger Memorial in Battery Park City at 11 a.m. on July 2.
The Independence Day weekend has a special place Downtown, in New York’s oldest neighborhood. Five days after the original July Fourth, on July 9, 1776, a copy of the newly signed Declaration of Independence reached New York City and inspired local patriots to famously topple the statue of King George III at Bowling Green.
And it was in Downtown where the Revolutionary War truly came to an end — a full two years after Britain’s official surrender — when the last redcoats finally set sail for home on Evacuation Day, Nov. 25, 1783.
Federal Hall at 26 Wall St. was the new nation’s first seat of government, and George Washington was sworn in as president on its front steps.
So it is right and proper to celebrate July Fourth in the city’s most historic neighborhood — and Downtown doesn’t disappoint, offering a plethora of patriotic programing over the long weekend, from the educational to the entertaining.
Saturday, July 2:
Downtown gets a head start of the holiday on Saturday with street fairs and a parade.
Community Board 1 will host its Great July Fourth Fair along Fulton St. between Water and Gold Sts. from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. And another July Fourth block party is slated for Cliff St. between John and Fulton Sts. from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.
The Lower Manhattan Independence Day Parade also steps off at 11 a.m. on Saturday, starting at the Irish Hunger memorial in Battery Park City, then moving down the BPC promenade before heading east along Rector St. to Broadway, then turning south to Bowling Green for flag raising ceremony.
Sunday, July 3:
The Seaport District kicks off its two-day “Festival of Independence” at 1 p.m. on Sunday in cooperation with Smorgasburg and Vice’s Noisey music channel, featuring food stalls, independent art and fashion vendors and live music on a stage at Fulton St. until 9 p.m.
For the historically minded, the Lower Manhattan Historical Society will gather at Federal Hall at 1:30 p.m. to bestow its inaugural Alexander Hamilton Immigrant Achievement Award to three honorees:
• Rick Rescolar, the English-born security director of Morgan Stanley credited with saving the lives of more than 2,600 colleagues at the World Trade Center on 9/11 (the posthumous award will be accepted by his wife).
• Margaret Chin, the councilmember for Lower Manhattan, the first Asian American woman to be elected to the Council and a community leader active in rebuilding Chinatown after 9/11.
• Dr. Matthew Eugene, a medical doctor born in Haiti and a Councilmember representing a district in Brooklyn.
Of course, the big event Downtown on July Fourth will be the 40th-annual Macy’s fireworks display on the East River, starting at 9 p.m.
Monday, July 4:
July Fourth itself is jam-packed, with Federal Hall hosting a day of historical programing from 10 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. featuring reenactors portraying George Washington and Ben Franklin, and a reading of the Declaration of Independence.
At 11 a.m. at Castle Clinton, the Veteran Corps of Artillery — founded in 1790 at Downtown’s Fraunces Tavern by Revolutionary War veterans — will fire a traditional 50-round Salute to the Nation with a battery of four 75mm pack howitzers, calling out between blasts the names of the 50 states in the order they were admitted into the Union.
The museum at Fraunces Tavern at 54 Pearl St. — where George Washington famously bid farewell to his troops after the war — will offer $1 admission from noon to 5 p.m.
The Seaport’s “Festival of Independence” continues on Monday, with more live music on the Fulton St. stage from 1 p.m. to 9 p.m., and family-oriented performances at a stage on Peck Slip from 1 p.m. to 8 p.m.
And just like every year, Downtown’s eastern streets will start to fill in the evening as folks await the Macy’s East River fireworks display at 9 p.m.
