Mount Washington Tavern   (MAP IT)
On the National Road adjacent to Fort Necessity, Farmington, PA

From National Park Service:

Mount Washington Tavern

The Mount Washington Tavern was one of many taverns located along the National Road, the first highway built by the Federal government. The Tavern, built about 1828, was in operation during the heyday of the National Road. James and Rebecca Sampey and their family owned and operated this imposing brick and stone building.

The Mount Washington Tavern catered to the stagecoach clientele and was serviced by the Good Intent Stagecoach Line.

This tavern owes its name to George Washington, who as a young man fought a battle nearby. He returned 15 years later to initiate the purchase of the land which he owned until his death in 1799.

Barroom

Tired, sore and stiff, travelers entered the Tavern for an evening of good food, drink, warmth and conversation. A few tables and many chairs filled the barroom and made a very congenial environment for gentlemen. The barrooms of taverns were vital. Non-drinkers were "few and far between." The barroom was a busy noisy place. Men could swap tales of traveling the "Old Pike", or the National Road, between sips of rye whiskey, and puffs on a clay pipe or a stogie cigar. They also chewed and spit, and indulged in games of cards or checkers.

Taverns were required to have a license. There were four considerations for licensing: financial status of the Inn Keeper; location; facilities for the public; and the ability of the Inn Keeper to discharge his duties.

Parlor

Across the hall is the parlor. Ladies, children, and gentlemen could rest in this pleasant atmosphere. Ladies did not frequent the barroom. Their reputations would have been tarnished if they socialized in this setting. Children could have visited the stables on the west side of the tavern to see the horses and talk to the drivers.

The parlor may have been the fanciest room in the tavern and the only room with a carpet. The heat throughout the building was provided by 9 fireplaces and the carpet would have warmed the cold floor. Here, travelers and local citizens could gather and relax while enjoying a cup of tea or coffee. They would find out about other travelers, where those folks were going, or talk about important issues or events occurring in other parts of the country.

Dining room

The dining room might have been the busiest room of the tavern. Meals were served family-style with the traveler seated at a long table surrounded by chairs or benches. One morning 72 people were served for breakfast. Guests were allowed to eat as much as they liked, but were often hurried as other coaches would be arriving with hungry travelers waiting for a hot and hearty meal. The price of a meal was about 25 cents in the mid 1800's.

Today, exhibits in the room tell about the National Road and tavern life. A reproduction coachman's horn and an original mile marker are in on display. Cast iron mile markers, set out in the early 1830's, let travelers know distances on the road. As you drive along U.S. Route 40, the National Road, original and reproduction road markers may be found each mile along the north side of the original route in Pennsylvania.

Kitchen

The Mount Washington Tavern was noted for its good food and cleanliness. Food was prepared over the open hearth until the cast iron cook stove came along.

Experience was the best teacher when learning how to cook from the hearth, but it was hard work and time consuming. The heavy iron pots were required for the high temperatures of an open fire. The pots with three legs were called spiders and each one could have a fire beneath it. The trammel hook on the crane would be adjusted to various heights above the fire to regulate the cooking speed.

An evening meal might include chicken, pork, wild game, fresh trout, corn, and wheat bread with freshly churned butter.

Bedrooms

Spending the night in a tavern would not be on of the highlights of the trip. Beds were shared with strangers. It was possible to have two or three bedmates during the night. Travelers would arise at all hours to get an early start on the road and another tired wayfarer could crawl in that vacant place in the bed.

Three of the Mount Washington Tavern's seven bedrooms are on display. The second room on the left is more typical of tavern bedrooms. Furnishings for these rooms would have been limited to mostly beds, two or three per room, a few chairs, and a wash stand.

Upstairs/Downstairs

Today, the attic is used for storage, but during the stagecoach period some of the tavern's sleeping accommodations may have been in this area. This did not provide for much privacy for there would have been bed after bed, dormitory style, in one large room.

Presently the basement is also used for storage. When the Mount Washington Tavern was operating, there was a kitchen in the basement. It was a large working kitchen with fruit and vegetable cellars.

Decline

Prosperity along the National Road came to an end with the coming of the railroad. In 1855 the executors of the James Sampey estate sold the Mount Washington properties to Godfrey Fazenbaker.

The new owner lived in the Tavern for over 75 years and occasionally had a paying guest spend the night.

From Thomas Searight's The Old Pike, 1898 (p.227)

Mt. Washington is a point replete with historic interest. Here Washington first measured swords with an enemy, and fought his first battle. It is the site of Fort Necessity, and known in colonial times as the Great Meadows. Gen. Washington subsequently became the owner of this property, and held it until his death. It was no doubt owing to the fact that his first engagement with an armed foe took place on this ground he resolved to buy it. In his last will he directed it to he sold by his executors, together with other real estate he held, and the proceeds divided among parties he named. The tract, when owned by Washington,contained two hundred and thirty-four acres, and he valued it at six dollars an acre. He thus refers to it in a note appended to his will:

"This land is valuable on account of its local situation. It affords an exceeding good stand on Braddock's road, from Ft. Cumberland to Pittsburgh, and besides a fertile soil, possesses a large quantity of natural meadow, fit for the scythe. It is distinguished by the appellation of the Great Meadows, where the first action with the French, in 1754, was fought."

Previous to 1835, and by divers good conveyances and assurances, down from Washington, this estate passed into the hands of the late Hon. Nathaniel Ewing, who caused to be erected on the property the large brick house, still standing, and one of the most noted old taverns on the road. Judge Ewing subsequently sold and conveyed the property to James Sampey, who went into possession and kept the tavern for many years, and until his death. The first year after Mr. Sampey's death the management of the tavern and farm was placed in charge of Robert Hogsett, who turned over to the representative of the estate the sum of four thousand dollars, as the profits of one year. The Good Intent line of stages stopped at Sampey's, and as showing the extent of the business of the house, Mr. Hogsett mentions that on one morning seventy-two stage passengers took breakfast there. John Foster and James' Moore subsequently kept this house. They were sons-in-law of James Sampey, and Moore was an old stage driver. At the close of business on the road, Ellis Y. Boggs purchased the property and the tavern was closed. William D. Beggs, the father of Ellis, died in this house. He had collected the tolls for many years at the gate near Searights, was likewise a school teacher, and a good one, and was, for a number of years, Steward of the County Home. His eldest daughter, Jane, was the second wife of Dr. Smith Fuller, the eminent Uniontown physician. Godfrey Fazenbaker succeeded Boggs in the ownership, and engaged extensively in farming and stock raising. Mr. Fazenbaker died in possession, and the property descended to his heirs, who are the present occupants. The big water-trough still remains on the opposite side of the road from this old tavern, but all else has changed since the days when the proud stage driver cracked his long silken ended whip over the backs of his four spanking steeds.

From Robert Bruce's The National Road..., 1916:

On the left, about one and one-quarter miles west of Farmington, we come to Mount Washington, a fine old brick tavern. In the olden days the "Good Intent" line of stage coaches stopped here. But interest in this locality goes back far beyond the National Turnpike, for it was in the fields just south of here that George Washington hastily constructed Fort Necessity when, as Lieutenant-Colonel of the Virginia militia, he was forced to give up Gov. Dinwiddle's plan to erect defences on the Monongahela and Ohio, and fall back before superior French and Indian forces.