John Gadsby and His Famous Tavern
[Gadsby's Tavern is controlled today by the Gadsby's Tavern Board, Inc.,
under the auspices of the American Legion. The patriotic organizations
of Alexandria have joined in the restoration of this building. In 1932
the Alexandria Chapter of the Colonial Dames of America, the Alexandria
Chapters of the Daughters of the American Revolution and the Washington
Society, restored the first floor, which included the famous dining
rooms of the City Hotel.
Due to the untiring efforts of the late Mrs. C.A.S. Sinclair, State
Regent of the Virginia D.A.R., and Mrs. Robert M. Reese, one of the most
worthwhile restorations in Virginia was completed in the fall of 1940 in
the replacement of the woodwork in the ballroom. Happily, the floor is
original. The inventory called for a coal grate, and in the attic the
original grate, of Adam design, was found.
In 1937-38, the Alexandria Association made a careful restoration of the
roof, cornice and dormers, enabling other much needed work to go forward
and before this book goes to press the original doorway in which
Washington stood to receive his last official tribute in Alexandria will
have been brought back from the Metropolitan Museum of Art (where it has
been for four decades) to its rightful location. This patriotic
restoration of the doorway by the Alexandria Association has been made
possible by the past president and Honorary President of the
Association, Colonel Charles B. Moore, U.S.A., Ret.]
When Alexandria was one of the three largest seaports in America, a busy
city of shipping merchants, a rendezvous for travelers, soldiers, and
people of note, it was from necessity a city of taverns and hotels.
Many are the tales, handed down from the late eighteenth and early
nineteenth century travelers, and from the advertisements of the
journals of that time, that, put together, form a very complete picture
of this early American hostelry.
The most famous tavern in Alexandria, perhaps in America, are the
buildings on the corner of Cameron and Royal Streets, generally known
and spoken of today as Gadsby's Tavern. Built in 1752, the smaller of
these buildings was known for fifty years or more as the City Tavern,
and sometimes as the Coffee House. John Wise built the large brick
addition adjoining the City Tavern in 1792. On February 20, 1793, the
_Alexandria Gazette_ carried the following announcement of Mr. Wise's
City Tavern:
SIGN OF THE BUNCH OF GRAPES
The Subscriber informs the public in General that he has removed from
the Old House where he has kept Tavern for four years past to his new
elegant three story Brick House fronting the West end of the Market
House which was built for a Tavern and has twenty commodious,
well-furnished rooms in it, where he has laid in a large stock of
good old liquors and hopes he will be able to give satisfaction to
all who may please to favor him with their custom.
* * * * *
David Rankin Barbee says that the hotel was opened on February 11 with
festivities commemorating the birthday of General Washington: "As the
guests assembled they were amazed as well they might be, at the internal
arrangements of the new Hostelry."[100]
* * * * *
In Wise's new hotel, Alexandria architecture reaches its highest
expression. For its day and time it was the ultimate in comfort and
elegance; more than that, it was in exquisite taste. A well known
architectural historian has written of the ballroom, "One can sense that
it was built as an Assembly room for Gentlefolk";[101] and gentlefolk
used it for near a century.
When the Jockey Club races were run on November 6, 1793, we find the
members dining at Wise's inn, "the dinner to be on the table at three
o'clock."[102] For the better entertainment of the guests, "Mr. Card
performed wonderful feats at the Tavern every evening during the races.
Feats in cards, slack-wire, celebrated equilibrist, ground and lofty
tumbling."[103]
And for the benefit of the ladies, November 6: "Information is hereby
given that there will be a dancing assembly this evening at Mr. Wise's,
to which are invited the ladies of Alexandria and its vicinity on both
sides of the river. Tickets for the gentlemen, without which none can be
admitted, may be had at the bar."[104] Out turned crimson velvet
breeches, green damask coats laced with silver, or cinnamon damask with
broad gold lace, while ladies in failles, lena gauzes, velvets, lace and
ribbon took their places beside the dandies. Logs and coals glowed,
candles burned, while the gossips sat against the wall and passed on the
grace of this or that gallant and his lady. When the gentry came to the
races, they remained for the dance!
