White Horse Inn

White Horse Inn. c. 1763. , A Wayside Inn , The first innkeepers on the White Horse tract were Swedish settler Marcus Huling and his wife, Margareta, a daughter of Mouns and Ingeborg Jones, the area's earliest European settlers. The Hulings' inn was established in the 1720s, probably in their house near the river bank. By 1750, and well into the next century, the "White Horse" was a prominent public house in southeastern Berks County, appearing on the Nicholas Scull Pennsylvania maps of 1759 and 1775, and on the infamous British "spy" map of southeastern Pennsylvania., George Douglass I purchased the White Horse Inn site in 1762. The earliest section of the existing inn (the three bays on the right) was completed by 1763. The addition (the three bays on left) was probably constructed between 1798 and 1805. While operating the nearby "Amity" country store, George Douglass I and his son, George Douglass II, leased the inn to a succession of innkeepers through the early decades of the 19th century. The last reference to the White Horse as a "Tavern stand" appeared in George Douglass II's 1832 Will., As a wayside inn, the White Horse accommodated teamsters, livestock drovers, stage drivers, and other travelers on the King's Road connecting Philadelphia to Reading and Oley. As a country "Tavern-stand," it served beer, ale, wine, spirits, and meals to workmen, farmers, and others from the growing crossroads community. Prices were fixed in 1700 by Provincial Law. A meal of pork or beef, "with small beer," was seven pence. Hay or grass for a horse was six pence per night, including lodging for the "Horseman.", The White Horse Inn played an important historical role in the Amity region as a civic, social, economic, and cultural gathering place. During the Revolutionary War it was a primary assembly site for militia musters. Samuel Jones, a grandson of Mouns Jones, mustered here with a local battalion in August, 1776 before marching to Pennsylvania. In addition to providing an arena for political discourse, the Inn was a polling place, a venue for auctions of real and personal property, and the meeting place for the Amity Township Society for the Prevention of Horse Thievery. The inn became the hub of America's original form of social networking: tavern-table conversation and distribution of the news of the day through German- and English-language newspapers. The tavern keeper also dispatched and received letters and served as a point of contact for people who posted "broadside" notices and advertisements in regional newspapers., Unlike most "country" taverns at the time, the White Horse presented an elegant façade constructed of coursed and fully dressed cut stone, not unlike Douglass' nearby Georgian home. The interior plan was typical for smaller inns, with just two first-floor rooms, without hallways, in the original section and one "cage bar" room in the later Federal-era wing. The proprietor's quarters and dormitory rooms for guests were on the second floor., By the early 20th century the structure was converted to apartments. The Historic Preservation Trust acquired in 1971 and has restored its original floor plan. The building now houses the Trust's administrative offices and archiving center, and stands as a welcoming venue for all who are interested in the preservation of early American landmarks.