City's second OldestBar

[eldondre]

Just a detail, but those troughs were for spitting only. A quick look at the design tells you that if you pissed in one, it would be all over your shoes/pants. Or stop by Ray's and ask the owner, Lou, he was raised in that bar from the day it opened.

given the horse**** everywhere I'm not sure it would have made a difference but yeah, that makes sense, thanks for the tip. always wondered if that were true

[Hospitalitygirl]

http://networkedblogs.com/xYteu\

So the building where Twisted Tail is could easily give a run for second or third oldest bar.

The Twisted Tail Bourbon House and Juke Joint is a new arrival in the Headhouse Square area of Philadelphia’s South Second Street. However, the building housing the Twisted Tale is one of the oldest in the city to house a drinking establishment—and there are reports of resident ghosts to prove it!

Daniel and Susanna McKaraher were the first to open a tavern in the building, in about 1799. But the McKarahers’ story begins with another tavern—the Sign of the Mermaid, located on the west side of Second Street, just north of Lombard.

In the 18th

century, South Second Street contained a large number of taverns. Some were alehouses that drew a rowdy crowd. Others were more respectable; farmers who came from the countryside to sell meat and vegetables in the New Market often used their bedchambers for overnight stays.

The Mermaid was one of the larger taverns—three stories, with a four-story addition in the rear, and separate kitchen and stables. Unfortunately, by 1788, the long-time owner of the Mermaid, William Murdoch, had fallen steeply into debt. Murdoch’s tavern was confiscated by the city, and purchased in a sheriff’s sale by William and Susanna Hammill.

Susanna was born in Fagg’s Manor, Chester County, to schoolteacher John Dunwoody and his wife Susanna. William Hammill, a “Scots-Irish” immigrant from the northern part of Ireland, married the daughter Susanna in 1774 at the Third Presbyterian Church (“Old Pine”), at Fourth and Pine Streets. Apparently, Susanna was only 16 years old at the time of their wedding.

A couple of years after their marriage, William left to fight in the American Revolution. It was said that the hardships of life in the army eventually caused William’s death, which came not long after purchasing the Mermaid. For a decade after her husband had died, Susanna managed the tavern, while raising five daughters from the marriage (two sons had died in infancy).

It was not at all uncommon for women—most of them widows—to operate commercial businesses in Philadelphia of that era. Next door to the Mermaid, for example, was a millinery shop (a shop for women’s hats) owned by a Black woman, Jane Mullen. A large African American community, both slave and free, lived in the New Market area, and many of them were undoubtedly Mullen’s customers. And next door to her establishment was another millinery shop, run by Arrabella Stewart.

Susanna Hammill was not much more than 30 years old when William died. She was said to have been uncommonly beautiful, and we can expect that the young widow had many suitors. It was a local blacksmith and militia officer, Daniel McKaraher (also spelled McCarragher, etc.), who finally won her heart. Unfortunately, Daniel already had a wife (of a sort), Rosanna; they had been married in 1780, while Daniel was still serving as a soldier in the Revolution.

In 1792, after Daniel had evidently been involved with Susanna Hammill for quite some time, Rossana McKaraher sued him for desertion and cruelty, seeking a divorce and alimony. Daniel replied in court that Rossana had never really been “lawfully joined in marriage with him.” Furthermore, he said, if he had “ever offered any indignities” to Rossana, it had only been “occasioned by her violent temper and disposition and by [her] indecent and provoking conduct.”

The court awarded Rosanna a divorce in June 1793, by which time Susanna and Daniel had already had two sons—James and Charles. Susanna was also pregnant at the time with their daughter Elizabeth. But Rosanna wasn’t through with Daniel yet. In a new case, in 1800, the court ordered Daniel to pay her $120 in alimony per year, which he continued to send her until the day he died.

Though Daniel and Rosanna were continually slugging it out, he and Susanna seem to have been a good match. Susanna was a resourceful businesswoman, while Daniel was a highly respected member of the community. Some sources state that Daniel McKaraher had been a freedom fighter in Ireland, and was forced to emigrate for political reasons shortly before the American Revolution. He fought with Washington’s troops, and endured the cold winter at Valley Forge. After the war, he became active in political affairs and with the Masonic brotherhood, serving for many years as treasurer of Philadelphia’s Grand Lodge.

