Tavern

January 7

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , , , , ,

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

Pennsylvania Evening Post (January 6, 1776).

“He has opened an AMERICAN PORTER HOUSE.”

During the first week of 1776, Lewis Nicola took to the pages of the Pennsylvania Evening Post “to inform his friends, and the public in general, that he has opened an AMERICAN PORTER HOUSE at his dwelling in Water-street” in Philadelphia.  He promised that “those who favor him with their custom may depend upon his best endeavors to please.

Nicola assumed that readers knew who brewed the porter that he served at his establishment.  After all, “Mr. HARE’s best AMERICAN DRAUGHT PORTER” had been the subject of several advertisements that recently ran in the Pennsylvania Evening Post.  William Dibley served “this new and glorious manufacture” at the Fountain and White Horse Inn on Chestnut Street.  Joseph Price encouraged “all the SONS of AMERICAN LIBERTY” to drink “Messrs. HARE’s and Co. best DRAUGHT and BOTTLED AMERICAN PORTER” at his tavern “at the sign of the Bull and Dog” on Market Street.  Similarly, Patrick Meade offered “Messrs. HARE and Co. AMERICAN PORTER” to “the TRUE FRIENDS to LIBERTY” at the Harp and Crown in nearby Southwark.

Robert Hare, the son of an English brewer who specialized in porter, arrived in Philadelphia in 1773.  He established his own brewery where he brewed porter, “the first person to brew the drink in America.”  The timing worked well for Hare; he commenced brewing American porter as the imperial crisis intensified and the Revolutionary War began.  Colonizers looked to support local enterprises by purchasing “domestic manufactures” while they boycotted goods imported from England.  That positioned Hare’s brewery for success.

Just as significantly, consumers liked his porter (unlike some of the substitutes for imported tea that some colonizers concocted).  When John Adams attended the First Continental Congress in the fall of 1774, he lauded Hare’s porter in a letter to Abigail: “I drink no Cyder, but feast upon Phyladelphia Beer, and Porter.  A Gentleman, one Mr. Hare, has lately set up in this City a Manufactory of Porter, as good as any that comes from London.  I pray We may introduce it into the Massachusetts.  It agrees with me, infinitely better than Punch, Wine, or Cyder, or any other Spirituous Liquor.”  With Hare’s porter having such a reputation, Nicola did not need to mention the brewer when he opened his “AMERICAN PORTER HOUSE.”  The public knew the porter came from Hare’s brewery.

December 12

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , , , ,

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

Pennsylvania Evening Post (December 12, 1775).

“HARE’s and Co. best DRAUGHT and BOTTLED AMERICAN PORTER.”

In December 1775, Philadelphia tavernkeeper Joseph Price ran an advertisement to express his gratitude to “his friends in particular, and the public in general,” while simultaneously alerting them that he had moved to a new location.  They could now find him at “the sign of the Bull and Dog” on Market Street rather than at “the sign of the Pennsylvania Farmer.”  To entice readers to visit his new location, he announced that “he will open … a TAP of Messrs. HARE’s and Co. best DRAUGHT and BOTTLED AMERICAN PORTER, which the public may depend shall be served them in the greatest purity and goodness.”

Price was not the only tavernkeeper promoting Hare and Company’s American porter, nor was he the only one associating that beer with support for the American cause.  He proclaimed that he “hopes … all the SONS of AMERICAN LIBERTY” would affirm their commitment by choosing Hare and Company’s American porter.  Price joined two other tavernkeepers who already promoted that brew.  All three of them placed advertisements in the December 12, 1775, edition of the Pennsylvania Evening Post.  William Dibley’s advertisement ran immediately above Price’s notice.  He confidently declared that he “has no doubt but that the sturdy friends of American freedom will afford due honor to this new and glorious manufacture.”  Immediately to the left of Price’s advertisement, Patrick Meade stated that he “expects the Associators of Freedom will give the encouragement to the American Porter it deserves.”  Readers who did not know much about Hare and Company’s American porter encountered endorsement after endorsement, encouraging them to take note of a beer that local tavernkeepers promoted over any others.  Tavernkeepers usually did not mention which brewers supplied their beer, making these advertisements even more noteworthy.  For their part, Hare and Company did not need to do any advertising of their own when they had such eager advocates for their American porter encouraging the public to demonstrate their political principles through the choices they made when they placed their orders at taverns in Philadelphia and nearby Southwark.

December 9

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , , , , ,

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

Pennsylvania Evening Post (December 9, 1775).

“He will open a TAP of Messrs. HARE’s and Co. AMERICAN PORTER.”

