WHITE HORSE INN (c.1762):
Family History:
The first person to utilize the property as a public
house location was Marcus Huling. Huling, a Swedish
Indian trader, was married to Mounce Jones’ daughter
Margaret. Marcus Huling lived from 1687 to 1757 and
is buried in the St. Gabriel’s church yard. Huling
was a well known Indian interpreter and a man of great
wealth. He was a vestryman at St. Gabriel’s Church
in 1753. Perhaps due to his association with a tavern,
Huling was very active in the 1730s and 40s in seeking
roads through petition. In 1744, Huling signed the petition
which created Amity Township.
In the 1750s, the property was owned by Philip Baltsar
Craesman and his wife Anna Marie who had son Philip,
Jr. in 1752. After George Douglass acquired the inn,
he hired innkeepers to run the establishment. Between
1765 and 1767, Douglass’ hired innkeeper, Philip
Cole, had to pay L45 a year in rent. In addition to
paying rent, Cole is listed as owning 2 horses and t
cattle. By 1772, Douglass had lowered the rent to 35
Pounds per year. Among these people were William Whitman,
Dieter Bucher, and Henry Haffa. By 1780, the innkeeper
was Henry Haffa. Haffa had worked as a boot maker and
as custodian for Hessian prisoners in Reading previously.
The White Horse was visited by Duke of Rochefoucault
de Liancourt in 1795. The Duke fled France during the
Reign of Terror. The Reign of Terror occurred during
the French Revolution from 1793 to 1794 and its purpose
was to liquidate all internal counter-revolutionary
elements. On May 7, 1795, Duke De Rochefoucault wrote,
“Traveling through the United
States of N.A. we stopped at the White Horse Tavern,
four miles from Pottsgrove. This inn is kept by a
Frenchman, a native of Lorraine, who has married an
American woman, the daughter of a native of Avignon,
by a woman from Franchecomte. The whole family speaks
bad English and bad French but probably good German.
They pay a rent of $86.00 for 50 acres of land and
the house; their owner lives very near & keeps
a shop. The house and the land which is of very good
quality, would have been worth $60 more had it been
let to a private family. But the shopkeeper had very
justly calculated that a good tavern so near his house
was of more value to him than $60, and that a well
frequented inn could not but procure customers to
his shop, from whom he would be likely to derive advantages
far exceeding the sum which he thus sacrificed. The
good people of the inn enquired with much eagerness
for news from France, etc. The situation of this borough
and likewise of all the other places on the road from
Pottsgrove to Reading is delightful.”
By 1915, when the building had been made into apartments,
the eastern apartment was used by a Thomas Clark, the
middle one by Ed Knauer, and the western one by Henry
Knauer who also had a shoemakers shop. Another tenant
of the eastern apartment at another time was William
Bush who had a disabled Civil War veteran living with
him. This veteran was confined to a wheel chair at the
time. Also, a Pat McGovern occupied the center apartment
for a time and was a puddler at the Douglassville Iron
Works which were owned by David Knauer. At another time,
Mrs. Moser lived in the eastern apartment while she
ran the boarding house that was here.
Social History:
Early in the tavern’s existence, it was known
as the “White Stag.” Nevertheless, the White
Horse Inn was the first stop on the highway from Reading
to Philadelphia. Near here was a ford originally known
as the “White Horse Ford.” The ford was
apparently located slightly upriver from here. The Philadelphia
stage would have passed by the inn twice a week. This
inn would have been well known since it was a day’s
journey from Philadelphia and located near a ford of
the river. The White Horse was the Oley Valley’s
first house for public entertainment and accommodation.
After the covered bridge was built, the White Horse’s
business declined because traffic began to bypass its
location and people began to use the Black Horse Tavern
(present-day Douglassville Hotel).
Soon after the Swedes began settling the region, the
roads that would make this area a major intersection,
began to be created. Although no confirmation date has
been found, as early as 1709, petitions were recorded
for the creation of the Great Manatawny or King’s
Road which is modern-day Old Philadelphia Pike. The
King’s Road was the major road from Philadelphia
into what is today Berks County. Then, in 1718, a petition
was made for Andrew Robeson’s Road which roughly
followed east-bound 422 between Route 662 and terminated
near the Lincoln House on Lincoln Road; this road was
an extension of the King’s Road (Old Philadelphia
Pike) toward Reading. It is important to realize that
Reading was not officially founded until 1748—therefore,
there was still no need for a road to extend all the
way to present-day Reading. Confirmed in 1719, the Great
Road from Oley to Philadelphia roughly followed Route
662 from Route 422 to Route 73 by way of Pleasantville.
Therefore, by 1719, three major roads in Berks County
met near the White Horse Inn.
