Gabreil Davies and the Indian Kings

3 historic taverns where you can't get a drink, and one where you can

New Jersey has weird liquor laws. Liquor licenses are tied to population by county and sell for millions of dollars when they become available, which means a lot of restaurants are BYOB. And one of the oldest taverns in the state, the Indian King—where the cellar was used to jail deserters and Loyalists during the American Revolution—is in a dry town where until recently you couldn’t even buy a beer.

The Indian King of Haddonfield took its name from an older tavern on the Tuckerton Stage Road, long gone, and is preserved as a museum that you can tour. And when you’re done, you can walk a few blocks to Kings Road Brewing, a brewpub that serves Revolution-themed beers such as Black Musket Stout (my favorite). The original King in the Pine Barrens was near Lake Atsion, and not even a cellar hole remains. I visited the ruins of a few other taverns on the Stage Road and you can look at the photos here. The “newer” King is a fun museum visit with good tour guides. Here is the upstairs meeting room where the “Council of Safety” likely met:

Another museum you can visit is the Gabreil Davies Tavern House which is extremely well preserved and original; it was built in 1756 and remained within the same family for over two centuries. It is located on Timber Creek in Glendora, and the Gloucester Township Historical Society holds reenactments and other events there. The creek has lowered and is more of a swamp near the tavern now, but this view would be what you saw from a boat docked at the creek:

I visited during a reenactment where they fired a cannon, allowed you to fire muskets and throw hatchets at targets, and partake of colonial-era fare. I declined. Instead, I spoke with a docent who showed me the original post office mail boxes and counter that were used in the building, and the original furniture.

You can’t get a drink here, either. The nearest gin mill is on White Horse Pike, Kid Rip’s Tavern. Taverns were public houses and inns, but they often served beer and spiced ales as those were a household staple at the time. Here are a bunch of cosplayers playing with their cannon. It wasn’t loaded with shot, of course.

The final tavern where you can’t buy a drink is the Cedar Bridge Tavern in the Pine Barrens, where the last battle of the American Revolution was fought. Two captains engaged John Bacon, a leader of the Pine Robbers Loyalist guerrilla outfit, near the tavern on December 27th, 1782. The tavern itself was built in 1740 in Barnegat, and is one of the oldest intact taverns in the United States. Here’s the dirt road leading up to it.

One tavern that’s even older, but less intact, is the Barnsboro Inn, in Mantua. It was built in 1720, but was expanded over the years and only one section remains original to that era. However, you can buy a beer there. It’s one of the oldest taverns in continous operation in the U.S., and they serve a good burger and have live music on the outdoor patio most nights. Here’s what it looks like on the outside today:

Inside there’s a nice snug bar and a cozy dining room that looks more 1800s vintage, but upstairs there’s a unisex bathroom with short doors that apparently dates to the earliest log cabin era:

They sell corn cakes with jalapenos and make a decent burger, where I celebrated by 51st birthday. Speaking of old, the oldest standing log structure east of the Mississippi River is also in New Jersey; that’s the Nothnagle Log Cabin house, and it was up for sale when I visited. It’s also been expanded, but the original structure has not been rebuilt.

This is in Gibbstown, on a major road beside a library and school. It was not open for tours when I visited, but here are photos from someone who was allowed inside. And apparently it’s been listed since 2018, for $2.9 million, which may be why it has not sold. It has an interesting history, as part of the New Sweden Colony that “dates to 1638 with ironwork from the 1590s.”

Another historic spot where you can have a spot of tea is the Proprietary House in Perth Amboy, once inhabited by Benjamin Franklin’s Loyalist son William, former governor of New Jersey. My friend the reporter Brian Donohue did a great piece where he visited the house and enjoyed their high tea. Next time I’m thereabouts, I’ll be dropping in for some tay.

What’s next for The Pine Bairn?

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