Patrick Meade aimed to create some anticipation among prospective patrons who might visit his tavern, the Harp and Crown, in Southwark on the outskirts of Philadelphia.  In an advertisement that first appeared in the Pennsylvania Evening Post on December 5, 1775, he announced that “on Saturday the ninth … he will open a TAP of Messrs. HARE and Co. AMERICAN PORTER.”  Hare and Company had been building a reputation for their brew.  Two weeks earlier, William Dibley, the proprietor of the Fountain and White Horse Inn in Philadelphia, advertised that he “will open a TAP of Mr. HARE’s best AMERICAN DRAUGHT PORTER.”  Meade’s advertisement ran again on December 9, the day he tapped the celebrated porter.

Meade and Dibley deployed similar marketing strategies to entice “gentlemen and others” to visit their establishments and drink Hare and Company’s porter.  Dibley proclaimed that he “has no doubt but that the sturdy friends of American freedom will afford due honor to this new and glorious manufacture.”  Meade addressed “the TRUE FRIENDS to LIBERTY” and emphasized his location, “situated in the center of the Ship and Stave Yards,” and declared that he “expects the Associators of Freedom will give the encouragement to the American Porter it deserves.”  Meade went all in on promoting Hare and Company’s porter, asserting that “he intends no beer of any other kind shall enter his doors,” especially not porters and other beers imported from England.  The tavernkeeper made a porter brewed in America the exclusive choice for his patron, likely expecting that the lack of other options mattered less to prospective patrons when they gather to drink, socialize, and discuss politics and current events than demonstrating their patriotism by consuming a porter brewed in America.  Meade stated that he would sell Hare and Company’s “AMERICAN PORTER … in its purity,” signaling the quality of the beverage.  Meade issued both an invitation and a challenge: who could desire any beer other than one brewed in America in support of the American cause?

November 25

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , , , ,

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

Pennsylvania Evening Post (November 25, 1775).

“WILLIAM DIBLEY … will open a TAP of Mr. HARE’s best AMERICAN DRAUGHT PORTER.”

William Dibley was no stranger to advertising his tavern in the public prints.  In February 1775, he announced that he “removed from the Cross Keys … to the Fountain and Three Tuns.”  Both were located on “Chesnut-street” in Philadelphia, so his regular patrons did not have to go far to continue enjoying Dibley’s hospitality, yet he made sure that both “his Friends in particular and the public in general” knew about the “considerably improved” amenities available at his new location.

Nine months later, Dibley ran an advertisement in which he “returns thanks to all gentlemen and others for their kind custom, and assures them he shall always use his utmost endeavour to procure the best entertainment.”  By that time, he updated the name of his establishment to the Fountain and White Horse Inn, perhaps an effort to retain some continuity with a device, the Fountain, that had marked the location while simultaneously distinguishing his business from the one that Anthony Fortune previously operated at the same location, exchanging the Three Tuns for the White Horse.  Dibley’s expression of gratitude suggested that patrons continued gathering at his tavern when he rebranded it.

He aimed to give them more reasons to gather at the Fountain beyond the amenities he highlighted in his earlier advertisement, proclaiming that on Saturday, November 25, he would “open a TAP of Mr. HARE’s best AMERICAN DRAUGHT PORTER.”  This porter was for patriots!  Dibley declared that he “has no doubt but that the sturdy friends of American freedom will afford due honor to this new and glorious manufacture.”  As George Washington and the American army continued the siege of Boston and the Second Continental Congress continued meeting in Philadelphia, Dibley offered an opportunity for supporters of the American cause to drink a porter brewed in the colonies as they gathered to socialize and discuss politics at his tavern.  The tavernkeeper made the porter, a new product, the highlight of a visit to the Fountain, announcing when he would “open a TAP” to create anticipation among prospective patrons.  They may have expected an informal ceremony and a round of toasts to mark the occasion, another enticing reason to visit the Fountain on that day.  Consumption certainly had political overtones at the time.  Dibley tapped into the discourses about purchasing American goods when he marketed a visit to his tavern,

September 26

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , , , ,

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

New-Hampshire Gazette (September 26, 1775).

“Gentlemen Travellers inclining to have their Hair or Wigs dressed before they go to Town.”

As the siege of Boston continued to the south in the fall of 1775, John Williams took to the pages of the New-Hampshire Gazette to inform the public that he “has opened a House of Entertainment in Greenland,” just outside Portsmouth, “at the Sign of the SALUTATION.”  The image that marked the location of his tavern and inn may have depicted two or more colonizers greeting each other or perhaps a generous host welcoming patrons to his establishment.  Few signs for shops, taverns, and other businesses survive from the era of the American Revolution.  Instead, references to them in newspaper advertisements remain the only vestiges of most of them.