High above the floor, attached to the wall, hung the musicians'
gallery[105] and to the strains of fiddle, flute, and banjo, the quality
of the neighborhood bowed and glided. Upon these boards skipped little
satin slippers and many times the heavy tread of the first citizen of
America, for this gentleman was ever fond of the dance. Here gathered
the Masons from Gunston Hall and Hollin Hall; the Lewises from
Woodlawn; the Dulanys from Shuters Hill; the Lears from Wellington; the
Ramsays, Herberts, Fairfaxes, Craiks, Browns, Roberdeaus, Lees,
Fitzhughs, Diggeses, Custises, Swifts and many other of the town's
Scottish gentry and their neighbors across the river.
[Illustration: The doorway from hall to ballroom stands invitingly open]
In 1794 an Englishman, one John Gadsby, took over the tavern under a
long lease. As fine as the tavern had been under Wise, it was to reach
new heights of public entertainment. Running the two taverns as one,
under the name of Gadsby's, he brought its culinary fame to such a state
of perfection that the odors of his dinners linger in the memory and
titillate the palate to this day.
There was always a fine stock of game, fish, oysters, terrapin, turkey
and ham; Madeira, Port and brandy on hand for the traveler. Our own
great Washington sat down to a very good dinner in his last days, if his
adopted son, George Washington Parke Custis be correct, for on being
assured of a plentiful supply of canvasback ducks about which he had
just made inquiry, he gave the following order: "Very good, sir, give us
some of them with a chaffing-dish, some hommony, and a bottle of good
Madeira, and we shall not complain."[106]
The fame of the tavern went out through the country and from Boston to
New Orleans the traveler bent his efforts to make Gadsby's. John Gadsby
established his own coach line from Alexandria to Philadelphia, and it
was necessary to be a guest in City Tavern or his associated inns to get
seat or ticket. Then he inserted the following notice in the _Gazette_:
March 1st, 1796.--John Gadsby informs the Gentlemen of Alexandria
that he has fitted up a large and convenient stable well provided
with hay, oats, etc., and an attentive hostler, and those who may
send their horses may depend on proper attention being paid to them
on moderate terms.
This was very enticing to gentlemen traveling by horseback as well as
those in the city not having private stables.
Such men as George Mason, Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton, George
Clinton, Benjamin Franklin, Braddock, the Byrds, Grymeses, Fitzhughs,
Lees and Washingtons are among those who came here. One fine old tale
has it that in 1777, in the old tavern courtyard, John Paul Jones met
two bewildered Frenchmen in a dreadful dilemma--strangers in a strange
land, speaking a strange tongue, unable to make themselves understood
and doubtless very cross. By his knowledge of French, our brave
privateer was enabled to smooth the way for these gentlemen, none other
than Baron de Kalb and the Marquis de la Fayette, and the tale goes on
that this assistance was so gratefully received that a friendship
lasting a lifetime resulted from the encounter. The two taverns housed
and fed most of the important persons visiting the country from 1752 for
the next hundred years.
[Illustration: Ballroom of Gadsby's Tavern, purchased and taken from
Alexandria by the Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York, where it is
now on exhibit]
The Fairfax Resolves were prepared here--those resolves that eventually
grew into the Virginia Bill of Rights. In this tavern met the little
convention called by General Washington to settle the import duties upon
the Potomac River commerce which led in time to the convention in
Philadelphia which prepared the Constitution of the United States.
In 1802 Gadsby entered into a new lease with Wise for fifteen years. In
the indenture, reference is made to a three-story brick house and a
two-story brick house, a brick kitchen and several wooden houses. Gadsby
at this time was granted permission by Wise to erect at his own expense
a brick stable one hundred feet long and twenty-seven feet wide and of
a suitable height. He was also given permission to erect at his own
expense another brick house forty-five feet long and fifteen or sixteen
feet wide and two stories high, finished in a neat and decent manner so
as to be habitable, and he also agreed to extend a wall thirty feet long
and of the same height. The annual rent was to be two thousand dollars,
and Gadsby agreed to paint the three-story brick house and the two-story
house outside and inside, and he had permission to remove what wooden
buildings were necessary and to keep the remainder in good repair.
