Ashland Memories: The taverns on the corner
When Francis Graham arrived in Uniontown in 1821, he noted that there was no tavern in the town, but that Joseph Sheets “entertained travelers as they called.” It did not take long for more formal facilities to appear, all near the same intersection.
Early historical accounts provide conflicting details regarding the first tavern, but evidence shows that it was located on the southwest corner of Main and Center. In one account the wheelwright John Hull opened a tavern in a small building there in 1822, and it was later moved back to make room for the Slocum House on the same property.
But another account says that the Franklin tavern on this site was “opened about 1821 by Elias Slocum, Sr.” and that Slocum ran it “for many years and was quite successful.”
Other taverns in Ashland
William Robinson leased the Franklin tavern in 1855. However, the town purchased the property in 1858, and the old tavern was torn down to make room for the town hall.
A second tavern was built on the other side of Center Street, on the site where William Montgomery built the first cabin within the limits of Ashland. It is generally known as Treace’s tavern since George Treace took over ownership from John Vail in the 1850s.
The third tavern was the Findley tavern, which stood on the north side of Main, across from Center. James McNulty reportedly purchased this two-story log building in 1844. It then became known as the McNulty tavern.
These taverns served as way stations for travelers on the stagecoaches that went through town in those days.
New buildings replace old taverns
By the 1850s, the hospitality center of Ashland moved farther west along Main Street with the construction of larger hotels, leaving the old stagecoach taverns to fade into memory. Those memories were sometimes stirred back into the consciousness of older townspeople by chance discoveries.
In 1866, a new three-story brick building replaced the old McNulty Tavern, and became known as the Bushnell block. Incidentally, that building stood for nearly a century, until the Preis store located in it burned in 1962.
A few years later, memories bubbled up in the Ashland Times under the heading “The Old Well.” The author recalled a well that had been in front of the old Findley tavern, capped with a pump “whose friendly handle stuck out ready to shake for every thirsty passer by.”
The well had been covered over when the old tavern was torn down, and might have been forgotten, except freezing and thawing had opened up a crack in the side of the pavement. By 1872, this had grown large enough to drop a pebble down to plink into the water below. There was some concern that the fissure might open up enough for a small child to fall through.
Some decades later, a chance discovery reminded Ashland’s oldest residents of the tavern on the corner. Robert Smilie was tearing down an outhouse at his residence in 1912 when he discovered an old brass key, about three inches long, attached to an iron tag. Engraved on the tag was “Robinson” and “No. 4.”
Mr. Smilie recalled the tavern that had stood some seventy years before on the southwest corner of Main and Center. When Mr. Robinson was proprietor, it had been a two-story frame building with a portico around it and very small window panes. Surmising that his outhouse had once been on that property, Smilie imagined that a patron at the Robinson had set his room key down and forgotten it, and it had been hidden there all those years.
This article originally appeared on Ashland Times Gazette: Ashland Memories: The taverns on the corner