By the 1730s, interest began to be shown for roads
on the Union Township side of the river. In 1731, the
Great Schuylkill Road was created to run from Millard’s
Mill to Nutt’s Ironworks (this ironworks were
located in what is today the Coventry area of Montgomery
County). This is modern-day 724, from near Coventry
Mall to near Cavatto’s Restaurant in Union Township.
The road was extended above the Morlatton area in 1735.
By 1768, the lane to the Mounce Jones house was part
of a connecting road between the Reading-Philadelphia
Road and the Reading-Chester Road; this road would have
utilized the White Horse Ford to cross the river. In
1770, the Great Road from Reading to the White Horse
was confirmed. This included east bound 422 and Old
Philadelphia Pike.
The important thing to realize is that by 1770 the
only road from Reading to Philadelphia passed the White
Horse, the ford across the river that most people used
to get to Thomas Millard’s mill was near here
with a road across it, and the road to Oley terminated
near the Douglass House. Therefore, this was a major
eighteenth century crossroads. This would have been
a very good place to locate an inn. By 1751, the Pennsylvania
Gazette described the location as a “thriving
inn.”
More fascinating than the list of owners of this property
is the type of activities which were done at the inn.
A 1740 issue of the Pennsylvania Gazette listed an advertisement
seeking to recruit troops for a British expedition against
the Spanish West Indies. This same advertisement, which
was during the War of Jenkins’ Ear, advised all
potential army enlistees for an expedition to the West
Indies that “Mr. Huling’s in Manatawny”
was serving as one of twenty recruiting stations in
the province. The War of Jenkins’ Ear was a struggle
between England and Spain that grew out of commercial
rivalry and ultimately led to the War of Austrian Succession.
In 1740, Pennsylvania was a still a colony of England
and liable to support her in such matters. During the
Revolutionary War, the tavern was a mustering place
for the Continental levies and a training ground for
militia.
It was apparently common for inns to not only be recruiting
stations in the 18th Century but also locations for
public meetings and public announcements to be posted.
Voting of local townships would also have taken place
here. In 1746, Huling’s neighbor Andrew Sadowski
posted the following notice:
“On the 4th of this instant
was lost from Andrew Sadowski, of the Township of
Amity, the sum of about thirty pounds, in gold, viz.,
three half johanneses, one double doubloon, and the
remainder in muicores. It was tied up in a piece of
linen cloth, with a hickory bark about it. Whoever
shall find the said gold, and send it to Marcus Huling,
shall have five pounds reward.”
Later, Sheriff Sales, election parties, and meetings
of the Society for the Prevention of Horse Thievery
were also held at this stagecoach stop. In 1801, notices
in Reading newspapers invited, “all friends of
the Christian religion to attend the cornerstone laying
of the Episcopal Church at Morlatton at the White Horse
in Amity Township on Saturday, June 6, 1801, at eleven
o’clock a.m., when there will be preaching in
both English and German…” On March 2, 1803,
John Yocum advertised a $40 reward for the return of
a dark bay horse which was stolen out of his stable
near the White Horse Tavern on the night of February
27th or 28th.
By 1778, tavern licenses cost three Pounds annually
for the retailing of wines and liquors. According to
records found in the Pennsylvania Historical Society,
a William Shippen sold one pipe of Madeira wine from
a government hospital store to Henry Haffa who kept
the inn for 400 Pounds.
During its existence, the tavern housed many notably
people. George Washington visited the property twice.
On November 10, 1793, during an inspection tour of Reading
in the aftermath of the yellow fever epidemic, he stopped
at the inn. Washington was riding a Rappahannock mare
and was traveling with his secretary and nephew, Bartholomew
Dandridge. In addition to inspecting Reading as a temporary
capital location, Washington took the opportunity to
view the Union Canal which was being built at the time.
Washington, in 1794, again stopped during his journey
west to suppress the Whiskey Rebellion. He traveled
in a coach of state with a military escort at the head
of a militia column. The Whiskey Rebellion was an insurrection
in the Pennsylvania counties west of the Alleghany Mountains
in response to an excise tax which had been placed on
whiskey by the government. Most people in this region
made a living by producing whiskey.
It is also believed that Henry Melchior Muhlenberg stayed
here at the times in which he was preaching at St. Gabriel’s
Church. He preached there every two weeks from 1745
to 1752 and then occasionally until 1761. In 1780, Muhlenberg
wrote in his diary that a glass of rum at the tavern
cost $8.
Later, the building was used as a boarding house for
railroad workers.
Architectural History:
Sometime around 1727, Marcus Huling constructed the
first inn building. A 1727 map shows not only the inn,
but also Marcus Huling’s house situated right
on the river similar to the location of the Mounce Jones
house.