[Illustration: In the ballroom the musicians played from the balcony
suspended from the ceiling. This is the restored ballroom]
That Gadsby did not desire to keep the tavern so long is borne out seven
years later when on November 13, 1809, John Wise, N.S. Wise, and R.I.
Taylor leased the tavern to William Caton for three months and then for
nine years for two thousand dollars a year, and stated the tavern was
"formerly occupied by John Gadsby."[107] But the following year Caton
had had enough and the _Alexandria Gazette_, on March 9, 1810, carried
the following advertisement:
To the Public
The Subscriber has taken for a term of years that noted and eligible
establishment known by the name of the City Hotel, and once occupied
by Mr. Gadsby whose distinguished abilities as a Publican gave it an
eclat which the subscriber hopes to preserve by his unremitting
exertions.... James Brook.
[Illustration: Ballroom fireplace containing original grate before which
the gentry were wont to stand on winter nights]
In 1811 an Englishman traveling incognito, put up at the tavern,
formerly Gadsby's, became ill, and after it was discovered that he
belonged to the Masonic fraternity, he was nursed by the gentlemen of
the Alexandria lodge. Making a happy recovery, the gentleman departed,
and apparently that was the last of him. Four years passed. One day
there arrived by ship an enormous packing box for the lodge. It
contained twenty-five hundred pieces of cut glass, decanters of all
sizes, and glasses for any liquor distilled. The bottom of each piece
was engraved with the Masonic emblem and the initials and number of the
lodge. The enclosed card read simply: "From an English Gentleman and
Brother in appreciation for fraternal courtesies." One hundred and
seventy-five pieces remain in the Masonic Museum today, after more than
a hundred years of use, and excellent crystal it is.
One of the most romantic stories told of Gadsby's, a true one at that,
is the mysterious tale of the Female Stranger. On a day in early autumn
of 1816 a ship docked at the wharf in Alexandria, purported to have come
from the West Indies. Down the ways came a striking couple. Luxuriously
apparelled, they presented figures of great elegance. The handsome young
"milord" was all tender solicitude for the fragile beauty clinging
weakly to his arm in a state of collapse. Bystanders were considerably
intrigued and greatly impressed by the distinguished strangers.
Unquestionably they were rich, and certainly noble. It was indeed
curious that such important people had no attendants, neither manservant
nor maidservant, and the young lady sadly in need of assistance. Even
while the sailors were busy with the great ropes and anchors the
handsome stranger was making arrogant inquiries for the best tavern in
the town and demanding a carriage for transporting the lady there with
the least delay. First impressions were borne out, the gentleman was
undoubtedly English, and he was a person of importance!
[Illustration: In the Coffee House. A fine mantel and panelled chimney
breast]
[Illustration: Doorway to Coffee House or City Tavern]
Naturally the strangers were directed to the best the town afforded, and
to "Mr. Gadsby's City Hotel" the young people came looking for rooms.
The gentleman evidently took mine host into his confidence and was
provided with the most elegant accommodations. The young woman was put
to bed and a physician ordered in attendance. She was truly very ill.
Two of Alexandria's good Samaritans were informed of the pitiful little
sick girl's condition and Mrs. John S. Wise and Mrs. James Stuart took
their turns with the invalid. The husband proved himself devoted and
fairly daft with anxiety, and 'twas said rarely left the bedside. The
young woman grew rapidly worse. The skillful nursing, the constant
and faithful attendance of the physicians were all useless, and after an
illness of several weeks, the Female Stranger died. Thus she has been
remembered in Alexandria, for a very curious thing had occurred. The
doctors and volunteer nurses were asked to take an oath before ever they
entered that sick chamber, and swore never to reveal aught that they
heard, saw, or learned. That oath they kept. The young woman's name, her
destination, her former habitation, have never been revealed, and her
secrets lie buried with her.
