Tavern
Encyclopedia
Alcoholic beverage
An alcoholic beverage is a drink containing ethanol, commonly known as alcohol. Alcoholic beverages are divided into three general classes: beers, wines, and spirits. They are legally consumed in most countries, and over 100 countries have laws regulating their production, sale, and consumption...
s and be served food
Food
Food is any substance consumed to provide nutritional support for the body. It is usually of plant or animal origin, and contains essential nutrients, such as carbohydrates, fats, proteins, vitamins, or minerals...
, and in some cases, where travel
Travel
Travel is the movement of people or objects between relatively distant geographical locations. 'Travel' can also include relatively short stays between successive movements.-Etymology:...
ers receive lodging
Lodging
Lodging is a type of residential accommodation. People who travel and stay away from home for more than a day need lodging for sleep, rest, safety, shelter from cold temperatures or rain, storage of luggage and access to common household functions.Lodgings may be self catering in which case no...
.
An inn is a tavern which has a license to put up guests as lodgers. The word derives from the Latin taberna
Taberna
A taberna was a single room shop covered by a barrel vault within great indoor markets of ancient Rome. Each taberna had a window above it to let light into a wooden attic for storage and had a wide doorway....
and the Greek ταβέρνα/taverna
Taverna
Taverna refers to a small restaurant serving Greek cuisine, not to be confused with "tavern". The Greek word is ταβέρνα and is originally derived from the Latin word taberna...
, whose original meaning was a shed
Shed
A shed is typically a simple, single-storey structure in a back garden or on an allotment that is used for storage, hobbies, or as a workshop....
or workshop
Workshop
A workshop is a room or building which provides both the area and tools that may be required for the manufacture or repair of manufactured goods...
. In the English language the tavern was an establishment which served wine
Wine
Wine is an alcoholic beverage, made of fermented fruit juice, usually from grapes. The natural chemical balance of grapes lets them ferment without the addition of sugars, acids, enzymes, or other nutrients. Grape wine is produced by fermenting crushed grapes using various types of yeast. Yeast...
whilst the inn
INN
InterNetNews is a Usenet news server package, originally released by Rich Salz in 1991, and presented at the Summer 1992 USENIX conference in San Antonio, Texas...
served beer
Beer
Beer is the world's most widely consumed andprobably oldest alcoholic beverage; it is the third most popular drink overall, after water and tea. It is produced by the brewing and fermentation of sugars, mainly derived from malted cereal grains, most commonly malted barley and malted wheat...
/ale
Ale
Ale is a type of beer brewed from malted barley using a warm fermentation with a strain of brewers' yeast. The yeast will ferment the beer quickly, giving it a sweet, full bodied and fruity taste...
. Over time, the words tavern and inn became interchangeable and synonymous with one another. Travelers stayed in taverns.
North America
Americans drank heavily, for rumRum
Rum is a distilled alcoholic beverage made from sugarcane by-products such as molasses, or directly from sugarcane juice, by a process of fermentation and distillation. The distillate, a clear liquid, is then usually aged in oak barrels...
was cheap. In 1770 per capita consumption was 3.7 gallons of distilled spirits per year, rising to 5.2 gallons in 1830 or approximately eight one-ounce shots a day for every adult white man,. That total does not include the beer or hard cider that colonists routinely drank in addition to rum, the most popular distilled beverage
Distilled beverage
A distilled beverage, liquor, or spirit is an alcoholic beverage containing ethanol that is produced by distilling ethanol produced by means of fermenting grain, fruit, or vegetables...
available in English America
British America
For American people of British descent, see British American.British America is the anachronistic term used to refer to the territories under the control of the Crown or Parliament in present day North America , Central America, the Caribbean, and Guyana...
. Benjamin Franklin
Benjamin Franklin
Dr. Benjamin Franklin was one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. A noted polymath, Franklin was a leading author, printer, political theorist, politician, postmaster, scientist, musician, inventor, satirist, civic activist, statesman, and diplomat...
printed a "Drinker's Dictionary" in his Pennsylvania Gazette in 1737, listing some 228 slang
Slang
Slang is the use of informal words and expressions that are not considered standard in the speaker's language or dialect but are considered more acceptable when used socially. Slang is often to be found in areas of the lexicon that refer to things considered taboo...
terms used for drunkenness
Drunkenness
Alcohol intoxication is a physiological state that occurs when a person has a high level of ethanol in his or her blood....
in Philadelphia.
The sheer volume of hard liquor consumption fell off, but beer grew in popularity and men developed customs
Customs
Customs is an authority or agency in a country responsible for collecting and safeguarding customs duties and for controlling the flow of goods including animals, transports, personal effects and hazardous items in and out of a country...
and traditions based on how to behave at the tavern. By 1900 the 26 million American men over age 18 patron
Patrón
Patrón is a luxury brand of tequila produced in Mexico and sold in hand-blown, individually numbered bottles.Made entirely from Blue Agave "piñas" , Patrón comes in five varieties: Silver, Añejo, Reposado, Gran Patrón Platinum and Gran Patrón Burdeos. Patrón also sells a tequila-coffee blend known...
ized 215,000 licensed taverns and probably 50,000 unlicensed (illegal) ones, or one per hundred men. Twice the density could be found in working class neighborhoods. They served mostly beer; bottles were available but most drinkers went to the taverns. Probably half the American men avoided saloons
Bar (establishment)
A bar is a business establishment that serves alcoholic drinks — beer, wine, liquor, and cocktails — for consumption on the premises.Bars provide stools or chairs that are placed at tables or counters for their patrons. Some bars have entertainment on a stage, such as a live band, comedians, go-go...
, so the average consumption for actual patrons was about a half-gallon of beer per day, six days a week. In 1900, the city of Boston
Boston
Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...
(with about 200,000 adult men) counted 227,000 daily saloon customers.
Colonial America to 1800
Taverns in the colonies closely followed the models of the mother country. They were supervised by countyCounty
A county is a jurisdiction of local government in certain modern nations. Historically in mainland Europe, the original French term, comté, and its equivalents in other languages denoted a jurisdiction under the sovereignty of a count A county is a jurisdiction of local government in certain...
officials who recognized the need for taverns and the need to maintain order, to minimize drunkenness
Drunkenness
Alcohol intoxication is a physiological state that occurs when a person has a high level of ethanol in his or her blood....
(and avoid it if possible on Sundays), as well as to establish the responsibilities of tavern keepers.
