Taverns
Why
was
there a tavern there before there was a town?
The
road
from the mouth of the Monocacy River to Baltimore was used by travelers
and by drovers who were taking herds of cattle or pigs to market in
Baltimore.
Taverns provided food, drink, and sometimes lodging.
A
tavern near a crossroads might serve many other functions.
-
a social
gathering
place
-
a source of
news
and gossip
-
a place for
political
meetings, speeches, and elections
-
a courtroom
for
a trial, so that local people did not have to travel all the way to
Annapolis
or Frederick
-
entertainment
-
a place to play cards (against the law on Sundays!), and a tavernkeeper
could get a special license to have a billiards table
What
might the Cracklin Tavern look like?
Inns
and taverns were usually made of logs covered with poplar or oak
weatherboards.
Most of the pictures of taverns show building that were one and a half
stories high with dormer windows. The roofs were made of chestnut or
cypress
wood shingles. These buildings were usually the size of double houses
with
covered porches.
The tavern near the
crossroads
in town, run by Charles Crockett, was described as "the old brick
tavern"
in a deed. It would probably have looked more like the Layton House.
"Public
Houses of Entertainment and Their Proprietors, 1750-1828," Anne W.
Cissel,
The Montgomery County Story, Volume 30, No. 3, August,
1987.