Tuesday, December 13, 2011

Old Salem Tavern Inn (part 1) and Barns


The above is the back view of the Salem Tavern Inn.  Notice the left side of the house... that is for the kitchen fireplace that made the amazing apple dumplings in the post below.  My next post will take you through the inside of this simply designed home.

The photos below are of the taverns barns and where travelers horses stayed... notice the cribbing that took place on the feeding troughs... horses will always be horses!  I linked up the barn photos to this week's "Barn Charm #63".

The following I copied and pasted directly from www.oldsalem.org regarding the "Salem Tavern".


The Salem Tavern dates to 1784, when it was rebuilt in masonry after an earlier wooden tavern burned to the ground. Parts of the basement walls are from the original 1775 Tavern building.

The Tavern was an important facility for the town of Salem. Leaders decided to place the Tavern on the outskirts of town to avoid the influence of “strangers” on the town as much as possible; however a tavern was necessary for the town to prosper. Food & lodging were needed for the customers Salem leaders hoped to bring in for their store and for their craftsmen.

The Tavern was owned and operated by the Moravian Church who selected a married couple to run the facility. It was important that the couple could run a successful business as well as set a good example of the Moravian community. In addition to the couple, the Tavern required several workers. A hostler and female workers were usually part of the workforce. An enslaved African American family also lived and worked in the Tavern in 1791.

Many important meetings took place at the Tavern, and several important guests stayed there. Salem's most famous visitor stayed here in 1791. President George Washington, touring the southern battlefields of the Revolutionary War, spent two nights in Salem, attending a service, studying the waterworks system, and speaking to the townspeople.

The building reflects the special concerns of the residents, such as no front windows on the main level so that activities inside would not be visible from the streets.  It had a larger lot to accommodate the barns and facilities needed for the visitors. This was also the first building by mason Johann Gottlob Krause, who built most of Salem's largest and most important masonry buildings in the subsequent 20 years.



The wood and storage shed

A view of the horse barn from the Old Tavern Inn

The Feeding Trough

12 comments:

TexWisGirl said...

the old wood is beautiful. i like that - stick the tavern on the edge of town, yet it is considered necessary for prosperity... :)

Rosie Grey said...

Thanks so much for this interesting post, Margaret! I love the photos!

Pix at Under the Oaks said...

Tavern Barns. Very interesting :) The wood is beautiful and so are your pictures. I will have to come back to visit longer.

Cheryl @ TFD said...

Love your photos and post!

Anonymous said...

Oh the history in such a place! I'd love to have been able to hear all the stories told there... esp when George Washington was the one doing the talking! =0 Can you imagine?!

Thanks so much for linking up this post to Barn Charm... I just love the history everyone is bringing lately! =)))

Carletta said...

Wonderful photos to go along with the interesting bit of history you've shared.
Love the patina of some of that wood.

Linda said...

Excellent photos.....makes me want to see it for myself.

Ruta said...

Great textures! I love seeing things from your point of view!

genie said...

Seeing your pictures from Old Salem bring back so many happy memories of our trips there...it was not that far from Asheville, and I just adored going there. Wanted my daughter to attend Salem Academy, but she bucked me on that one. You do a wonderful job with your pictures and then the descriptions you attach. It is almost like a little book of interesting facts about Old Salem. Thanks for all the effort. This is a fabulous contribution to Barn Charm. Genie

Jan n Jer said...

What a cool place...I love it!

Margaret said...

Tricia, I tried to guess which room GW stayed in. Pretty cool thinking one of his horses might have been one causing some of the marks on the wooden feed trough in the barn.

Genie - yes, it is a quaint small university. I wonder, is it an all girl school? I'll have to look that up.

Ginnie said...

I love your photography, Margaret. How many times have I told you that??? :)