The Early Taverns of the White Mountains

Part of the 2019 Grand Hotels Summer Speaker Series

The early taverns of the unsettled White Mountain region were essential to the survival and comfort of travelers who passed through the desolate notches, often in the winter months. This talk will describe these buildings and the services they provided, offering a stark contrast with the luxury of the grand hotels that served as more leisurely clientele in the latter half of the nineteenth century. Together with the home and the meeting house, the tavern was essential to New England life in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Taverns of the White Mountains were simpler than those in urban areas, but far more essential to the very survival of teamsters, drovers, and their animals who braved the dangerous roads of the White Mountains, often in the bleak months of winter.

James L. Garvin served for twenty-four years as New Hampshire State Architectural Historian, having previously served as curator of Strawbery Banke Museum, the Portsmouth Athenaeum, and the New Hampshire Historical Society. He is the author of A Building History of Northern New England and co-author of books on early New Hampshire taverns and travel, furniture, and hand tools.