New York Times: Glimpses of New York City’s History Are Still Visible. Here’s Where to Look.

Anna Kodé

New York is a city of reinvention. It’s where you move if you want to start over, forget your past and create a new identity. It embraces modernity with skyscrapers and 5G towers dotting its blocks. But traces of New York’s past are still around, peeking through the pavement and glass in the forms of old streets, trees, fences and buildings.

This month saw the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, and to mark the occasion, The New York Times has identified several sites that existed around the time of America’s founding, or even earlier, that can still be seen today. They tell the story of New York — and the country — in all its beauty and ugliness.

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This tree, at the northwest corner of Washington Square Park, is one of the only living beings in the city that experienced the American Revolution. Estimated to be more than 300 years old, it’s known as a “witness tree,” said Harold Holzer, the Manhattan borough historian.

It’s often called the Hangman’s Elm, but this is likely to be a misnomer. Georgia Silvera Seamans, an urban community forester, said there was no known documentation to support that name, but “there were rumors that traitors to the Revolution were hung on the tree.”

Click here to read the full story in The New York Times.