[Illustration: The Coffee House or City Tavern which later was run as
one with Gadsby's Tavern and City Hotel. Headquarters for Washington and
the Alexandria Militia in 1754]
Many are the stories that survive. Some say the husband decamped without
paying his host, doctors, and nurses. Others that he had eloped with
this girl of good family and destroyed her reputation, and so brought
about her death. One story claims that he was a criminal and was seen in
prison by a gentleman from Alexandria, and others far more romantic
tell of his reappearance at stated intervals in Alexandria when he was
observed prostrate upon the tomb. Whatever his own story, he placed the
mortal remains of the little stranger in St. Paul's Cemetery and covered
her with a table tomb which is inscribed with the equally mysterious
inscription:
To the memory of a Female Stranger Whose mortal sufferings terminated
On the fourteenth day of October, 1816.
This stone is erected by her disconsolate Husband in whose arms she
sighed out her last breath, and who under God did his utmost to sooth
the cold, dull hour of death.
How loved, how honor'd once avails thee not,
To whom related or by whom begot.
A heap of dust remains of thee
'Tis all thou are, and all the proud shall be.
In 1808 the celebrated actress, Anne Warren, known as the "ornament of
the American stage," was acting at the new theatre, Liberty Hall, just
across from the Tavern on Cameron Street. While stopping at Gadsby's she
became ill and died. (Not all the Tavern's patrons were so afflicted.)
It is said that her interment was the last in old Christ Church yard.
On October 16, 1824, La Fayette was entertained by the Alexandrians
"amid the wildest popular demonstration of joy and affection,"[108] and
again in February 1825, he returned to Alexandria and Gadsby's for a
farewell entertainment by the Masonic lodge. The tavern at this time was
run by a Mr. Claggett.
Washington's association alone is sufficient fame for Gadsby's. In the
little tavern he recruited his first military command, when as colonel
of Virginia Militia in 1754 he set out to protect the Virginia frontier
from the French and Indians. Again in 1755, as aide to General Braddock,
he established headquarters at the City Tavern. Here, prior to the
Revolution, he celebrated the King's birthday anniversary balls, an
institution subsequently replaced by festivities of his own birthnight
anniversaries:
February 11th, 1799 [22nd, new style] went up to Alexandria to the
celebration of my birthday. Many manoeuvres were performed by the
Uniform Corps, and an elegant Ball and Supper at Night.[109]
At Gadsby's he was entertained right royally by proud and patriotic
citizens on his way to New York to be inaugurated as President, and on
his return to Mount Vernon and private life. Throughout his life he
attended the assembly balls, and from the steps of the new building he
gave his last military order and took his last military review.
John Gadsby left Alexandria for greater fields--his hotels in Baltimore
and Washington were in time more important than the City Hotel. He had a
positive talent for Presidents, and knew them all from Washington to
Polk. On the least provocation, it was said, he could put on an
entertainment that would furnish food for gossip for a week.
In 1836 Gadsby bought the Decatur house in Washington, and proceeded to
entertain the elite of the town with the finest his kitchen and wine
cellar could produce. President and Mrs. Polk often attended these
functions. Again to quote Barbee: "The Chevalier Adolph Bacourt,
Minister from France, attended one of these functions."[110] The
gentleman was not very happy about it, and denouncing Gadsby, he wrote
of him:
He is an old wretch who has made a fortune in the slave trade, which
does not prevent Washington Society from rushing to his house, and I
should make myself very unpopular if I refused to associate with this
kind of people. This gentleman's house is the most beautiful in the
city, and perfect in the distribution of the rooms; but what society,
my God![111]
Gadsby died in the Decatur house in Washington in his seventy-fourth
year, leaving his widow (a beautiful third wife!) to reign in this
mansion some years after his death. He is buried in the Congressional
Cemetery, surrounded by his children and grandchildren.
[Illustration]
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