Earliest hotels
Larger taverns provided rooms for travelers, especially in county seats that housed the county court. Upscale taverns had a lounge with a huge fireplace, a bar at one side, plenty of benches and chairs, and several dining tables. The best houses had a separate parlor for ladies, an affable landlord, good cooking, soft, roomy beds, fires in all rooms in cold weather, and warming pans used on the beds at night. In the backwoods, the taverns were wretched hovels, dirty with vermin for company; even so they were more pleasant and safer for the stranger than camping by the roadside. Even on main highways such as the Boston Post Road, travelers routinely reported the taverns had bad food, hard beds, scanty blankets, inadequate heat, and poor service. One Sunday in 1789, General George WashingtonGeorge Washington
George Washington was the dominant military and political leader of the new United States of America from 1775 to 1799. He led the American victory over Great Britain in the American Revolutionary War as commander-in-chief of the Continental Army from 1775 to 1783, and presided over the writing of...
, was touring Connecticut; discovering that the locals discouraged travel on the Sabbath, he spent the day at Perkins Tavern, "which by the way is not a good one."
Locals
Taverns were essential for colonial Americans, especially in the South where towns hardly existed. In the taverns the colonists learned current crop prices, arranged trades, heard newspapers read aloud, and discovered business opportunities and the latest betting odds on the upcoming horse races. For most rural Americans the tavern was the chief link to the greater world, playing a role much like the city marketplace in Europe and Latin America.Taverns absorbed leisure hours and games were provided—always decks of cards, perhaps a billiards table. Horse races often began and ended at taverns, as did militia-training exercises. Cockfights were popular. At upscale taverns the gentry had private rooms or even organized a club. When politics was in season, or the county court was meeting, political talk filled the taverns.
Taverns served multiple functions on the Southern colonial frontier. Society in Rowan County, North Carolina, was divided along lines of ethnicity, gender, race, and class, but in taverns the boundaries often overlapped, as diverse groups were brought together at nearby tables. Consumerism in the backcountry was limited not by ideology or culture but by distance from markets and poor transportation. The increasing variety of drinks served and the development of clubs indicates that genteel culture spread rapidly from London to the periphery of the English world.
Business
In the colonial era, about two-thirds of the taverns were operated by women—especially widows. Local magistrates—who had to award a license before a tavern could operate—preferred widows who knew the business and might otherwise be impoverished and become a charge to the county. Women and children were not, however, welcome as fellow drinkers. The drinkers were men—and indeed often defined their manliness by how much they could drink at a time.Meeting place and community center
Many early governments met in local taverns. From 1660-1665 the Virginia government met in JamestownJamestown, Virginia
Jamestown was a settlement in the Colony of Virginia. Established by the Virginia Company of London as "James Fort" on May 14, 1607 , it was the first permanent English settlement in what is now the United States, following several earlier failed attempts, including the Lost Colony of Roanoke...
at the local taverns. From 1749 to 1779, the Mosby Tavern
Mosby Tavern
Mosby Tavern, also called Old Cumberland Courthouse or Littleberry Mosby House, is a National Register of Historic Places building in Powhatan County, Virginia. Located southeast of the intersection of U.S...
was the courthouse
Courthouse
A courthouse is a building that is home to a local court of law and often the regional county government as well, although this is not the case in some larger cities. The term is common in North America. In most other English speaking countries, buildings which house courts of law are simply...
, jail
Jail
A jail is a short-term detention facility in the United States and Canada.Jail may also refer to:In entertainment:*Jail , a 1966 Malayalam movie*Jail , a 2009 Bollywood movie...
, and militia
Militia (United States)
The role of militia, also known as military service and duty, in the United States is complex and has transformed over time.Spitzer, Robert J.: The Politics of Gun Control, Page 36. Chatham House Publishers, Inc., 1995. " The term militia can be used to describe any number of groups within the...
rendezvous for Cumberland County, Virginia
Cumberland County, Virginia
As of the census of 2000, there were 9,017 people, 3,528 households, and 2,487 families residing in the county. The population density was 30 people per square mile . There were 4,085 housing units at an average density of 14 per square mile...
and later for Powhatan County, Virginia
Powhatan County, Virginia
As of the census of 2000, there were 22,377 people, 7,258 households, and 5,900 families residing in the county. The population density was 86 people per square mile . There were 7,509 housing units at an average density of 29 per square mile...
. Gifford Dalley
Gifford Dalley
Gifford Dalley was a United States House of Representatives officer from 1789 to 1795. He served as the House Doorkeeper for the First, Second, and Third United States Congresses...
managed City Tavern
City Tavern
The City Tavern is a historic building located at 138 South 2nd Street, at the intersection of Second and Walnut Streets of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Called the "most genteel tavern in America" by John Adams, it was the favorite meeting place of many of the Founding Fathers and was the unofficial...
when the First Continental Congress
First Continental Congress
The First Continental Congress was a convention of delegates from twelve of the thirteen North American colonies that met on September 5, 1774, at Carpenters' Hall in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, early in the American Revolution. It was called in response to the passage of the Coercive Acts by the...
was formed there and in documents he is cited and styled as the keeper of the door for the First Continental Congress. Interestingly, Daily’s brother- in-law Samuel Fraunces
Samuel Fraunces
Samuel Fraunces was the owner/operator of Fraunces Tavern in New York City. During the American Revolution, he provided for prisoners held during the British occupation, and may have been a spy for the American side...
owned Fraunces Tavern
Fraunces Tavern
Fraunces Tavern is a tavern, restaurant and museum housed in a conjectural reconstruction of a building that played a prominent role in pre-Revolution and American Revolution history. The building, located at 54 Pearl Street at the corner of Broad Street, has been owned by Sons of the Revolution in...
in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
and Congress met there while City Hall was under construction. The last time Congress met at a tavern it was at Fraunces Tavern. Tun Tavern
Tun Tavern
Tun Tavern was a tavern in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania which served as a founding or early meeting place for a number of notable groups. It is traditionally regarded as the site where the United States Marine Corps held its first recruitment drive...
Philadelphia was the place where the U.S. Marines were first formed. Neither place still exists. City Tavern
City Tavern
The City Tavern is a historic building located at 138 South 2nd Street, at the intersection of Second and Walnut Streets of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Called the "most genteel tavern in America" by John Adams, it was the favorite meeting place of many of the Founding Fathers and was the unofficial...
in Philadelphia where the Continental Congress
Continental Congress
The Continental Congress was a convention of delegates called together from the Thirteen Colonies that became the governing body of the United States during the American Revolution....
first met is still in operation.