Whatever scene the “Sign of the SALUTATION” may have shown, Williams wanted prospective customers to know that he “will do his utmost to wait on such Gentlemen and Ladies as will oblige him with their Favours and Custom.”  To that end, he “Has provided himself with the best of Liquors and every other Necessary for the Accommodation of Travellers & their Horses.”  When it came to hospitality, Williams would not be outdone by tavernkeepers, coffeehouse proprietors, and innkeepers in other cities and towns.  He planned to see to his guests’ every need and “promises the best Attendance & Care of them.”

That included a service that most men and women who ran similar establishments did not offer.  In a nota bene, Williams noted that “Any Gentlemen Travellers inclining to have their Hair or Wigs dressed before they go to Town, may have it done by said WILLIAMS in the genteelest and most fashionable Manner.”  After enduring the trials of the road, his patrons did not have to worry about entering Portsmouth looking disheveled or out of sorts.  They certainly did not need to seek out the services of William Stanwood, a “PERUKE [or Wig] MAKER and HAIR DRESSER” in Portsmouth who advertised in the same issue of the New-Hampshire Gazette.  Their host at the “Sign of the SALUTATION” would help them look presentable for conducting business and making social calls.

February 18

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , , , ,

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

Pennsylvania Ledger (February 18, 1775).

“The Fountain and Three Tuns, … [an] old accustomed and commodious tavern.”

When William Dibley, an experienced tavernkeeper, became the proprietor of the Fountain and Three Tuns in Philadelphia in February 1775, he placed an advertisement in the Pennsylvania Ledger to promote some of the amenities available at his new location.  He hoped that a variety of conveniences would encourage prospective patrons to visit the Fountain and Three Tuns.

Dibley made some of the most common appeals that appeared in advertisements for inns and taverns during the era of the American Revolution.  He highlighted the hospitality that he offered to guests, pledging that they would receive “the most civil treatment.”  He served “the best of liquors and provisions” in a “commodious tavern” that he had “considerably improved” or renovated for the comfort of his patrons.

Those improvements included updating the stables to accommodate sixty horses.  Travelers who visited Philadelphia could expect to find space for their horses in Dibley’s stables while they enjoyed their time at the Fountain and Three Tuns.  Those stables had easy access to the streets of Philadelphia via a “convenient passage either from Market or Chesnut streets.”  For affluent patrons, the tavernkeeper also had a “house for carriages.”

The tavernkeeper provided other services to entice merchants and others to visit the Fountain and Three Tuns, including messengers dispatched to other towns every Wednesday.  One “goes through Newark [in Delaware] to Nottingham [in Maryland],” carrying “packages and orders” to colonies to the south.  The other headed to the west, going “through Goshen to Strasburg, in Lancaster County.”  In addition, the “Virginia and Baltimore posts also call at the said inn every week.”  Dibley positioned the Fountain and Three Tuns at the center of networks for conducting commerce.

Dibley certainly hoped that his reputation would attract former customers and “his Friends in particular” who knew him from the Cross Keys on Chestnut Street.  His advertisement advised them that they could expect the same level of service at his new location.  Yet the tavernkeeper did not merely wish to transfer his current clientele from one establishment to another.  His extensive advertisement notified both locals and travelers of the many reasons they should choose the Fountain and Three Tuns over other inns and taverns in Philadelphia.

August 14

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , , , ,

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

Rivington’s New-York Gazetteer (August 11, 1774).

“TEA and COFFEE every afternoon.”

Amid the turmoil over tea that included the Boston Tea Party in December 1773 and closure and blockade of the harbor via the Boston Port Act in June 1774, not all advertisers and consumers abstained from the problematic beverage, despite general calls for boycotting and destroying tea and newspaper editorials that condemned both the threat to liberty and negative effects on the body associated with drinking tea.  Along with coffee, tea had become so much a part of dining, entertaining, and socializing that some entrepreneurs continued to include it among the amenities they offered to their customers in August 1774.

For instance, Edward Bardin, an experienced tavernkeeper, promoted tea when he “open’d the noted tavern at the corner house in the Fields … where ladies and gentlemen may depend upon the best entertainment and attendance.”  In an advertisement in the August 11 edition of Rivington’s New-York Gazetteer, he advised that “The PANTRY opened every evening” with an array of items on the menu, including veal, mutton, duck, chicken, lobster, pickled oysters, custards, and tarts “of different KINDS.”  Patrons could also rent a “large commodious ROOM, fit for balls or assemblies.”  For those interested in a leisurely outing, Bardin served “TEA and COFFEE every afternoon.”  Even though the political crisis intensified, he neither removed the troublesome beverage from his menu nor, apparently, believed that advertising it would lead to more trouble than it was worth.  Not everyone lined up to take a principled stand against tea.

