Meghan Drueding

photo by: Chris Beagan/National Park Service Up and down the Eastern Seaboard, historic property owners love to claim that “George Washington slept here.” The hard-to-prove assertion is so common that it’s become a bit of a joke, said with a wink. But among all of the dubious links to the first president, there are many places where he actually did sleep, or at least did something historically significant.

WHY THIS PLACE? Around 1900, Hotel del Coronado co-owner Elisha Babcock Jr. established Tent City, a popular campground containing several hundred tents and cottages just south of the hotel. The group of vaudeville actors in this 1915 photo performed at Tent City, which was known for providing high-quality summer entertainment, and they clearly enjoyed their downtime on the beach. The modest (by today’s standards) bathing garments they’re wearing were common at the time.

photo by: Edmund V. Gillon Jr./Tenement Museum Collection More: Preservation Magazine By: Meghan Drueding Photography: Tenement Museum Collection As we commemorate the 250th anniversary of the United States, we honor its history as a place of opportunity for people from all over the world. One of the best ways to experience that history is to visit New York City’s Tenement Museum, a National Trust Historic Site.