IT HAPPENED HERE

While New York’s Lower Manhattan is best known as a global financial center, it has been America’s town square since the founding of the city as New Amsterdam in 1624. Virtually every aspect of global, local, national, and local significance can be traced to this downtown stage in some manner. Some aspects have been long forgotten, some have been transformative to our culture, and many have fallen in between. It Happened Here captures the multiple and overlapping stories that have been woven throughout the 400-year life of New York. It embraces America’s history along with the museums, monuments, and memorials that dot its streetscape. It highlights the concerns, events, passions, and places that the people who lived, fought, worked, and visited here found important at their moment in time.

It Happened Here seeks to excavate its many historical layers: from its inception as the precolonial Lenapehoking territory (once inhabited by the Munsee Lenape and Wappinger tribes), to the creation of New Amsterdam by the Dutch, to the establishment of the first free African settlement in North America, to the establishment of British control, to the gateway for immigration, to being the site of the American Revolution, to its present-day significance as the nation’s cultural and financial nerve-center.

What better way to commemorate New York City’s 400th anniversary and America’s 250th than to combine them into one special celebration: It Happened Here.

It Happened Here officially began on July 3, 2025, with a naturalization of 10 New Americans at America’s First Capitol: Federal Hall National Memorial. It was followed by a special July 4th weekend with 400 years into 5 days with each day being devoted to a century of the city’s life and history. There will be many more programs and events over the next year, including tours and additional content on cultureNOW’s digital “museum without walls” app.