Mail stop and post office
Many were also the local post office and or the polling place. The United States Postal ServiceUnited States Postal Service
The United States Postal Service is an independent agency of the United States government responsible for providing postal service in the United States...
had its origins in the private taverns and coffeehouse
Coffeehouse
A coffeehouse or coffee shop is an establishment which primarily serves prepared coffee or other hot beverages. It shares some of the characteristics of a bar, and some of the characteristics of a restaurant, but it is different from a cafeteria. As the name suggests, coffeehouses focus on...
s of America.
A depiction of Civil War troops reading their mail at the Eagle Tavern which doubled as the post office in Silver Spring, Maryland
Silver Spring, Maryland
Silver Spring is an unincorporated area and census-designated place in Montgomery County, Maryland, United States. It had a population of 71,452 at the 2010 census, making it the fourth most populous place in Maryland, after Baltimore, Columbia, and Germantown.The urbanized, oldest, and...
can be seen at the Silver Spring Library. The Old Post Office Tavern is in operation today in Leavenworth, Washington. Old Kelley’s Tavern in New Hampshire is a multifunctional tavern. Colonel William B. Kelley of New Hampshire operated a tavern and was the Postmaster General for New Hampshire. The mail came and went from his home. The Hanover Tavern in Hanover County, Virginia
Hanover County, Virginia
As of the census of 2000, there were 86,320 people, 31,121 households, and 24,461 families residing in the county. The population density was 183 people per square mile . There were 32,196 housing units at an average density of 68 per square mile...
is another tavern which also operated as the post office. The General Wayne Inn
General Wayne Inn
The General Wayne Inn located at 625 Montgomery Ave in Merion, Pennsylvania is a tavern on the National Register of Historic Places. Established in 1704, it was previously named the William Penn Inn, Wayside Inn, Tunis Ordinary, and Streepers Tavern before being renamed in 1793 honor of General...
in Lower Merion Pennsylvania also served as a post office from 1830–1850 and was also the polling place in 1806.
Oldest taverns
The oldest tavern is a distinction claimed by numerous establishments. Some establishments clarify their claims with oldest continuously operating tavern, oldest family-owned tavern, oldest drinking establishment, or oldest licensed; there are many ways to distinguish the oldest tavern. The first tavern in Boston, Massachusetts was a PuritanPuritan
The Puritans were a significant grouping of English Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries. Puritanism in this sense was founded by some Marian exiles from the clergy shortly after the accession of Elizabeth I of England in 1558, as an activist movement within the Church of England...
ordinary
Public house
A public house, informally known as a pub, is a drinking establishment fundamental to the culture of Britain, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand. There are approximately 53,500 public houses in the United Kingdom. This number has been declining every year, so that nearly half of the smaller...
, opened in 1633.
The White Horse Tavern, in Newport, Rhode Island
Newport, Rhode Island
Newport is a city on Aquidneck Island in Newport County, Rhode Island, United States, about south of Providence. Known as a New England summer resort and for the famous Newport Mansions, it is the home of Salve Regina University and Naval Station Newport which houses the United States Naval War...
, is most likely the Tavern housed in the oldest building. The Blue Anchor was the first drinking establishment at Front and Dock Streets in Philadelphia. Jean Lafitte
Jean Lafitte
Jean Lafitte was a pirate and privateer in the Gulf of Mexico in the early 19th century. He and his elder brother, Pierre, spelled their last name Laffite, but English-language documents of the time used "Lafitte", and this is the commonly seen spelling in the United States, including for places...
's Black Smith Shoppe in New Orleans, Louisiana
New Orleans, Louisiana
New Orleans is a major United States port and the largest city and metropolitan area in the state of Louisiana. The New Orleans metropolitan area has a population of 1,235,650 as of 2009, the 46th largest in the USA. The New Orleans – Metairie – Bogalusa combined statistical area has a population...
some claim to be the oldest bar continuously operating before 1775. Lafitte himself was born in 1776.
New York City
Perhaps the most famous American tavern is Fraunces TavernFraunces Tavern
Fraunces Tavern is a tavern, restaurant and museum housed in a conjectural reconstruction of a building that played a prominent role in pre-Revolution and American Revolution history. The building, located at 54 Pearl Street at the corner of Broad Street, has been owned by Sons of the Revolution in...
, corner of Broad and Pearl streets in lower Manhattan. Originally built as a residence in 1719, it was opened as a tavern by Samuel Fraunces in 1762, and became a popular gathering place. Fraunces Tavern was the site of merchants' meetings on the post-1763 taxes, plots by the Sons of Liberty
Sons of Liberty
The Sons of Liberty were a political group made up of American patriots that originated in the pre-independence North American British colonies. The group was formed to protect the rights of the colonists from the usurpations by the British government after 1766...
, entertainments for British and Loyalist
Loyalist (American Revolution)
Loyalists were American colonists who remained loyal to the Kingdom of Great Britain during the American Revolutionary War. At the time they were often called Tories, Royalists, or King's Men. They were opposed by the Patriots, those who supported the revolution...
officers during the Revolution. In its Long Room, on Dec. 4, 1783, General George Washington said farewell to his officers.
Kaplan (1995) proposes an escalation of tavern violence in antebellum New York City as a manifestation of a developing working-class male identity. This was due to the rapid growth of taverns, and their roles as centers of working-class social life. Brawling fostered a male identity that was centered on physical courage, independence, and class pride. Irish and German influences contributed to the violence, as did racial and ethnic prejudice. Sexual assaults against women increased because women were working in factories and more exposed to these dangers in the city. (Male-on-male violence was common inside the tavern; rapes happened outside or around the back.) Women were regarded as depersonalized objects, and gang rapes were viewed as a form of male bonding.
New England
The heavy Puritan heritage of New England meant that local government was strong enough to regulate—and close—rowdy places. But the power of ministers faded, and by the 1720s provincial leaders recognized that they could not eradicate hard drinking in taverns. From that point until after the American Revolution, the tavern was a widely accepted institution in Massachusetts.Between 1697 and 1756 Elizabeth Harvey, followed by her daughter-in-law Ann Harvey Slayton, operated a successful tavern in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Their careers reveal the public acceptance of female management and authority within the confines of the tavern. Under Harvey, the tavern became a mail stop and began hosting General Assembly and executive committee meetings. After Slayton took over, the tavern held town meetings, supplied necessities to the poor for which the town gave reimbursement, and provided accommodations for the provincial government, courts, and legislative committees.
