Gadsby's Tavern

Gadsby's Tavern
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
U.S. National Historic Landmark
Virginia Landmarks Register
Location	128 N. Royal St., Alexandria, Virginia
Coordinates
Built	1752
NRHP Reference #	66000913
VLR #	100-0029
Significant dates
Added to NRHP	October 15, 1966
Designated NHL	November 4, 1963
Designated VLR	September 9, 1969

Gadsby's Tavern is a building in Old Town Alexandria, Virginia, and is a U.S. National Historic Landmark. Currently, the facility is home to Gadsby's Tavern Restaurant, American Legion Post 24, and Gadsby's Tavern Museum, a cultural history museum. The original tavern was a central part of the social, economic, political, and educational life of the city of Alexandria, and the United States. Today the Tavern houses exhibits of early American life in Virginia and a restaurant in the original dining room, serving a mixture of period and modern foods.

Tavern history

Gadsby's Tavern consists of two buildings: one is the tavern built around 1785, and the other is the 1792 City Hotel. John Gadsby leased and operated them from 1796 to 1808, and it is his name attached to the location.

Early history

Gadsby's Tavern was not the first tavern in its location. Between 1749 and 1752, Charles and Anne Mason had begun a tavern business they called Mason's Ordinary on the lot. In the 1770s, Mary Hawkins opened a tavern on the lot now occupied by the Gadsby's buildings. The original lot where Hawkin's tavern sat extended from the southwest corner of Royal and Cameron streets to about mid-block on both streets. In 1778, the plot was subdivided, and Edward Owens purchased the lot on the corner of the two streets. With the end of the Revolutionary War, and the booming economy that followed, Marylander John Wise purchased the plot in 1782 from Owens, and built the existing Georgian-style tavern ca. 1785, and the Federal City Tavern in 1792. Englishman Gadsby leased the City Tavern, the most prominent tavern in Alexandria in 1796. He renewed the lease in 1802 to include the smaller 1780s tavern from Wise, and operated both until 1808 when he moved to Maryland.

John Wise died in 1815, and with his death the buildings went through different hands, being run as taverns, lawyers' offices, auction houses, and possibly as hospitals during the American Civil War.

In 1816, a 23-year-old woman succumbed to a disease contracted on the ship to Alexandria on which she traveled with her husband. On her deathbed, she made the people surrounding her swear an oath that they would never reveal her identity. The promise was kept; her grave, a table-like structure in St. Paul's Cemetery is marked "Female Stranger". Her ghost is said to haunt the cemetery and Room 8 of Gadsby's Tavern, the room in which she died. The unusual monument and story surrounding it have long been noted as a peculiar oddity of the town.

19th and 20th century

By the turn of the 20th century, Gadsby’s Tavern, renamed the City Hotel and Tavern, no longer operated as a hotel. Once considered one of the finest establishments of its kind in the country, the building had fallen into complete disrepair. The rooms that had been the setting for political dinners, grand balls, and elaborate public affairs were relegated to housing odd shops. On May 21, 1917, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City took away some of Alexandria’s most important pieces of history. In doing so, they inadvertently preserved the historic ballroom when it was moved to New York.

The Museum negotiated with the owners of Gadsby’s Tavern to purchase architectural elements from the hotel. The Met purchased the unique musicians gallery, cornice, door frames, and mantelpieces from the ballroom. Two mantelpieces from the City Hotel dining rooms and the exterior doorway were also sold. On November 11, 1924, the American Wing of The Metropolitan Museum of Art — featuring the permanent installation of the recreated Gadsby’s Tavern Ballroom with original woodwork (now named the "Alexandria Ballroom") — opened to the public

Famous guests

George Washington frequently visited the taverns, and twice attended the annual Birthnight Ball held in his honor. Other prominent customers of the tavern included John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and James Monroe. Thomas Jefferson was feted in 1801 with a banquet in the ballroom of the City Tavern. The Marquis de La Fayette was also guest to festivities at the City Tavern during his tour of the United States in 1824.

File:Gadsbys.jpg

Gadsby's Tavern and Museum sign

The Tavern as a museum

Threatened with demolition in the early 20th century, the buildings were saved and preserved by efforts first undertaken by F. Clinton Knight and carried on by the American Legion, Post 24, along with other "patriotic groups." The buildings were reopened in 1976, after extensive renovation, by the City of Alexandria as a museum dedicated to preserving and interpreting the social and cultural heritage of Alexandria by teaching the public about the site and its significant contributions. Clint Knight, a former city councilman, postmaster, and commander of Post 24 mortgaged his home to help purchase the Tavern. The renovators reproduced on the second floor of the Tavern the woodwork of the ballroom that the Metropolitan Museum of Art had earlier acquired.

It was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1963.

The Tavern Museum today

Today, the City of Alexandria continues their preservation and interpretation through Gadsby's Tavern Museum and by leasing the restaurant space, in the hotel building, to a private restaurateur. The original ballroom woodwork can still be seen at Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

The museum offers daily tours for individuals and families, and group tours by appointment. Admission is charged.

The museum is part of the American Whiskey Trail, which provides an educational journey into the history and cultural heritage of distilled spirits in American society.

See also

• Thirteen Colonies
• American Revolution
• Founding Fathers
• Mount Vernon
• Monticello

External links

• Official website
• Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS) No. VA-100, "Mason's Ordinary (Coffee House), 128 North Royal Street, Alexandria, Independent City, VA", 14 photos, 7 measured drawings, 5 data pages, supplemental material
• Gadsby's Tavern Restaurant
• Tourist overview
• The American Legion Post 24, Alexandria, VA
• Clinton Knight Biography