Daniel had his house and smithy at the corner of Third and Union (now Delancey) Streets. His receipt books, on file at the Pennsylvania Historical Society, show that he continued to perform occasional smithing jobs even after opening the tavern with Susanna.

It is curious that throughout the decade of the ’90s, the Mermaid tavern (the name might have changed by then) continued to operate under the nominal ownership of “Susanna Hammill (widow), innkeeper,” while city directories located her husband at the house and blacksmith’s forge at Third and Union. Moreover, Daniel McKaraher’s account books show that as late as 1807 he was paying for two separate pews at the Presbyterian Church—one for himself and another for the “Widow Hammil.” That is evidence, perhaps, that the church authorities had refused to recognize the fact that Daniel was divorced from his former wife and married to Susanna.

On August 11, 1794, in a sheriff’s sale, Daniel McKaraker purchased a vacant lot on the opposite side of the street from his wife’s tavern. The property was located on the northeast corner of a small street called Relief Alley (now Naudain Street), currently the site of the Twisted Tail.

But events intervened before Daniel and Susanna could take steps to build on the property. A month after buying the lot, Daniel was called away to command a militia company in military action against the farmers of western Pennsylvania who had taken up arms in the so-called Whiskey Rebellion. And on Oct. 11, 1794, Susanna’s 18-year-old daughter, Susanna Hammill, named for her grandmother and mother, died after a lingering illness. Apparently, Daniel was away with the troops when his adopted daughter died, and Susanna and her children had to mourn without him.

Close to five years passed until Daniel and Susanna McKaraher were at last able to open their tavern at the new site. At the same time, they shut down both the old Mermaid tavern and the blacksmith’s shop on Third Street, and probably relocated their living quarters to the new building as well. It was quite spacious and one of the better taverns in the district, furnished with looking glasses and many items of mahogany.

But the McKarahers’ good fortune did not last very long. According to burial records, Susanna died at age 49, and was buried in the cemetery of the Third Presbyterian Church on Aug. 21, 1807. After Daniel died, in 1811, their sons Charles and James continued to operate the tavern for a few years.

Today, the Twisted Tail also occupies the two-story building that adjoins the old McKaraher tavern to the north. That building was erected about five years earlier than the tavern by the joiner and cabinetmaker John Somerville, who with his wife Christiana had previously kept a house and carpentry shop near the southwest corner of Second and Pine Streets. In January 1794, their building was leveled by a tremendous fire, which destroyed a number of buildings on the block. A few weeks later, Somerville bought his new property across the street; it had originally been part of the same vacant lot as the one that McKaraker purchased. John Somerville died five or six years after the new building had been constructed—probably about the same time that the McKarahers opened their tavern. For a few years, Somerville’s widow, Christiana, operated a china shop on the premises...

[gideon]

what about Currans in the northeast? It used to be a flop house and it has a huge bar on the ground floor likely dating to the 1880's. A lot of original details in there too.

I was there about a year ago for a dart tournament and got to meet the owners and ask them about the building.

[nanyika]

http://networkedblogs.com/xYteu\

So the building where Twisted Tail is could easily give a run for second or third oldest bar.

Thanks to Hospitalitygirl for reposting a version of the article I wrote on the Twisted Tail. As the author, I am embarrassed, however, because the version on this thread -- an earlier, unfinished draft of the completed article -- contains a number of errors. If people click on the address that Hospitalitygirl has enclosed, they will be able to call up the corrected version, which appears on the Queen Village Neighbors website. Far more detail about the Twisted Tail building and its original owners will be included in a book about Philadelphia history that I am hoping to complete soon.

It was partly to avoid this kind of situation that I had requested people wishing to reprint my article to contact me for permission. However, I should have known that once posted on the internet, things get around. I realize that Hospitalitygirl meant only the best. I blame myself for allowing the uncorrected draft to have been posted in the first place (I was in a rush!).

