What was advertised in a revolutionary American newspaper 250 years ago this week?

“At the Sign of the Sugar-Loaf, the third House Northward of the Church in Providence.”

As fall approached in 1776, Melzar Packard took to the pages of the Providence Gazette to inform the public that he sold “West-India and N. England run, brandy, loaf and brown sugar, rice, flour, salt, pepper, allspice, and sundry other articles in the grocery way.”  He also stocked “an assortment of stone and earthen ware,” selling it all “at the cheapest rates.”

Some readers may have been familiar with Packard’s shop “At the Sign of the Sugar-Loaf.”  To help prospective customers find it, he gave additional directions: “the third House Northward of the Church in Providence.”  No American city or town used standardized street numbers in the 1770s.  The largest cities, Philadelphia and New York, would introduce them by the end of the century.  Until they became common, some entrepreneurs used signs to mark their locations and even more gave directions of some sort.  Like Packard, John Carter, the printer of the Providence Gazette, did both.  At the end of each issue, the colophon indicated that customers could find the printing office “at Shakespear’sHead, in Meeting-Street, near the Court-House.”  Most advertisers relied solely on giving directions, often invoking local landmarks.  In the August 31, 1776, edition of the Providence Gazette, for instance, Nathaniel Greene advertised merchandise available “At his Store on the West Side of the Great Bridge.”  Similarly, Charles Dabney hawked an array of textiles and other wares “At his Shop, a little to the Westward of the Great Bridge.”  Welcome Arnold sold groceries, housewares, and hardware “Near the new Baptist Meeting-House.”  When patients needed the services of Mary Bass, a midwife, they could find her “at Dr. Thomas Truman’s, in Broadstreet.”  Residents and visitors devised ways for navigating Providence (and other American cities and towns) before assigning street numbers became standard practice.  Sometimes they used signs to mark their location, but other times their directions only took customers to the general vicinity.