Germania (German-America)
In Germania, (the German-American districts of cities) a beer culture flourished in 19th-century America in taverns, saloons, and especially beer-gardensBeer garden
Beer garden is an open-air area where beer, other drinks and local food are served. The concept originates from and is most common in Southern Germany...
which operated on Sundays and attracted entire families. Avoiding hard whiskey, the Germans favored beer and wine, and had far less of a problem with alcoholism. Germans operated nearly all of the nation's breweries, and demand remained high, until prohibition
Prohibition in the United States
Prohibition in the United States was a national ban on the sale, manufacture, and transportation of alcohol, in place from 1920 to 1933. The ban was mandated by the Eighteenth Amendment to the Constitution, and the Volstead Act set down the rules for enforcing the ban, as well as defining which...
arrived in 1920. German-American newspapers promoted temperance but not abstinence
Abstinence
Abstinence is a voluntary restraint from indulging in bodily activities that are widely experienced as giving pleasure. Most frequently, the term refers to sexual abstinence, or abstention from alcohol or food. The practice can arise from religious prohibitions or practical...
. From the German perspective the issue was less the ill effects of alcohol than its benefits in promoting social life. For American Germans, the beer garden stood alongside the church as one of the two pillars of German social and spiritual life.
Ethnic saloons
In ethnic neighborhoods of cities, mill towns and mining camps, the saloonkeeper was an important man. Groups of 25-50 recent arrivals speaking the same language—and probably also from the same province or village back in Europe—drank together and frequented the same saloon. They trusted the saloonkeeper to translate and write letters for them, help with transatlantic letters and remittances, keep their savings for them, and explain American laws and customs.Dangerous criminal haunts
- Cedar House, was a combination tavern, bankBankA bank is a financial institution that serves as a financial intermediary. The term "bank" may refer to one of several related types of entities:...
, and, fencing operationFence (criminal)A fence is an individual who knowingly buys stolen property for later resale, sometimes in a legitimate market. The fence thus acts as a middleman between thieves and the eventual buyers of stolen goods who may or may not be aware that the goods are stolen. As a verb, the word describes the...
, operated by counterfeiterCounterfeit moneyCounterfeit money is currency that is produced without the legal sanction of the state or government to resemble some official form of currency closely enough that it may be confused for genuine currency. Producing or using counterfeit money is a form of fraud or forgery. Counterfeiting is probably...
Philip AlstonPhilip AlstonPhilip G. Alston is an international law scholar and human rights practitioner. He is John Norton Pomeroy Professor of Law at New York University School of Law, and co-Chair of the law school's Center for Human Rights and Global Justice...
in Russellville, KentuckyRussellville, KentuckyAs of the census of 2000, there were 7,149 people, 3,064 households, and 1,973 families residing in the city. The population density was 672.1 people per square mile . There were 3,458 housing units at an average density of 325.1 per square mile...
. - Mason's Bottom Tavern, a tavern operated by future outlawOutlawIn historical legal systems, an outlaw is declared as outside the protection of the law. In pre-modern societies, this takes the burden of active prosecution of a criminal from the authorities. Instead, the criminal is withdrawn all legal protection, so that anyone is legally empowered to persecute...
Samuel MasonSamuel MasonSamuel Mason or Meason was a Revolutionary War militia captain on the frontier, who following the war, became the leader of a gang of river pirates and highwaymen on the lower Ohio River and the Mississippi River in the late 18th and early 19th centuries...
in Wheeling, VirginiaWheeling, West VirginiaWheeling is a city in Ohio and Marshall counties in the U.S. state of West Virginia; it is the county seat of Ohio County. Wheeling is the principal city of the Wheeling Metropolitan Statistical Area...
, was a training ground for his later, criminal headquarters at Cave-In-Rock. - Cave-In-Rock is a massive shelter caveCaveA cave or cavern is a natural underground space large enough for a human to enter. The term applies to natural cavities some part of which is in total darkness. The word cave also includes smaller spaces like rock shelters, sea caves, and grottos.Speleology is the science of exploration and study...
, in IllinoisIllinoisIllinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...
, which was used as a combination tavern, gambling denCasinoIn modern English, a casino is a facility which houses and accommodates certain types of gambling activities. Casinos are most commonly built near or combined with hotels, restaurants, retail shopping, cruise ships or other tourist attractions...
, brothelBrothelBrothels are business establishments where patrons can engage in sexual activities with prostitutes. Brothels are known under a variety of names, including bordello, cathouse, knocking shop, whorehouse, strumpet house, sporting house, house of ill repute, house of prostitution, and bawdy house...
, and criminal refuge, by Samuel MasonSamuel MasonSamuel Mason or Meason was a Revolutionary War militia captain on the frontier, who following the war, became the leader of a gang of river pirates and highwaymen on the lower Ohio River and the Mississippi River in the late 18th and early 19th centuries...
and Bully Wilson, to lure in, rob, and kill unsuspecting river travelTravelTravel is the movement of people or objects between relatively distant geographical locations. 'Travel' can also include relatively short stays between successive movements.-Etymology:...
ers on the Ohio RiverOhio RiverThe Ohio River is the largest tributary, by volume, of the Mississippi River. At the confluence, the Ohio is even bigger than the Mississippi and, thus, is hydrologically the main stream of the whole river system, including the Allegheny River further upstream...
. - Murrell Tavern, a combination tavern, brothelBrothelBrothels are business establishments where patrons can engage in sexual activities with prostitutes. Brothels are known under a variety of names, including bordello, cathouse, knocking shop, whorehouse, strumpet house, sporting house, house of ill repute, house of prostitution, and bawdy house...
and thieves’ marketFence (criminal)A fence is an individual who knowingly buys stolen property for later resale, sometimes in a legitimate market. The fence thus acts as a middleman between thieves and the eventual buyers of stolen goods who may or may not be aware that the goods are stolen. As a verb, the word describes the...
, was operated by the mother of outlaw, John A. MurrellJohn Murrell (bandit)John A. Murrell , a near-legendary bandit operating in the United States along the Mississippi River in the mid-nineteenth century...
in Williamson County, TennesseeWilliamson County, TennesseeWilliamson County is a county in the U.S. state of Tennessee. As of 2010 US Census, the population was 183,182. The County's seat is Franklin, and it is part of the Nashville-Davidson–Murfreesboro–Franklin Metropolitan Statistical Area. The county is named after Hugh Williamson, a...
