Famed Half-Way House is Restored

Tavern on Petersburg Pike Has Unique Relics of Its Famed Guests

By Randolph S. Hancock

He who hath not been at a tavern knows not what a paradise it is. O holy tavern! O miraculous tavern!--holy because no carking cares are there, no weariness, nor pain; and miraculous, because of the spits, which of themselves turn round and round! Of a truth, all courtesy and good manners come from taverns.

                                         ---Hyperion, iii. 2.

While the last streaks of daylight yet linger upon the Western horizon, a wise traveler has already made up his mind where he will bestow himself and his belongings for the night. There are many doors all vying with one another to appear hospitable.

The traveler is on his way from Petersburg to Richmond.

In the distance looms the Half-Way House. Being tired from a long ride, and deciding this is the better of all the ordinaries vying with one another for his patronage, he calls his horse to a halt before a welcoming door. Inside, he is greeted by a cordial host, and to him he makes known his wishes of lodging for himself and horse. Preliminaries over and before supper, he visits the tap room (bar room) where he is served, possibly, a mint julep.

Being the guest at one of Virginia's most famous, where the keeper cultivated land extensively and where a whole roast pig, turkey, goose and even a quarter of lamb was not uncommon on the table, the guest was invited and expected to help himself. The carving knife and fork was placed within easy reach.

The time for retiring comes, and the guest is escorted to his room by a Negro orderly. In the room the guest reads, posted conspicuously on the door:

A meal for the Master, 15 pounds of tobacco

A meal for the servant, 10 pounds of tobacco

Lodging for either, 5 pounds of tobacco

Before leaving next morning he indited a poem on the wall of an upper east room. But sad to relate, because of new walls for the old, the poem has been destroyed; and because he was an unknown, or rather little known poet at the time, scant attention was paid to his effort. Doubtless, however, a parallel to "That Old Sweetheart of Mine" passed into the realm of the lost. The poet was James Whitcomb Riley.

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It remained for a far-sighted Richmonder, W. Brydon Tennant, to see the historical value in this old house, and recently he purchased it from the Hatcher family in whose possession it has been almost continuously since the land grant was patented August 30, 1740, in the region of George II.

The old tavern, with only the necessary repairs to preserve it, stands as it was when erected in 1760.

Not only is the old house proper restored to its original appearance, but to the rear a log cabin has been added that will be used as a kitchen. At the South end of the house the old well which was in use when Charles Dickens stopped there in 1842, has been restored to its original likeness.

The tap room will take on its original likeness, however it is not expected to ever see service as a bar room or be used as a doctor's office as it was during the War Between the States. The bottom window, at the northern end of the house, is the window from which quinine was handed to soldiers during a severe epidemic of malaria fever in this section of the State.

All the way across the rear of the house runs a double porch, built many years after the original house, however, the small porch on the front of the building was a necessary part of the tavern when it was built. Here passengers of stage coaches alighted for a rest at the tavern or possibly for refreshments.

Furniture is of the period when the ordinary was in its heyday. An interesting feature of the dining room is an extensive mural showing the pike as it was when taverns were uncommon along the pike, with original historic buildings.

Creaking from a history reminiscent of two wars, one is reminded when visiting the old house by a tablet placed there by the Commission on Conservation and Development, that near here were located batteries Brooke, Semmes, Wood and Dantzler, which were defending the south side of the James River from Drewery's Bluff to Howlett Line.

It is also very probable that the famous rebel Arnold made use of the house on his raids up the James toward Richmond in 1781. Certainly General Lee was a visitor here many times.

With formal opening of the old tavern to be held the latter part of February, it may once again see service to a weary tourist. It will also be loaned to the Daughters of the Confederacy, the Virginia Garden Clubs and other patriotic organizations as a meeting place when desired.

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Virginia has given birth to very many first things, amongst them being the "mint julep." And the "mint julep" was originated, concocted, and served first at the taverns dotted about over the Old Dominion, for every tavern keeper cultivated a bed of mint to mix in drinks for his patrons. The Kentucky Colonel, rightfully a prodigal son of the Old Dominion, when in his best humor, may lay claim to a patent on this famous beverage, but history will dispute his claim.

The story is current of a Virginia tavern keeper who was traveling in Kentucky. Seeking shelter from a severe electric storm in a "house by the side of the road," the host persuaded the Virginian to spend the night. After dinner, and sitting in glowing rays of a hickory fire, the Virginian suggested a mint julep. To his surprise the host professed ignorance of such a concoction.

As the story goes, when the first rays of the sun could be seen in the Eastern heavens, the two were still discussing the merits of the drink. By this time, however, the Kentuckian had become a very proficient mixer. Breakfast over, the Virginian continued on his way.

Several months elapsed before the Virginian returned. Stopping at the gate of his host and enquiring of an old Negro servant of his master's health, he learned that the good old Kentuckian had passed on into another world.

"Dead. Yassuh. dead!" came the old Negro's reply. "T'was dis hyer way suh. Dat grass drink what you alls fixed for Mar's Jack he was mighty pleased wid and gitting long fine wid t'will one day long comes a youngster from one of dem big towns down in Virginny and told Mar's Jack de proper way to drink de julep was wid straws. And Mar's Jack took to drinkin' wid straws, an' the white folks all say dats what kills Mar's Jack. Drinkin' wid straws."

It was custom in the 1700 that the ale-wife, attendant in Virginia taverns, who sold inferior ale was liable to the punishment of being placed on a ducking stool, and dipped in a pool of water.

The punishment, no doubt, was calculated to fit the crime, though justice might have been more poetic if the erring lady had been dipped into a pool of her own concoction. Had succeding generations followed this ancient, but excellent Virginia custom, no doubt concoctor's of pre-prohibition ale would have perished prematurely at the bottom of some lake. "Drinking good ale is a wholesome habit, eminently Christian and eminently Virginian and one of the many proofs that there is something very rotten in our civilization is that so many are compelled to choose between bad ale and no ale at all."

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However, one is assured by history that the taverns of America were by no means always a gathering place of merry-makers. At the "Indian Queen Tavern" in Philadelphia, Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence, where the sage of Monticello was stopping at the time. Moreover, in America's beginning many meetings were held in the taverns over the country before the outbreak of the Revolutionary War for the landlords were in sympathy with the cause of the patriots. The "Green Dragon" in Boston was the headquarters of the Whig Party, and many stirring meetings were held there.

And so with the opening to the public once again of the Half-Way House, a historic landmark, reminiscent of old Virginia lace and hoopskirts is vividly impressed upon one when passing over its threshold.