This just came in the mail: "We, the Friends of the Indian King Tavern Museum, are inviting you to join us at our Open House events. Lots of fun! 2010 Shcedule with docents in every room - Saturday, Dec. 4 from 1-4, Musical entertainment with period instruments. New Year's Eve Friday, Dec. 31st from 6 pm to 8 pm. Also Friday evenings from 6:30-8:30 12/10 & 12/17." Indian King Tavern is located at 233 Kings Hwy. East, Haddonfield, NJ 08033. The tavern is a beautifully restored and maintained LARGE tavern with a 'bar and grill' that would have been used by local working men, watermen, stagecoach drivers, and so on, and a fine dining room for the "better sort." There is a tavern room with booths that would have been used by the "middlin' sort" and all rooms are furnished.
In the summer, I signed on as a some-time volunteer docent and had the opportunity to tour guide during some fascinating events. One was the visit of History Theater character, Abigail Adams. Later in the summer, we also were entertained by History Theater character, Charles Wilson Peale. Both were excellent. The house has two stories open for the public. Upstairs a bed that once belong to Dolly Madison graces one of the bedrooms, though it is clearly stated that a 'lady' of Dolly's time and type wouldn't have stayed in the tavern. She would have boarded with relatives who lived nearby. Also upstairs is the Assembly Room where the Revolutionary NJ Assembly declared New Jersey a STATE and no longer a colony.
An interesting contrast is to visit a big and important tavern located in a bustling city such as the Indian King Tavern, then visit a smallr more rural tavern such as the Hancock House in Salem County or the Gabriel Daveis Tavern in Glendora. A good book on tavern life and it's place in the colonial world is:
Rum Punch and Revolution: Taverngoing & Public Life in Eighteen-Century Philadelphia by Peter Thomspon
Being a tavern keeper put a man in the center of things in a town since so much civic debate took place in the taverns in the times before the building of municipal centers.
Come to the Indian King Tavern and see first hand!
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