. - Potts InnCave-In-Rock, IllinoisCave-In-Rock is a village in Hardin County, Illinois, United States. Its principal feature and attraction is a large nearby cave on the banks of the Ohio River. Cave-in-Rock was originally a stronghold for outlaws including; river pirates and highwaymen, Samuel Mason and James Ford, tavern...
, of Isaiah L. Potts, was supposedly, used to lure travelTravelTravel is the movement of people or objects between relatively distant geographical locations. 'Travel' can also include relatively short stays between successive movements.-Etymology:...
ers to be robbedRobberyRobbery is the crime of taking or attempting to take something of value by force or threat of force or by putting the victim in fear. At common law, robbery is defined as taking the property of another, with the intent to permanently deprive the person of that property, by means of force or fear....
and killed, in the region of Cave-In-Rock, IllinoisCave-In-Rock, IllinoisCave-In-Rock is a village in Hardin County, Illinois, United States. Its principal feature and attraction is a large nearby cave on the banks of the Ohio River. Cave-in-Rock was originally a stronghold for outlaws including; river pirates and highwaymen, Samuel Mason and James Ford, tavern...
. - Wayside Inn or "Devil's Inn," operated by the serial killers, the Bloody BendersBloody BendersThe Bloody Benders were a family of serial killers who owned a small general store and inn in Osage township, Labette County, Kansas from 1872 to 1873. The inn was a dingy place called the Wayside Inn. The alleged family consisted of John Bender, his wife Kate, son John Jr. and daughter Kate...
, was a small general storeGeneral storeA general store, general merchandise store, or village shop is a rural or small town store that carries a general line of merchandise. It carries a broad selection of merchandise, sometimes in a small space, where people from the town and surrounding rural areas come to purchase all their general...
and roadside tavern, in Osage Township, Labette County, KansasLabette County, KansasLabette County is a county located in southeast Kansas, in the Central United States. As of the 2010 census, the county population was 21,607. Its county seat is Oswego, and its most populous city is Parsons...
.
Speakeasies
The "speakeasy" (or "blind pig") was an illegal bar operated during prohibition (1920–33, and even longer in some states). Most taverns stopped serving alcohol. Drinkers found out-of-the-way speakeasies that would serve them. The owners had to buy illegal beer and liquor from criminal syndicates (the most famous was run by Al CaponeAl Capone
Alphonse Gabriel "Al" Capone was an American gangster who led a Prohibition-era crime syndicate. The Chicago Outfit, which subsequently became known as the "Capones", was dedicated to smuggling and bootlegging liquor, and other illegal activities such as prostitution, in Chicago from the early...
in Chicago), and had to pay off the police to look the other way. The result was an overall decrease in drinking and an enormous increase organized crime, gang warfare and civic corruption, as well as a decline in tax revenue. Prohibition was repealed in 1933 and legitimate places reopened.
See Prohibition in the United States#Crime and Repeal
Canada
Roberts (2008) shows that in Upper CanadaUpper Canada
The Province of Upper Canada was a political division in British Canada established in 1791 by the British Empire to govern the central third of the lands in British North America and to accommodate Loyalist refugees from the United States of America after the American Revolution...
(Ontario) in the early 19th century, there was an informal ritual at work that tavern keepers and patrons followed. For example, the barroom were reserved for men but adjacent rooms were places where women could meet, families could come, and female sociability flourish. Meanwhile the local men and visitors such as travelers, doctors, tradespeople, and artists could express their views
on topics of general interest.
Occasionally heated arguments would break into fights between religious or ethnic groups. Despite efforts by social reformers to regulate taverns in Ontario, Canada, physical violence linked to drinking was common. Indeed, 19th-century masculinity, derived from earlier models of fur traders in the region, was often predicated on feats of strength and stamina and on skill in fighting. Taverns were the most common public gathering place for males of the working class and thus the site of frequent confrontations. Men's honor and men's bodies, socially and historically linked, found public, and often destructive, expression in the tavern setting.
The term "tavern" was regularly used in Ontario, Canada until the mid 1980s, when it disappeared, having been replaced with the word "bar", for almost any restaurant type of facility that sold alcohol.
Britain
The word tavern is no longer in popular use in the UK as there is no distinction between a tavern and an inn. Both establishments serve wine and both serve beer/ale. The term 'pub' (an abbreviation of 'public house') is now used to describe these houses. The legacy of taverns and inns is now only found in the pub names, e.g. The New Inn.The range and quality of pubs varies wildly throughout the UK as does the range of beers, wines, spirits and foods available. Most quality pubs will still serve cask ales and good food. In recent years there has been a move towards 'top-end' pubs where the food is of a very high quality. These pubs are usually found in rural areas and are referred to as gastro pubs.
Pubs are still popular meeting places but they are declining in popularity. It is widely reported in the UK that many pubs are closing each week. Popular consensus attributes this to economic conditions, the inexpensive sales of alcohol in supermarkets, and the banning of smoking in public places.
France
Until the late 18th century, the only places for common people to eat out were inns and taverns.After 1500, taxes on wine and other alcoholic beverages grew increasingly more burdensome, not only because of the continual increase in the level of taxation, but also because of the bewildering variety and multiplicity of the taxes. This chaotic system was enforced by an army of tax collectors. The resultant opposition took many forms. Wine growers and tavern keepers concealed wine and falsified their methods of selling it to take advantage of lower tax rates. The retailers also engaged in clandestine refilling of casks from hidden stocks. Wine merchants stealthily circumvented inspection stations to avoid local import duties. When apprehended, some defrauders reacted with passive resignation, while others resorted to violence. Situated at the heart of the country town or village, the tavern was one of the traditional centers of social and political life before 1789, a meeting place for both the local population and travelers passing through and a refuge for rogues and scoundrels. Taverns symbolized opposition to the regime and to religion.
Taverns sometimes served as restaurants. In 1765 in Paris was founded the first restaurant in the modern sense of the term. However, the first Parisian restaurant worthy of the name was the one founded by Beauvilliers in 1782 in the Rue de Richelieu, called the Grande Taverne de Londres. See Restaurant
Restaurant
A restaurant is an establishment which prepares and serves food and drink to customers in return for money. Meals are generally served and eaten on premises, but many restaurants also offer take-out and food delivery services...
