Quantcast

The DNAinfo archives brought to you by WNYC.
Read the press release here.

Fraunces Tavern Museum Lowers Entry Fee to Attract More Visitors

FINANCIAL DISTRICT — One of Manhattan's oldest museums is lowering its entry fee in a bid to draw more visitors.

Adults will now pay $7, rather than $10, to tour the Fraunces Tavern Museum, which opened on Pearl Street in 1907 as a repository of Revolutionary War history.

"We want to reach everybody," said Jessica Baldwin, the museum's curator. "Now it will be more affordable for families to come."

The museum also dropped the charge for seniors and children from $5 to $4 and created a $20 family package that includes an unlimited number of children.

Baldwin said the museum made the changes not because the visitor numbers are down — so far, this is the museum's best year since 2004, she said — but rather because the museum's leaders want to help the small institution to continue growing.

Baldwin researched other lower Manhattan museums before deciding on the $7 figure, she said.

The Fraunces Tavern Museum used to charge just $4 admission for adults but bumped it up to $10 in 2009 during a special exhibit that showcased the Magna Carta. It makes sense to lower the fee now that the Magna Carta is no longer on display, Baldwin said.

The museum's landmarked former tavern is best known as the place where General George Washington bade farewell to his officers at the end of the Revolutionary War in 1783.

Today, visitors can peek into rooms restored to the colonial and federalist periods, view an exhibit of John Ward Dunsmore's historical paintings and learn about the role of New York City in the Revolutionary War.  

The Fraunces Tavern Museum, 54 Pearl St., is open seven days a week from noon to 5 p.m.