New-York Journal (August 11, 1774).

The same day that Bardin published his advertisement for the first time, Mr. Hoar of Princeton, New Jersey, inserted his own notice in the New-York Journal to invite readers in his town to attend a “CONCERT, of vocal and instrumental MUSIC” at “Mr. Whitehead’s Long Room.”  He listed several “songs, cantatas, and duets” on the program.  In addition, the concert would “conclude with a Ball, which shall be conducted on the same plan, as at Bath, Tunbridge, Scarborough, and all the polite assemblies in London.”  The proprietor of the establishment, in a nota bene, promised that “every genteel accommodation will be provided.”  Among those genteel accommodations, “Tea and coffee included” with each ticket.  Neither Hoar nor Whitehead anticipated that serving tea would alienate so many people that it would be better not to mention the beverage.  Instead, they made it a selling point in their advertisement.  Did they face any ramifications for doing so?  Perhaps growing public sentiment eventually encouraged more caution, but the tide had not turned against tea so much that some advertisers refused to include the drink as one amenity among many when they promoted entertainments to colonizers in the summer of 1774.

May 8

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , , , ,

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

Supplement to the Massachusetts Gazette and Boston Weekly News-Letter (May 5, 1774).

“City Tavern, Philadelphia.”

When the City Tavern opened in Philadelphia, Daniel Smith inserted advertisements in the Pennsylvania Gazette and the Pennsylvania Packet in February 1774.  The opening had been much anticipated in that city, following the efforts of some of the most prominent residents to erect the building via subscription.  In 1772, Samuel Powel entrusted the land to seven wealthy colonizers.  In turn, those “Gentlemen Proprietors” oversaw a “voluntary subscription of the principal gentlemen of the city” to raise funds to build the tavern and then selected Smith to lease and operate the City Tavern.

About three months after his advertisement ran in Philadelphia’s newspaper, it appeared in the Supplement to the Massachusetts Gazette and Boston Weekly News-Letter on May 5.  It featured identical copy and, except for the headline, identical format in terms of capitalization and italics.  Smith may have written it out exactly, but just as likely he clipped the advertisement from his local newspaper and sent it to Richard Draper’s printing office in Boston.  Alternately, he could have sent instructions to reprint the notice from a newspaper that Draper received via his exchange networks with other printers, but Smith would not have been certain that Draper received the issues that originally carried his advertisement.  Given that the tavernkeeper proclaimed that he “fitted up a genteel Coffee Room, … properly supplied with English and American papers and magazines,” he likely corresponded directly with Draper, ordering a newspaper subscription and arranging to run his advertisement in the public prints in Boston.

That advertisement provided a brief history of the City Tavern that would have been familiar to many residents of Philadelphia yet new to readers in Boston.  Smith hoped to impress prospective visitors to his city with the “largest and most elegant house occupied in that way [as a tavern, coffeehouse, and inn], in America.”  He emphasized his own “very great expence” in furnishing it with “every article of the first quality, in the stile of a London tavern.”  Indeed, when John Adams traveled to Philadelphia to attend the First Continental Congress several months later, he described it as “the most genteel [tavern] in America.”[1]  That was the reputation Smith hoped to cultivate, not only in his city but throughout the colonies.  He positioned the City Tavern as a destination itself, not just a place to eat, drink, and lodge while visiting Philadelphia.

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[1] See entry for August 29, 1774, in John Adams diary 21, 15 August – 3 September 1774 [electronic edition]. Adams Family Papers: An Electronic Archive. Massachusetts Historical Society. http://www.masshist.org/digitaladams/

February 16

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , ,

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

Pennsylvania Gazette (February 16, 1774).

“Perfectly in the stile of a London tavern.”

In February 1774, Daniel Smith took to the pages of the Pennsylvania Gazette and the Pennsylvania Packet to promote his latest enterprise, the City Tavern in Philadelphia.  Residents of the urban port had witnessed the building and marketing of the tavern.  As Smith explained, the building “was erected at a great expence, by a voluntary subscription of the principal gentlemen of the city.”  He billed it as “the largest and most elegant house in that way,” meaning a tavern and inn, “in America.”  The previous summer, the proprietors ran an advertisement seeking a tavernkeeper with “an active, obliging disposition” to rent the building, still under construction with completion expected by September, and operate it “for the convenience and credit of the city.”  Those “Gentlemen Proprietors” wanted the largest and most cosmopolitan city in the colonies to have a tavern that rivaled any found in London.

