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

“American Coffee-House.”

Not long after British forces departed from Boston on March 17, 1776, and the siege of the city ended, Daniel Jones opened the “American Coffee-House.”  At about the same time, Samuel Hall, the printer of the New-England Chronicle, moved his printing office from “Stoughton-Hall, HARVARD-COLLEGE,” in Cambridge into Boston “next to the OLIVER CROMWELL TAVERN, in SCHOOL-STREET.”  He printed the first issue in the formerly occupied city on April 25.  A week later, Jones ran a notice in which he “respectfully acquaints the Gentlemen of the UNITED COLONIES, that the AMERICAN COFFEE HOUSE, at the sign of the Golden Eagle, King Street, BOSTON, is now opened for those Gentlemen who please to favour him with their commands.”

As much as Jones hoped to offer a place of respite for patrons who joined him for coffee and dining, that opening sentence testified to the uncertainty of the times.  The war had entered its second year.  When it began, most colonizers sought a redress of their grievances within the imperial system, but over time more and more of them advocated for declaring independence, especially following the publication of Thomas Paine’s Common Sense in Philadelphia in January 1776 and the widespread dissemination of local editions in the following months.  In the past, establishments like the one that Jones advertised were often known as the London Coffee House, a nod to the largest and most cosmopolitan city in the empire and, especially, to the transatlantic and even global networks of commerce that converged there.  Yet Jones named his establishment the “American Coffee-House” and addressed the “Gentlemen of the UNITED COLONIES,” privileging their American identity and acknowledging that the diverse colonies had banded together.  A Continental Congress organized resistance.  A Continental Army defended American liberties.  Even though Jones associated his new establishment with the American cause, it happened to be located on King Street (which would be renamed State Street shortly after the Treaty of Paris officially ended the Revolutionary War).  The “sign of the Golden Eagle,” a familiar device in several towns, one that did not have revolutionary significance, marked the coffeehouse’s location.  That the “Gentlemen of the UNITED COLONIES” gathered at the “AMERICAN COFFEE HOUSE” on King Street exemplified the transition taking place as colonizers moved from engaging in resistance to embracing revolution in 1776.