Emile Zola
Émile Zola
Émile François Zola was a French writer, the most important exemplar of the literary school of naturalism and an important contributor to the development of theatrical naturalism...
's novel L'Assommoir ["The tavern"] (1877) depicted the social conditions typical of alcoholism in Paris among the working classes. The drunk destroyed not only his own body, but also his employment, his family, and other interpersonal relationships. The characters Gervaise Macquart and her husband Coupeau exemplified with great realism the physical and moral degradation of alcoholics. Zola's correspondence with physicians reveal he used authentic medical sources for his realistic depictions in the novel.
Italy
In Italy, in the agricultural region of the southern Veneto, 1848–1875, taverns in the small towns were gathering places where the sharecroppers and tenant farmers learned of socialist and anarchist ideas, and formed groups to fight for independence from Austrian rule. Certain cafés were identified with the political ideas of their regular customers.Germany
Drinking practices in 16th-century Augsburg, Germany, suggest that the use of alcohol in early modern Germany followed carefully structured cultural norms. Drinking was not a sign of insecurity and disorder. It helped define and enhance men's social status and was therefore tolerated among men as long as they lived up to both the rules and norms of tavern society and the demands of their role as householder. Tavern doors were closed to respectable women unaccompanied by their husbands, and society condemned drunkenness among women, but when alcohol abuse interfered with the household, women could deploy public power to impose limits on men's drinking behavior.Scandinavia
Scandinavia had very high drinking rates, which led to the formation of a powerful prohibition movement in the 19th century. Magnusson (1986) explains why consumption of spirits was so high in a typical preindustrial village (Eskilstuna)in Sweden, 1820-50. An economic feature of this town of blacksmiths was based on the Verlag, or outwork production system, was its complex network of credit relationships. The tavern played a crucial role in cultural and business life and was also the place where work and leisure were fused. Heavy drinking facilitated the creation of community relationships in which artisans and workers sought security. Buying drinks rather than saving money was a rational strategy when, before adjustment to a cash economy, it was essential to raise one's esteem with fellow craftsmen to whom one could turn for favors in preference to the Verlag capitalist.Mexico
Reformers who denounced the terrible effects of heavy consumption of alcohol on public disorder, health, and quality of work, made periodic attempts to control it in Mexico CityMexico City
Mexico City is the Federal District , capital of Mexico and seat of the federal powers of the Mexican Union. It is a federal entity within Mexico which is not part of any one of the 31 Mexican states but belongs to the federation as a whole...
in the late 18th century and early 19th century. The poor frequented the pulcherías where pulque
Pulque
Pulque, or octli, is a milk-colored, somewhat viscous alcoholic beverage made from the fermented sap of the maguey plant, and is a traditional native beverage of Mexico. The drink’s history extends far back into the Mesoamerican period, when it was considered sacred, and its use was limited to...
, made from the maguey plant, was sold. After the legalization of the more potent aguardiende
Aguardiente
Aguardiente , aiguardent , aguardente , and augardente are generic terms for alcoholic beverages that contain between 29% and 60% alcohol by volume...
in 1796, the poor could also afford the viñaterías where hard liquor was served, and drunkenness increased. The taverns played an important social and recreational role in the lives of the poor. Influential citizens often owned the pulcherías and opposed reform as did owners of the maguey haciendas. Tax revenues from alcohol were important to the government. These factors, added to lax enforcement of the laws, resulted in the failure of tavern reform.
Australia
"WowserWowser
Wowser was originally a slang expression, most commonly heard in Australian and New Zealand English. It originated in Australia, at first carrying a similar meaning to 'lout', i.e. an annoying or disruptive person, or even a prostitute. In around 1900 it shifted to its present meaning: one whose...
" was a negative term for Christian moralists in Australia, especially activists in temperance groups such as the Woman's Christian Temperance Union
Woman's Christian Temperance Union
The Woman's Christian Temperance Union was the first mass organization among women devoted to social reform with a program that "linked the religious and the secular through concerted and far-reaching reform strategies based on applied Christianity." Originally organized on December 23, 1873, in...
. Historian Stuart Macintyre argues, "the achievements of the wowsers were impressive." They passed laws that restricted obscenity and juvenile smoking, raised the age of consent, limited gambling, closed down many pubs, and in 1915-16 established a 6pm closing hour for pubs, which lasted for decades.
Notable taverns/inns
- Catamount TavernCatamount TavernThe Catamount Tavern was a tavern in Old Bennington, Vermont, USA. Originally known as Fay’s House, it is marked now by a granite and copper statue placed in 1896. It was built 1769 and burned in 1871...
, birthplace of the Green Mountain BoysGreen Mountain BoysThe Green Mountain Boys were a militia organization first established in the 1760s in the territory between the British provinces of New York and New Hampshire, known as the New Hampshire Grants... - City TavernCity TavernThe City Tavern is a historic building located at 138 South 2nd Street, at the intersection of Second and Walnut Streets of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Called the "most genteel tavern in America" by John Adams, it was the favorite meeting place of many of the Founding Fathers and was the unofficial...
oldest and last remaining, Federal-periodFederal architectureFederal-style architecture is the name for the classicizing architecture built in the United States between c. 1780 and 1830, and particularly from 1785 to 1815. This style shares its name with its era, the Federal Period. The name Federal style is also used in association with furniture design...
tavern in Washington D.C. and homeHomeA home is a place of residence or refuge. When it refers to a building, it is usually a place in which an individual or a family can rest and store personal property. Most modern-day households contain sanitary facilities and a means of preparing food. Animals have their own homes as well, either...
of City Tavern ClubCity Tavern ClubThe City Tavern Club is a private club in the Georgetown area of Washington, D.C., USA. It is housed in the City Tavern, one of the oldest buildings and the last remaining Federal-period tavern in the city.-City Tavern Association:...
in Georgetown - Fraunces TavernFraunces TavernFraunces Tavern is a tavern, restaurant and museum housed in a conjectural reconstruction of a building that played a prominent role in pre-Revolution and American Revolution history. The building, located at 54 Pearl Street at the corner of Broad Street, has been owned by Sons of the Revolution in...