Smith asserted that he achieved that goal, doing so “at a very great expence.”  He proclaimed that he furnished the building and stocked the storerooms with every necessity.  He “laid in every article of the first quality, perfectly in the stile of a London tavern,” just as envisioned by the affluent subscribers who made the City Tavern one of their projects for improving the bustling urban port and enhancing the city’s reputation throughout the British Atlantic world.  The amenities included a “genteel Coffee Room” where merchants and others could socialize and conduct business.  He “supplied English and American papers and magazines” for their entertainment, but also so they could track the shipping news, prices current, and current events that had an impact on their businesses.  Perhaps his subscriptions included the new Royal American Magazine, the only magazine published in the colonies at the time, demonstrating to his patrons the efforts he made to provide the latest and most interesting publications.  For “strangers” or visitors to the city, Smith “fitted up several elegant bed rooms, detached from noise,” and the “best livery stables,” located “quite convenient to the house.”  Smith expected that all those features, along with “the goodness of his wines and larder,” would “give the public entire satisfaction.”

The City Tavern quickly became a popular meeting place, especially as the imperial crisis intensified.  In addition to merchants and the local gentry frequenting the establishment as part of their everyday routines, concerned citizens met there to debate and discuss politics.  In May 1774, just three months after Smith ran his advertisement, more than two hundred of them gathered at the City Tavern to determine how to respond to messages from Boston in the wake of the Boston Port Act that closed the port until the colonizers paid for the tea destroyed during the Boston Tea Party.  When the First Continental Congress met in Philadelphia in September and October 1774, many influential leaders from throughout the colonies dined and drank at the City Tavern.  John Adams praised it as “the most genteel [tavern] in America.”[1]

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[1] See entry for August 29, 1774, in John Adams diary 21, 15 August – 3 September 1774 [electronic edition]. Adams Family Papers: An Electronic Archive. Massachusetts Historical Society. http://www.masshist.org/digitaladams/

October 10

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , , ,

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

Rivington’ New-York Gazetteer (October 7, 1773).

“The usual genteel accommodation for set CLUBS, and other private companies large or small.”

Samuel Fraunces (or Samuel Francis) was one of the most prominent American tavernkeepers and restaurateurs in the late eighteenth century.  He remains famous today, in part because Fraunces Tavern at 54 Pearl Street in New York City continues to welcome visitors in a building listed on the National Register of Historic Places.  A tavern and restaurant occupy the first floor and the Sons of the Revolution in the State of New York operate a museum on the second and third floors.

Fraunces frequently advertised during the era of the American Revolution.  In the fall of 1773, for instance, he inserted a notice in Rivington’s New-York Gazetteer to promote the “QUEEN’s HEAD TAVERN, Near the Exchange in Broad-street.”  The industrious entrepreneur presented a visit to the tavern as an experience that incorporated food, drink, entertainment, service, and atmosphere.  He invited “the respectable inhabitants of this city” to dine and socialize in the “large commodious room” that he outfitted for “the reception and entertainment” of his guests.  He encouraged them “to regale themselves with fine ALE of this country produce, equal to any imported,” though he also had on hand “draft, or bottled porter from London, of the first quality” as well as an assortment of wines, punch, and spirits.  Fraunces wanted his patrons to eat as well as drink, serving “beef stakes, mutton or pork chops, veal stakes or cutlets, fry’d oysters,” and other fare throughout the day and evening.

New-York Gazette and Weekly Mercury (June 13, 1772).

The tavernkeeper placed a premium on service.  In addition to his staff preparing and serving the food “in the neatest manner,” Fraunces undertook “every other necessary requisite to give general satisfaction” to his customers, “particularly, the best attendance, the most respectful behaviour, and a hearty acknowledgment of those favours” from his patrons.  Fraunces depicted the Queen’s Head Tavern as an exceptional venue, not only for “one or more persons” who wished to drink and dine together but also for “CLUBS, and other private companies large or small” who wished to hold their gatherings within the “genteel accommodation” he worked so hard to cultivate.  As an additional inducement to visit the tavern, Fraunces moved the “elegant WAX-FIGURES” (that he described in newspaper advertisements than ran a year earlier) from Vaux-Hall Garden to the tavern.  His staff included “proper attendants to shew” the wax figures at “any hour of the day or evening.”  The Queen’s Head Tavern was not just any watering hole.  Fraunces exerted great effort in marketing it as a destination.

New-York Gazette and Weekly Mercury (August 17, 1772).