There is a problem with our concept of what constituted a tavern in
America during the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.  Since
the (unlamented) downfall of Prohibition in the United States, the
term "tavern" has been associated in the popular mind with a drinking
place. Duffy's Tavern of radio drama fame comes to mind (provided the
mind is old enough to remember that show) and several local watering
holes will be called "tavern" in almost any community.

However, let's suggest that a tavern was more like a modern truck
stop and less like a modern pub.

If you look at the licensing requirements, and I've studied them only
in Delaware, the primary interest was the care of horses. Delaware
taverns were strictly regulated in terms of the prices they could
charge, and the price list clearly reflects the needs of drovers and
other commercial travellers.  Some taverns provided cattle pens for
those who were travelling with their livestock.

Around the perimeter of Wilmington, Delaware, and I presume other
market towns, were established taverns that were clearly catering to
drovers.  The one at Elam, Chester County,Pennsylvania, was well
known as a stop for men driving cattle or hauling grain down the
Concord Pike (Route 202) to market or shipment on the Christina.
South of Wilmington, the "hotel" at Hare's Corner had a cattle pen.
One other licensed tavern, of which I have seen the inventory, had
almost no goods that would reflect our concept of a tavern, as a pub
equivalent, during the period when it was licensed.

As an alternative, I would suggest that we need to look at taverns
along the feeder roads, close to market centers. I suspect that we
might find a ring of taverns situated a few hours' drive from the
market, where the drovers could stop for the night, and make that
last drive into town at daybreak. Farther out, they should be found
about a day's drive apart.

Other travellers, including George Washington and many lesser
figures, have given us descriptions of stopping at places where the
food was pretty miserable, if available at all.  Each licensed place
was required to post (and obey) price lists, but the actual quantity
or condition of the goods was not specified. So it would seem that
the authorities were more interested in stopping tavern keepers from
gouging the public, and not regulating performance. It's a little
disconcerting to think of the fellow on the front of our dollar bills
sleeping in a cold room on a bed with two or three other guys,
gnawing on a cold haunch for supper. Hey, the Hilton hadn't been
invented yet.

So, for the sake of historical accuracy, I suggest that we need to
back off from our modern preconceptions of tavern-ness, and analyse
the subject from contemporary evidence only. I say this because the
literature of taverns, even in respectable historical sources, has
been influenced by early twentieth-century romantic notions that
don't survive scrutiny.  The National Register program in its early
years didn't help when it routinely enrolled alleged taverns with
emphasis on the bar-rooms and an almost total disregard for the
stable complexes that were in fact the core of these establishments.

Food for thought ...
--
***************************  Ned Heite  ([log in to unmask])

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