Historic Places
Historic Places #2
6th Arrondissement
13, rue de l’Ancienne Comédie
Café Procope
Here in 1686, Sicilian Francesco Procopio established his café in Paris, the very first place where coffee was served to the public. A popular meeting place over the centuries for French writers, philosophers and revolutionaries, it was also patronized by John Paul Jones, Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin. Here on June 15, 1790, a memorial service to mourn Benjamin Franklin’s death was held in front of Franklin’s portrait.
40, rue du Cherche-Midi
Rochambeau's Residence
Jean-Baptiste Donatien de Vimeur, Comte of Rochambeau, Maréchal of France, was sent by King Louis XVI to command the troops that France was sending to help the American colonies. He took part in the Battle of Yorktown. In this building, still the Rochambeau residence, the officers of the French army who had served in America, gathered in 1784 to create the French chapter of the Society of Cincinnati.
56, rue Jacob
Hôtel d'York
In this building, on September 3, 1783, the representatives of the United States and the King of England signed the Treaty of Paris by which England recognized the independence of the thirteen colonies. David Hartley and Richard Oswald signed the treaty on behalf of England. The United States was represented by Benjamin Franklin, John Jay and John Adams. The treaty was ratified early in 1784 by the U.S. Congress assembled in Annapolis. The three American peace commissioners, John Jay, John Adams and Benjamin Franklin, began to negotiate a "preliminary" separate peace with the British which was signed in November 1782. The official treaty in 1783 ended the war between the "mother country" and its former colonies. The same day, in Versailles, official peace treaties were signed between England and France and England and Spain.
15, rue du Regard
This is the site of the hôtel de la Guiche, built in 1771 and occupied in 1921 by the buildings of the Crédit Municipal. There was at that time a plaque in the courtyard indicating the plan of the old hôtel de la Guiche, of which one façade had been rebuilt : the gates were those of the former hôtel. It was General John Armstrong's residence in 1808.
19, rue de Tournon
Résidence of John Paul Jones, creator of the U.S. Navy
John Paul Jones was one of the most colorful heroes of the War of Independence. Born in Scotland in 1747, he joined the Continental Navy in 1775. He was sent to raid English waters in November 1777, commanding a fleet of ships under the American flag. On September 23, 1779, he fought the great battle of his career in the North Sea and captured the fifty-gun British warship, "HMS Serapis". Back in Paris, he was welcomed as a hero.
1, rue de Vaugirard
This house was inhabited by General Armstrong during the later part of his term of office in 1810.