, meeting place of the Sons of LibertySons of LibertyThe Sons of Liberty were a political group made up of American patriots that originated in the pre-independence North American British colonies. The group was formed to protect the rights of the colonists from the usurpations by the British government after 1766... - Gadsy's Tavern, historic culturalCultureCulture is a term that has many different inter-related meanings. For example, in 1952, Alfred Kroeber and Clyde Kluckhohn compiled a list of 164 definitions of "culture" in Culture: A Critical Review of Concepts and Definitions...
center of Alexandria, VirginiaAlexandria, VirginiaAlexandria is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia. As of 2009, the city had a total population of 139,966. Located along the Western bank of the Potomac River, Alexandria is approximately six miles south of downtown Washington, D.C.Like the rest of northern Virginia, as well as... - Green Dragon TavernGreen Dragon TavernGreen Dragon Tavern was a public house used as a tavern and meeting place located on Union Street in Boston's North End.A petition for a license to sell "strong drink" at the Green Dragon was presented in 1714. The property had been inherited by Mehitable Cooper from her father, William Stoughton,...
, meeting place of the Sons of LibertySons of LibertyThe Sons of Liberty were a political group made up of American patriots that originated in the pre-independence North American British colonies. The group was formed to protect the rights of the colonists from the usurpations by the British government after 1766... - Grinder's StandGrinder's StandGrinder's Stand was a stand, or inn, located on the historic Natchez Trace. A replica can be visited today at the Meriwether Lewis Park, located on the Natchez Trace Parkway in Lewis County, Tennessee, south of Nashville, southwest of Columbia, and east of Hohenwald, Tennessee.The inn is known as...
, tavern where Meriwether LewisMeriwether LewisMeriwether Lewis was an American explorer, soldier, and public administrator, best known for his role as the leader of the Lewis and Clark Expedition also known as the Corps of Discovery, with William Clark...
died in Lewis County, Tennessee - Little Bohemia LodgeLittle Bohemia LodgeThe Little Bohemia Lodge in Manitowish Waters, Wisconsin was the site of the 1934 gun battle between John Dillinger and his gang, and Melvin Purvis and the FBI. The Lodge was built in 1927, suffered a fire in 1928, and was rebuilt in 1930...
, inn of the shootoutShootoutA shootout is a gun battle between armed groups. A shootout often, but not necessarily, pits law enforcement against criminal elements; it could also involve two groups outside of law enforcement, such as rival gangs. A shootout in a military context A shootout is a gun battle between armed groups....
, between bank robber John DillingerJohn DillingerJohn Herbert Dillinger, Jr. was an American bank robber in Depression-era United States. He was charged with, but never convicted of, the murder of an East Chicago, Indiana police officer during a shoot-out. This was his only alleged homicide. His gang robbed two dozen banks and four police stations...
and the FBI, in Manitowish Waters, WisconsinManitowish Waters, WisconsinManitowish Waters is a town in Vilas County, Wisconsin, United States. The population was 646 at the 2000 census. The unincorporated community of Manitowish Waters is located in the town.-Tourism:The town is best known for its chain of lakes... - McFarland Tavern oldest continuously-operating hotelHotelA hotel is an establishment that provides paid lodging on a short-term basis. The provision of basic accommodation, in times past, consisting only of a room with a bed, a cupboard, a small table and a washstand has largely been replaced by rooms with modern facilities, including en-suite bathrooms...
in IllinoisIllinoisIllinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,... - Pre-Emption House, oldest hotel west of ChicagoChicagoChicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
, in Naperville, IllinoisNaperville, IllinoisNaperville is a city in DuPage and Will Counties in Illinois in the United States, voted the second best place to live in the United States by Money Magazine in 2006. As of the 2010 census, the city had a total population of 141,853. It is the fifth largest city in the state, behind Chicago,... - Rutledge Tavern, frontier meeting place of Abraham LincolnAbraham LincolnAbraham Lincoln was the 16th President of the United States, serving from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. He successfully led his country through a great constitutional, military and moral crisis – the American Civil War – preserving the Union, while ending slavery, and...
's youth in New Salem, Illinois - Sauganash Tavern, Chicago's first hotel
- Suter's TavernSuter's TavernSuter's Tavern, also known officially as The Fountain Inn, was a tavern located in Georgetown, which later became part of Washington, D.C., and it served as Georgetown's best-known hostelry until the emergence of several newer taverns in the 1790s....
, Federal-periodFederal architectureFederal-style architecture is the name for the classicizing architecture built in the United States between c. 1780 and 1830, and particularly from 1785 to 1815. This style shares its name with its era, the Federal Period. The name Federal style is also used in association with furniture design...
tavern in Georgetown, Washington D.C. - Tun TavernTun TavernTun Tavern was a tavern in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania which served as a founding or early meeting place for a number of notable groups. It is traditionally regarded as the site where the United States Marine Corps held its first recruitment drive...
, birthplace of U.S. Marine Corps - Wayside InnWayside InnThe Wayside Inn is an historic landmark inn located in Sudbury, Massachusetts, in the USA. The inn is still in operation, offering a restaurant, historically accurate guest rooms, and hosting for small receptions. It is reputedly the oldest operating inn in the country, opening as Howe's Tavern in...
, AmericaUnited StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
's oldest operating hotel, which started as Howe's Tavern in Sudbury, MassachusettsSudbury, MassachusettsSudbury is a town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States, population 17,659. The town was incorporated in 1639, with the original boundaries including what is now Wayland. Wayland split from Sudbury in 1780. When first incorporated, it included and parts of Framingham, Marlborough, Stow... - Windsor Tavern, birthplace of VermontVermontVermont is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. The state ranks 43rd in land area, , and 45th in total area. Its population according to the 2010 census, 630,337, is the second smallest in the country, larger only than Wyoming. It is the only New England...
's first constitutionConstitutionA constitution is a set of fundamental principles or established precedents according to which a state or other organization is governed. These rules together make up, i.e. constitute, what the entity is...
al governmentGovernmentGovernment refers to the legislators, administrators, and arbitrators in the administrative bureaucracy who control a state at a given time, and to the system of government by which they are organized...
See also
- BarBar (establishment)A bar is a business establishment that serves alcoholic drinks — beer, wine, liquor, and cocktails — for consumption on the premises.Bars provide stools or chairs that are placed at tables or counters for their patrons. Some bars have entertainment on a stage, such as a live band, comedians, go-go...
- IzakayaIzakayaAn is a type of Japanese drinking establishment which also serves food to accompany the drinks. They are popular, casual places for after-work drinking.-Name:...