The current structure is of the Georgian style and
its principle façade is constructed of coursed,
dressed sandstone. The remaining three facades are also
constructed of sandstone but they are not dressed. The
original section of the structure was the eastern section
and was of the double cell type; this section consisted
of two rooms on each floor. Today, this section includes
the main entrance room, the “meeting” room,
and the office and storage rooms on the second floor.
Around 1762, George Douglass enlarged the structure
to the west. Douglass’ addition consisted of one
room on the first floor with two rooms above. Today,
this would include the tap room and the caretaker’s
apartment on the second floor. The western door opened
into the bar and the eastern door opened into a women’s
sitting room in the eighteenth century.
By 1915, the second floor had been divided into a series
of apartments. The building was purchased by the Historic
Preservation Trust of Berks County in 1971 and has undergone
restoration—including the addition in the 1970s
of the adjoining kitchen-service area. The addition
is an improvement that replaced a shed roof construction
that was washed away by a flood. In 1972, Hurricane
Agnes flooded the entire area and water rose to fourteen
feet high on the tavern walls. Restoration work on this
property was done until 1985.
Most of the structure, however, is restoration work
with little original materials remaining. The oak flooring
in the north room (the “meeting” room) on
the first floor is original. Also, the head and jamb
panels on the windows in the second floor’s south
room are original (this is one of the storage rooms).
The current pump on the property is over an early well.
There is also evidence that there was another well just
to the west of the building’s current configuration.
At one time, there would a have been a stable one hundred
feet long to the rear of the property.
Property History:
The White Horse Inn is located at the southern end of
what was originally a 1,000 acre tract that was initially
taken by Justa Justasson in 1701. At that time the quit
rent consisted of one bushel of good merchantable wheat
per one hundred acres; this is similar to what Mounce
Jones was paying for his land. Marcus Huling purchased
the property adjacent to Mounce Jones’ in 1717
from descendants of Justa Justasson. At this time, the
property contained approximately 200 acres. In 1725,
Marcus Huling owned 220 acres and a homestead. The 1734
tax list shows Huling owning only 200 acres, however.
After the death of Marcus Huling, the inn and 120 acres
were acquired by Phillip Balthasar Craesman in 1757.
However, by 1750, Craesman was apparently living there.
After one year of ownership, Craesman was advertising
to sell the property in Christopher Sower’s Germantown
newspaper:
“Philip Balthaser Craesman,
in Amity Township, 42 miles from Philadelphia, 14
miles from Reading Town, makes known that he wants
to sell his plantation, which lies on the road by
the Swedes. There is an inn, the White Stag, a thriving
place, where Marcus Huling formerly resided. There
are 140 acres of good land, with a good orchard, good
meadow, and other amenities.”
Craesman sold the property in 1757 to Samuel Cookson
who eventually sold it in 1762 to George Douglass. In
1775, George Douglass still owned the property which
included two homesteads. These, presumably, included
the inn and the mansion.
A 1785 sales description of the property is as follows:
“ALL that PLANTATION, formerly
in the possession of Ellis Griffith, containing about
112 acres, situate in Amity township, Berks county,
adjoining Mountz Jones’s plantation, one mile
from Schuylkill, and, on the new road, 10 from Reading.
The improvements are a dwelling-house, barn, stables
and other out buildings, a young orchard of about
200 apple trees of choice fruit, about 50 acres of
good wheat land cleared, under good fence, 6 acres
of meadow, and more may be made at a small expence,
and the whole watered in the driest season; the remainder
is well timbered land. For viewing the premises and
knowing the terms of sale, apply to George Douglass,
Esq; near the land, or for the terms of sale only,
to John Wilson, at Samuel Pleasant’s, in Philadelphia,
or to the subscriber, near Mountholly, New Jersey,
who will make a good title to the purchaser, and allow
a reasonable time for payment of part of the purchase
money.”
This was signed by a John Lee on September 25, 1785.
Again, in 1791, another sales description was posted
as follows:
“THAT noted Tavern, known by
the name of the White-horse on the main road leading
from Philadelphia to Reading, 41 miles from the former,
and 13 from the latter, with 120 acres of land, part
excellent meadow, with two bearing orchards, on which
is erected a large commodious stone dwelling house,
kitchen and out-houses, good barn and stabling, with
sheds for 30 teams. For particulars, enquire of George
Douglass, adjoining the premises.”
When George Douglass, Jr. died in 1833, his daughter
Elizabeth Buckley inherited the property. Elizabeth
and her descendants owned the property until 1944. In
1944, Earl Schurr bought the property. At the time the
Historic Preservation Trust of Berks County acquired
the property (1971), the apartment tenants were each
paying $30 per month. On April 21, 1975, the structure
was listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
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