'Ordinary' Hospitality Here

'Ordinary' Hospitality Here. Stage Coach and Tavern Days. , Major James Crutcher erected the first public tavern in the town. After its sale he erected a second tavern, about 1798, on this corner of the public square. Crutcher hoisted a sign of a lion rampant on each side of the board to mark the establishment., In the first half of the nineteenth century, taverns, called ordinaries, served as social centers for the county's predominantly rural populations. The large assembly room of this tavern, located at the crossroads of the two roads that connected Louisville and Bardstown to Elizabethtown, was where the town's Board of Trustees held their first meetings., This old tavern stand was afterwards occupied and owned by Daniel Waide. He built a brick addition to the original log structure in 1801. After Waide's untimely demise, the house passed through several hands with owner Mr. Hugh Mulholland removing the wooden structure and putting in its place a multistoried brick that stands here today., It was at this point in time that the public tavern and inn became known as the Eagle House., Many a traveler has spent a night here including the Swedish Nightingale, Miss Jenny Lind, while on her North American tour in 1851., In the 1870s, Co. A, 7th U.S. Cavalry under the command of George A. Custer was quartered at the Eagle House and in other town buildings., Entertainment for Man and Beast, The HOUGH, CARTER and THOMAS stagecoach line delivered mail to the tavern on its daily run from Louisville to Nashville spanning a time period of 1830-1860., The stage schedule showed a noon to one o'clock stop at the Eagle House for the change of horses and dining of passengers., Landmark Targeted During Civil War, During a December 27, 1862 attack by C.S.A. Gen. John Hunt Morgan on the Federal Troops garrisoned at Elizabethtown, cannonballs fired from atop Cemetery Hill ripped through the roof of the Eagle House Tavern and Inn. Seven shots severely damaged the structure and killed two Yankees in an attic room used as a makeshift holding cell for soldiers committing infractions while on leave from their post at Fort Boyle, near Colesburg. Drawings and messages on the wall of the makeshift prison told about the short captivity of these men. It is reported spirits remain in the building following the violent deaths., (Captions), Meals at all hours and choice liquors to suit the convenience of travelers were offered by Thomas B. Munford at the Eagle House. When Joseph Tarpley purchased the establishment from Munford's estate on September 1, 1856, the transaction listed twenty two beds among the inventory of household and kitchen furniture of the lodgings that accompanied the popular tavern rooms., Hough, Carter and Thomas stage at Mammoth Cave., The Eagle House, later known as the Smith Hotel, is pictured here in the 1920s. The building was designed in a vernacular Federal style with paired chimney stacks and a brick ell addition. When this photo was taken pedimented windows on the second floor marked the significance of this structure on the public square at the corner of two highly traveled roads. The old hostelry was renovated in the 1930s by its owners, William Allen Pusey and Alfred Brown Pusey, with the roof line altered and all railings, window hoods and sidewalk coverings torn away., The "Sign of the Lion" , Thursday, August 3, 1939 - The Elizabethtown News announces the return of the Rampant Lion to holstery on the Public Square.