What: Federal Hall
Where: 26 Wall Street
New York, NY
Who: All ages
Me - Federal Hall was interesting. It was the first capitol of the United States. It was also the place where George Washington was inaugurated. There was a clock with an eagle. There was a vault that used to have money in it and now it has fake money. They had models of how the building originally looked, how it looked when Washington was inaugurated, and how it looks now. They have a stone from where George Washington was standing when he got inaugurated. There was a special art exhibit. The art exhibit didn't have anything to do with the fact that it was Federal Hall though. It just happened to be there . Federal Hall was fascinating. I learned things about history that I never knew. For instance, I did not know New York was originally the capital. It was unique because it is a place that has to do with the United States government and not just the New York government. While we were there we went on a tour. The tour was fun. I learned a lot on the tour. There were no interactive exhibits but there was a movie. It was about the National Parks. They also had a room that told about National Parks all over the country. They also had pictures from all the National Parks. That was my favorite part learning about the different National Parks. We had been to some of the other National Parks in New York like the Hamilton Grange, the Tenement Museum, and Theodore Roosevelt's birthplace. Some of those we have already talked about. Some we will talk about in future posts.
Mom - If you think all the significant historical buildings from the Revolutionary War period are located in Philadelphia, you would be wrong. Federal Hall, the location where George Washington was inagurated is located right in New York City. Federal Hall was also the site of the first Congress, Supreme Court and executive branch of the government. Of course, the building that is there now is not the exact same building that was located there at the time. However, they do have a chunk of concrete from the building that was there at that time as well as many other artifacts. If you want to look around by yourself at Federal Hall, you can. There is also a short guided tour if you would prefer that as well as a film. The film talks about all of the different National parks in New York, however, not just Federal Hall. There is also a room at Federal Hall dedicated to National Parks all over the country with pictures,descriptions and even some artifacts. There are changing exhibits in the main lobby of the building. Currently there is an exhibit called Flag Exchange. The artist, Mel Ziegler travelled through all 50 states collecting tattered flags at civic and private locations and replaced them with brand new flags. The tattered flags he collected are now hanging in the main lobby of Federal Hall. While all ages are welcome at Federal Hall, it would, of course, probably be more interesting to children who are school age and older who have started learning or who have previous learned about American history. A visit to Federal Hall is completely free. Federal Hall is open from 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM year round except on Thanksgiving, Christmas or Sundays during the summer months.
For more information visit
www.nps.gov/feha.
And that's our view. Tune in tomorrow for Theater Thursday.