In regard to the topic of the thread, although the Twisted Tail was built cc. 1799 as a tavern, the building did not remain in use as a tavern for its entire history. Further up 2nd St. from the Twisted Tail, incidentally, is the Dark Horse tavern (once the Plough). It was built as a tavern probably slightly earlier than the Twisted Tail, but I haven't yet been able to verify the date. The Venture Inn on Camac was built in the same period (1790s), when Camac St. was still "out in the countryside."

Nanyika (Michael)

[Dayman]

and there are reports of resident ghosts to prove it!

So if a bar that's 100-150 years old has a few ghosts, shouldn't every square inch of Rome have a couple ghosts? I mean the city has been inhabited for around 4000 years and so far I haven't met Augustus or Scipio Africanus.

[MarketStEl]

Thanks to Hospitalitygirl for reposting a version of the article I wrote on the Twisted Tail. As the author, I am embarrassed, however, because the version on this thread -- an earlier, unfinished draft of the completed article -- contains a number of errors. If people click on the address that Hospitalitygirl has enclosed, they will be able to call up the corrected version, which appears on the Queen Village Neighbors website. Far more detail about the Twisted Tail building and its original owners will be included in a book about Philadelphia history that I am hoping to complete soon.

It was partly to avoid this kind of situation that I had requested people wishing to reprint my article to contact me for permission. However, I should have known that once posted on the internet, things get around. I realize that Hospitalitygirl meant only the best. I blame myself for allowing the uncorrected draft to have been posted in the first place (I was in a rush!).

In regard to the topic of the thread, although the Twisted Tail was built cc. 1799 as a tavern, the building did not remain in use as a tavern for its entire history. Further up 2nd St. from the Twisted Tail, incidentally, is the Dark Horse tavern (once the Plough). It was built as a tavern probably slightly earlier than the Twisted Tail, but I haven't yet been able to verify the date. The Venture Inn on Camac was built in the same period (1790s), when Camac St. was still "out in the countryside."

Nanyika (Michael)

I'm not entirely certain what "reprint" means in the context of the World Wide Web, which was designed from the get-go to make information widely available and easy to find through hyperlinks. I do know there was a controversy in the mid-1990s over some commercial sites blocking unauthorized hyperlinks to their pages; I think the main site involved was one called Sidewalk.com, which didn't last too long after the issue flared up. I think, though, that custom, if not the law, allows hyperlinking to other sites freely, and limited quoting of material from copyrighted sites under "fair use" doctrine. What it would not allow is someone else reposting an entire copyrighted article on another site without the copyright holder's permission.

That said, I changed the hyperlink on the "Buildings Then and Now" post we ran that was prompted by this thread so it goes to the version of your essay on the QVNA site. Which is a pity, for I would love to have promoted the Southwark Historical Society, if for no other reason than to keep the name of Southwark alive as something other than a housing project. (I had something to say about that too.)

Unrelated question: How did you arrive at your posting handle on this forum? I would have assumed female from the ending of the word, which sounds African in origin; I don't know of too many African males who have names ending with those syllables.

I was told by the former owner of the Venture Inn that the building was a station on the Underground Railroad in the 1850s. Have you been able to verify anything like that?

[nanyika]

I appreciate MarketStEl's efforts in changing the link on the "Buildings Then and Now" site. I doubt, however, that the change was necessary. As far as I know, the versions of my article on the Southwark History and QVNA sites are the same. The Southwark History committee is a group that people on the Queen Village Neighbors Assoc. history subcommittee started several months ago, largely to expand our geographical area of activity to include the blocks south of Washington Avenue. "Queen Village" and "Pennsport" were designations that real estate interests in the 1970s gave to adjacent areas of what formerly had been one district—Southwark. In April, our committee held an event at Old Swedes Church celebrating the 200th anniversary of the Southwark district's municipal charter; the event was well attended and I think quite successful.