- Public housePublic houseA public house, informally known as a pub, is a drinking establishment fundamental to the culture of Britain, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand. There are approximately 53,500 public houses in the United Kingdom. This number has been declining every year, so that nearly half of the smaller...
- ProhibitionProhibitionProhibition of alcohol, often referred to simply as prohibition, is the practice of prohibiting the manufacture, transportation, import, export, sale, and consumption of alcohol and alcoholic beverages. The term can also apply to the periods in the histories of the countries during which the...
- Prohibition in the United StatesProhibition in the United StatesProhibition in the United States was a national ban on the sale, manufacture, and transportation of alcohol, in place from 1920 to 1933. The ban was mandated by the Eighteenth Amendment to the Constitution, and the Volstead Act set down the rules for enforcing the ban, as well as defining which...
- Woman's Christian Temperance UnionWoman's Christian Temperance UnionThe Woman's Christian Temperance Union was the first mass organization among women devoted to social reform with a program that "linked the religious and the secular through concerted and far-reaching reform strategies based on applied Christianity." Originally organized on December 23, 1873, in...
- Tavern clock http://www.quinnipiac.edu/other/ABL/etext/stagetavern/chp1.html
Europe
- Brennan, Thomas. Public Drinking and Popular Culture in Eighteenth Century Paris (1988),
- Clark, Peter. The English Alehouse: A Social History, 1200-1800 (1983).
North America
- Conroy, David W. In Public Houses: Drink and the Revolution of Authority in Colonial Massachusetts (1995)
- Duis, Perry. The saloon: public drinking in Chicago and Boston, 1880-1920? (1975) 416 pages; wide-ranging scholarly history excerpt and text search
- Earle, Alice Morse. Stage-coach and tavern days (1922), heavily illustrated full text online at Google
- Gottlieb, David. "The Neighborhood Tavern and the Cocktail Lounge a Study of Class Differences." American Journal of Sociology, Vol. 62, No. 6 (May, 1957), pp. 559–562 in JSTOR, Chicago in 1950s
- Gusfield, Joseph R. "Passage To Play: Rituals of Drinking Time in American Society," in Constructive Drinking: Perspectives on Drink from Anthropology, ed. Mary Douglas (1987), 73–90.
- Heron, Craig. Booze: A Distilled History (2003), on Canada
- Kingsdale, Jon M. "The 'Poor Man's Club': Social Functions of the Urban Working-Class Saloon," American Quarterly, Vol. 25, No. 4 (Oct., 1973), pp. 472–489 in JSTOR
- Lemasters, E. E. Blue-Collar Aristocrats: Life-Styles at a Working Class Tavern. (1975) in Wisconsin in the 1970s.
- Lender, Mark Edward, and James Kirby Martin. Drinking in America: A History (1982).
- McBurney, Margaret and Byers, Mary. Tavern in the Town: Early Inns and Taverns of Ontario. (1987). 259 pp.
- Mancall, Peter C. "'The Art Of Getting Drunk' in Colonial Massachusetts." Reviews in American History 1996 24(3): 383-388. 0048-7511 in Project MUSEProject MUSEProject MUSE is an online database of current and back issues of peer-reviewed humanities and social sciences journals. It was founded in 1993 by Todd Kelley and Susan Lewis and is a project of the Johns Hopkins University Press and the Milton S. Eisenhower Library. It had support from the Mellon...
- Meacham, Sarah Hand. "Keeping the Trade: The Persistence of Tavernkeeping among Middling Women in Colonial Virginia," Early American Studies: An Interdisciplinary Journal, Volume 3, Number 1, Spring 2005, pp. 140–163 in Project MUSEProject MUSEProject MUSE is an online database of current and back issues of peer-reviewed humanities and social sciences journals. It was founded in 1993 by Todd Kelley and Susan Lewis and is a project of the Johns Hopkins University Press and the Milton S. Eisenhower Library. It had support from the Mellon...
- Murphy, Kevin C. "Public Virtue, Public Vices: On Republicanism and the Tavern" (thesis Columbia University 2009) online edition
- Powers, Madelon. Faces along the Bar: Lore and Order in the Workingman's Saloon, 1870–1920 (1998)
- Rice, Kim. Early American Taverns: For the Entertainment of Friends and Strangers (1983)
- Roberts, Julia. In Mixed Company: Taverns and Public Life in Upper Canada (UBC Press, 2008). 228 pp. ISBN 978-0-7748-1575-8
- Rorabaugh, William J. The Alcoholic Republic: An American Tradition (1979)
- Rothbart, Ron. "The Ethnic Saloon as a Form of Immigrant Enterprise," International Migration Review, Vol. 27, No. 2 (Summer, 1993), pp. 332–358 in JSTOR, study of coal towns in 19c Pennsylvania
- Salinger, Sharon V. Taverns and Drinking in Early America (2002)
- Thompson, Peter. Rum Punch and Revolution: Taverngoing and Public Life in Eighteenth-Century Philadelphia (1999)
External links
- Brewing in Colonial America - North American Brewers Association
- Historic Taverns of Boston by Gavin R. Nathan
- The Historic Vollrath Tavern is one of Indianapolis, IndianaIndianapolis, IndianaIndianapolis is the capital of the U.S. state of Indiana, and the county seat of Marion County, Indiana. As of the 2010 United States Census, the city's population is 839,489. It is by far Indiana's largest city and, as of the 2010 U.S...
's oldest taverns. It served as a SpeakeasySpeakeasyA speakeasy, also called a blind pig or blind tiger, is an establishment that illegally sells alcoholic beverages. Such establishments came into prominence in the United States during the period known as Prohibition...
during the prohibitionProhibitionProhibition of alcohol, often referred to simply as prohibition, is the practice of prohibiting the manufacture, transportation, import, export, sale, and consumption of alcohol and alcoholic beverages. The term can also apply to the periods in the histories of the countries during which the...
era to which notables like John DillingerJohn DillingerJohn Herbert Dillinger, Jr. was an American bank robber in Depression-era United States. He was charged with, but never convicted of, the murder of an East Chicago, Indiana police officer during a shoot-out. This was his only alleged homicide. His gang robbed two dozen banks and four police stations...
frequented regularly. It has operated continuously since 1926. - The History Tavern
- Isaiah L. Potts (Billy Potts, Sr.) and Polly Blue of Potts Hill (Potts Inn/Tavern), by William R. Carr