It Happened Here
July 2025 Program
Celebrating Five Centuries of
New York City’s
Lower Manhattan
The tours, events, and seminars of the It Happened Here program are still in development with our partner organizations and venues. The themes for the programs each day, and in each century, are outlined below.
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Key Themes:
The Lenapehoking Peoples
The Arrival of Henry Hudson
The Dutch: From Fort Amsterdam to New Amsterdam
Manahatta to Manhattan
The Wall of Wall Street
Peter Stuyvesant Surrenders to the English
The Creation of New York
The Treaty of Shackamaxon
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Key Themes:
Slavery in New York
The Cotton Exchange and The Ferry House
The New York Gazette: The City’s First Newspaper
The Mill Street Synagogue
St. Paul’s Chapel and the Great Fire
The Stamp Act Congress
The Battle of Golden Hill & The Revolutionary War
The First Reading of the Declaration of Independence
Evacuation Day: The British Leave NYC
The Judiciary Act of 1789
The Inauguration of George Washington
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Key Themes:
The Seaport and the Growth of the Waterfront
The Oyster Trade
Fashion and Fine Dining
The Garment Industry
Tammany Hall
NYC’s Role in Abolition and the Civil War
The Transformation of Coenties Slip
The Gilded Age
The Brooklyn Bridge
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Key Themes:
The Rise of the Skyscraper
Ellis Island and Immigration
The Creation of the Subway System
Jackie Robinson and Breaking Color Barriers
The Stock Market Crash
Automobiles, Bridges, and Tunnels
City of the Edge of Bankruptcy
A Place for Artists and Creative Industries
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Key Themes:
September 11th
Wall Street and the Global Downturn
Superstorm Sandy
The Rebirth of Lower Manhattan
New York as a Global City: The Future