The fact that an incomplete and incorrect draft was posted to those sites was entirely my own fault. Within two or three days, as far as I know, the version of the article on the sites was replaced. However, Hospitalitygirl evidently downloaded the article before the mistake had been corrected. The mistakes in the draft copy are quite glaring; they reflect my reliance, in the beginning, on incomplete or misleading information. It was mainly after visiting the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, and viewing the letters and other documents they have on file, that I was able to piece together a more accurate account of tavern keeper Daniel McKaraher and his three wives.

I have not researched the Venture Inn. From my past readings about the building, I remembered that it was supposedly built cc. 1790. Nanyika was the name of my beautiful cat, who died about 15 years ago. When I found him, emaciated, on the street, his fur was largely reddish brown. With proper nutrition, it turned a glossy black. As I recall, "Nan" is a prefix in Central African languages meaning "beautiful." "Yika" is a place name, as in Tanganyika." There is a city of Nanyika in Kenya, I believe.

[FlipperPA]

It is a real eye opener when you go to somewhere like Oxford in England... and see pubs that have been open since 836 AD! The usually have a door about 4' high and a ceiling about 5' high. You need to tilt your head sideways to drink. You can see where Tolkien got the idea for Hobbiton, that's for sure.

[darthsinatra]

Nanyika who are you and where can we read more of your stuff? Better yet can my wife and I buy you a beer and have you regale us in person?

[MarketStEl]

Thanks, Nanyika, for both the explanation of your posting handle (FWIW, mine should be quite obvious, but it's also an anagram of sorts to a longer handle I used to refer to myself in the Usenet era, when I was a regular on a bunch of newsgroups and employed in the University of Pennsylvania's media relations office; full explanation of THAT handle, a piece of which survives in my .sig, provided upon request), for the explanation, and for the inadvertent opportunity to shamelessly plug my day job by way of picking a nit:

"Buildings Then and Now" is not the site, but a regular feature that appears every Saturday, and on occasional Wednesdays (the goal is twice weekly), on the Philadelphia Real Estate Blog. Our main rivals run similar features. I forget what Curbed Philly calls its historical feature (if indeed it has a department name); Naked Philly calls its building history feature "DeLorean Time Machine."

Then, of course, there is the inimitable, knowledgeable, and gratuitously profane Philaphilia, which also runs weekly in the CityPaper.

[Pitt]

I remember reading somewhere that the Khyber has been continuously operating as a bar for a long time, maybe over a century. Maybe I can find a citation.

There's a photo of what's now Prohibition Taproom in the 1890's on phillyhistory.org. It was a tavern then too, complete with Old West style swinging doors. I don't know how long it's been a bar.

[ilcorago]

Does anyone know the early history of the Venture Inn, the gay bar/restaurant in the 200 block of South Camac? I believe it has been called the Venture Inn and has been gay patronized since the 1950s. But it's quite an old building. I wonder if it was a bar for all of its history.

The Venture Inn opened in 1919 as the "Venture Tea Room," owned by Blanch L. James. By 1930 it was called the "Venture Inn" and owned by George and Helen Cappo. Through the 40s, 50s and 60s it was a musical bar with live entertainment. Charles Swier, who wrote musicals played there for 12 years. In the 50s and 60s it was a college hangout. It didn't become a gay bar until 1973 when Hans Lang bought it.

[eldondre]

let's just hope longacre doesn't buy it and rename it tuna can or something.

[ilcorago]

I'm pretty sure Thom is wrong there. There seems to ba a lot of mythology about the Venture. It was indeed a stable in the 19th century, to the building adjoining it facing Spruce. The WPA Guide to Philly published in 1937 stated that that property was owned by the Barrymores, but no 19th century city directory supports that. The Venture was a college hang out in the 1950s and '60s. It didn't advertise as a gay bar until 1973, when Hans Lang ran it. I hope that helps!

Thanks, MSE. I found this from Tom Nickel's book on Gay and Lesbian Philadelphia:



I too have heard that it was on the underground railroad. Also the house next door, which was last the Inn Philadelphia. Perhaps no surprise as "father of the underground railroad" William Still's private residence was around the corner at 244 S. 12th street.