Bull's Head Tavern
The Bull's Head Tavern was built on the site of the present Thalia Theatre, formerly the Bowery Theatre, just above Chatham Square, some years before 1763. It was frequented by drovers and butchers, and was the most popular tavern of its kind in the city for many years. Washington and his staff occupied it on the day the British evacuated the city in 1783. It was pulled down in 1826, making way for the Bowery Theatre.
First Bowery Theatre
The Bowery Theatre was opened in 1826, and during the course or its existence was the home of broad melodrama, that had such a large following that the theatre obtained a national reputation. Many celebrated actors appeared in the house. It was burned in 1828, rebuilt and burned again in 1836, again in 1838, in 1845 and in 1848.
New Bowery Street was opened from the south side of Chatham Square in 1856. The street carried away a part of a Jewish burying-ground, a portion of which, crowded between tenement-houses and shut off from the street by a wall and iron fence, is still to be seen a few steps from Chatham Square. The first synagogue of the Jews was in Mill Street (now South William). The graveyard mentioned was the first one used by this congregation, and was opened in 1681, so far from the city that it did not seem probable that the latter could ever reach it. Early in the nineteenth century the graveyard was moved to a site which is now Sixth Avenue and Eleventh Street.
Washington's Home on Cherry Hill
The Franklin House was the first Cherry Hill place of residence of George Washington in the city, when he became President in 1789. It stood at the corner of Franklin Square (then St. George Square) and Cherry Street. A portion of the East River Bridge structure rests on the site. Pearl Street, passing the house, was a main thoroughfare in those days. The house was built in 1770 by Walter Franklin, an importing merchant. It was torn down in 1856. The site is marked by a tablet on the Bridge abutment, which reads: