Foreword: In 1908 the Robert Smith Brewery commissioned Philadelphia painter and illustrator James Moore Preston to provide it with a series of works depicting pre-Revolutionary taverns and inns in or near the “City of Brotherly Love.” Preston created twelve color lithographs. I find the pictures striking and believe they deserve preservation through this blog, along with some inkling of the histories of each of those early Philadelphia “watering holes.” Six were presented in Part 1, posted on January 1. This post completes the series.
The Blue Anchor Inn on Front Street at Dock Creek was the oldest inn in Philadelphia, built in the decade between 1670 an 1680. William Penn is said to have supped there upon his first arrival in the city in 1683. Some believe that the Blue Anchor is the first structure built in Philadelphia. The lumber is thought to have come over in the first ships to dock there. The structure was timbered, filled in with small bricks and had the dimensions of twelve by twenty-two feet. It has been called “the only public building” in the city for a time, a place where ship-masters, merchants and other citizens could gather.
Where Preston got his model for the Blue Anchor is unclear. A newspaper illustration of the tavern shows a somewhat different building, isolated on the shore and approached by row boat. It depicts Indians with bows and arrow looking on. The scene in Preston’s 1908 color lithograph shows a building of at least three stories with other structures around it. Because the contours of both are the same, my guess is that improvements over the years and the growth of Philadelphia around the tavern led to the changes.
The brewery-sponsored picture above entitles it the State House Tavern, because of its location across from the government center. This Chestnut Street drinking establishment also was known at various times as the Half Moon, the Coach and Horses, and foremost as Clarke’s Inn. “The table was good, and the inn became one of the chief centers of official activity.”
Although Preston’s picture gives the structure a jaunty look, including figures bowling on the lawn, an earlier lithograph shows a much more austere Clarke’s. Brewery founder Robert Smith in his diary related that an apprentice had ruined the malt supply by over-heating: “I being gone to the Half Moon for dinner.”
An advertisement in the Pennsylvania Packet of March 9, 1772, by owner James Alexander announced the Black Horse Inn, located on Second Street near Callowhill, calling it a “Commodious Inn of Entertainment” and convenient for market people. He went on describe its livery stable as “good as any in the Province,” able to stable as many as fifty horses at a time and offering “a good yard for coaches, chaises,and wagons.” Preston has caught much of this in his drawing, with a carriage and horses as major elements.
Although Anderson did not detail the kind of entertainment the Black Horse provided, another source has described it: “In 1805 two live porpoises were exhibited at the Black Horse and the following year the learned African Horse, “Spotie,” which had a tail like an elephant’s and a knowledge of arithmetic. The same year two royal tigers from Surat in Asia and a living sea-dog, taken on the Delaware River near Trenton, were shown.” Although the Black Horse did brisk business through the mid-19th Century, by 1917, as shown here, it was badly deteriorated.
Depicted by Preston amid a wintery scene, the Moon and Seven Stars, standing at the southwest corner of Fourth and Chestnut Street, was one of the best known inns of its day. Standing between the Delaware River wharves and the State House, it served both the maritime and commercial communities. In addition: “Several clubs made it their meeting place, and all the leaders of American thought and action enjoyed the hospitality of its tap-room or its ordinary at one time or another.” On the lithograph, the sign of the Moon and Seven Stars appears very small. A reproduction captures it much better.
The Three Crowns was a public house famed for the good food provided by its owner, a Mistress Jones. It was housed in a two-story building adjoining the south end of the City Tavern (see Part 1). It fronted on both Second Street and Walnut with a spacious courtyard that stretched to Dock Creek. “At that house Richard Penn and other governors, generals and gentry used to be feasted.” The sign of the Three Crowns has a distinctive accent of British royalty.
The final lithograph is of the Spread Eagle Inn. It was located fourteen miles west of Philadelphia on the Lancaster Pike, one of the first turnpikes to be built in America. The Spread Eagle was the first relay station and stage house west of the city. Customers traveling on their way west as far as Pittsburgh would leave Philadelphia early in the morning and stop at the Spread Eagle for an ample breakfast. Preston’s picture captures the moment of such an arrival as the proprietor stands in the doorway to welcome his guests. The artist apparently took his visual clues from an earlier illustration, adding color and detail.
This building was replaced circa 1800 by a large stone tavern, also called the Spread Eagle. About 1824, the hostelry triggered controversy when the original signboard, shown here, was altered by a local artist. He added a second neck and head to the representation of the American eagle, leading to considerable “political excitement.” Neighbors and wagoners could not see why “our glorious bird of freedom” should be altered into a European-looking symbol. The tavern was derided as the “Split Crow” by dissidents, causing the sign hastily to be repainted — “Americanized” once more.
James Moore Preston’s colorful and engaging 1908 art works allow a brief exploration of Philadelphia’s earliest and most historic inns and taverns, all of them but one long since disappeared. The exception is City Tavern, seen in Part 1 of this series. Another City Tavern has been reconstructed on the earlier site. Said to be a replica of the original, the building appears to be significantly different from Preston’s representation. In any case we can be grateful to the Robert Smith Brewery that commissioned these colorful images of a bygone day.
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