Cross Keys Tavern

Cross Keys Tavern. . , Built in the early half of the 18th century, Cross Keys Tavern took its name from the Continental term “Cross Keys” denoting an important intersection. The two most important roads in colonial Woodbridge met at the present-day intersection of Main Street and Amboy Avenue. The tavern was also known as Manning’s Tavern, after the innkeeper, John Manning, the first postmaster of Woodbridge. The building was moved in the 1920s to its present location at 142 North James Street., One of the tavern’s most famous guests was President George Washington, who spent the night of April 22, 1789 at the tavern en route to New York for his oath of office as President of the United States. On September 24, 1824, Gilbert de Motier, the Marquis de Lafayette, also stopped here on his way to Philadelphia. Cross Keys tavern served as “the place of the Town Meeting from 1824 to 1848”, when it ceased operation., Cross Keys Tavern is credited as the site of the first raising in Woodbridge of the new American Stars and Stripes flag by Revolutionary War patriot Janet Pike Gage (1748-1821), know as the “Molly Pitcher of Woodbridge”. Assisted by an African-American man named Joe, Gage erected a Liberty Pole bearing the new national flag in fron of the tavern shortly after the end of the war. Gage’s nephew, Zebulon Pike (1779-1813), spent time in Woodbridge as a child before becoming a U.S. Army Brigadier General and discovering Pike’s Peak in 1806., More information visit www.wthpc.org , Woodbridge Township Historic Preservation Commission , Mayor John E. McCormac Woodbridge Township 2013 ,