Ancient Inn Played Historic Role in Drama
of American Revolution and in Lives
of Great Figures of Colonial Days

By Jack Scherer III

It was as "A Female Stranger" that she arrived at the bustling little port of Alexandria, Va., that Indian summer day in 1816, and it was as "A Female Stranger" she died in old Gadsby's Tavern, on the corner of Cameron and Royal Streets opposite the public square, when the ravages of typhoid proved more than the physicians and nurses could combat.

An intriguing tale, this, and one that has defied solution for these hundred years and more. Who was the young woman so obviously of gentle birth who was carried from the English vessel by her solicitous husband? Why did he stand in the darkened chamber at Gadsby's Tavern and demand an oath of those attending her that they would not divulge anything that transpired in the room of pain?

The unusual inscription marks the pretentious tomb erected by the bereaved husband in old St. Paul's Cemetery:

"To the memory of a Female Stranger
Whose mortal suffering terminated
on the 4th day of October, 1816

"This stone is erected by her discon-
solate husband in whose arms she
sighed out her latest breath, and who
under God did his utmost to soothe the
cold dull hour of death.

"How loved, how honor'd once avails the not,
To whom related or by whom begot,
A heap of dust remains of thee
'Tis all thou art, and all the proud shall be."

The sympathetic treatment afforded faltering wayfarers at Gadsby's Tavern in the early days of the nineteenth century is typical of the hospitality evidenced the length and breadth of the land by proprietors of inns whose sole contact with the rest of the world was an evening over the grog cup with dome dust-covered traveler who was only too glad to pass along the news of the day from Philadelphia or New York and later, of a new West that was springing up over night.

Hospitality Repaid In Cut Glass

Such a traveler was the English Free-mason who arrived at Gadsby's one night in 1811--ill and unwilling to disclose his incognito. Members of the lodge in Alexandria immediately saw that he had every comfort and he was restored to health and sent on his way, still a "mystery."

Four years later there arrived from England 2,500 pieces of exquisite cut glass, a present from the unknown traveler to the Masonic chapter whose members had ministered to him. In the bottom of each piece were the initials and numbers of the lodge and the accompanying card set forth merely that the glass was a token of appreciation for fraternal courtesies. "From an English Gentleman and Brother."

One hundred and seventy-five pieces of this valuable collection remain in the lodge today, the others having gone the way of things perishable.

Such legends as these whisper from the corners of Gadsby's tap room and ghost fingers point to tables where outstanding men of the Colonies deliberated informally many of the causes that went into our Constitution.

For Gadsby's Tavern was a popular center of public gatherings the length of King's Highway. The traveler on his way South began his journey at the northern terminus of that famous road--Gadsby's; at the southern limit it was Raleigh Tavern in Williamsburg that drew his attention--two famous hosteries of a golden era when Virginians took time to practice the social graces and a session at the Tavern always closed the day.

Originally Was Called City Tavern

Gadsby's originally was the City Tavern, built in 1752. In 1792, or thereabouts, it was purchased by John Wise, an experienced "host" of his day. Wise erected another and larger building and sold the entire holdings in 1794 to John Gadsby, well known English caterer. Called Gadsby's Tavern now, it soon became famous throughout the Colonies and entertained at one time or another most of the notable men of its time.

Here George Washington, Marquis de Lafayette, Baron de Kalb, and John Paul Jones were familiar figures. Here Anne Warren, "ornament of the American stage," and toast of two generations, often regaled the townspeople with the latest fashions from abroad.

The fanfare of military pageantry was forever wafting across to the courthouse from the street before the Tavern. Washington had his headquarters at Gadsby's while recruiting his first command--two companies of Provicial Troops--for frontier fighting against the French and Indians. From Gadsby's the young officer left as a major in Braddock's command and back he came after the disastrous Monongahela expedition to muster out his men at the old headquarters.

After the capture of Fort Duquesne in 1758, Washington married the widow Custis and retired again to private life at Mount Vernon. Called again, this time to act a commander-in-chief of the Continental forces, Washington was planning his campaign in the North when Lafayette and De Kalb landed at Charleston and proceeded to Alexandria to take part in the struggle being waged by the ill-equipped revolutionists. At Gadsby's Tavern they met John Paul Jones, dapper little future admiral and founder of the United States Navy, and together the three journeyed to Philadelphia to carve their respective heroic niches in the annals of the War of Independence.

At Gadsby's in March, 1785, Daniel Jenifer, Thomas Stone and Samuel Chase of Maryland and George Mason, Alexander Henderson and Washington, representing Virginia, met in the conference that culminated two years later in the Constitutional Convention. Thus it is that Gadsby's Tavern can point with pride at the room where leaders of the move for independence began their deliberations.

The Tavern was the scene of the first public celebration of the birthday anniversary of the Father of His Country, after he had returned to his beautiful home on the Potomac after serving as President for eight years.

In November of the following year, a month before his death, Washington held his last military review and issued his last order from the steps of Gadsby's (the order was conveyed to the commanding officer, Captain Piercy, by Washington's adopted son, George Washington Parke Custis.)

Thirty days after Washington's death the "Washington Society was organized in Gadsby's and the members proceeded from there to the old Presbyterian Meeting House to participate in commemorative services and listen to the first eulogy on the departed chief in Alexandria.

Alexandrians can say truthfully "There's a Tavern in the town," that belongs among the historic shrines sacred to the heart of every real American. So representative of its era is it considered that the interior decorations of the banquet hall, including the music gallery and the cornishes, have been purchased and the room reproduced in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. The Tavern has been restored and filled with rare antiques (the Henderson collection among them) by the Alexandria Post of the American Legion, the garden and courtyard by the Garden Club of Alexandria and is now open to the public.

And of all the shrines in Alexandria Gadsby's Tavern, relic of another day, breathes as does no other romance and adventure and intrigue of that stirring century when the new republic was struggling through its infancy.