Old Taverns of New York — Background and Themes

Taverns as Political Forums

The catalog subjects list hotels, bars, and taverns, but the excerpts reveal that Bayles treats these establishments primarily as political spaces. The Black Horse Tavern was the scene of conferences during the Zenger libel case; the Merchants' Coffee House hosted the colony's first exchange and later became a hub for anti-tax meetings. Bayles records that in 1773 a printed handbill summoned inhabitants to the Coffee House to draft an address thanking ship captains who refused to carry tea. The Sons of Liberty organized at Hampden Hall, drawing up resolutions that declared anyone assisting tea importation “an enemy to the Liberties of America.” These episodes show taverns functioning as de facto legislative chambers and newsrooms.

Social Clubs and National Societies

Bayles documents how taverns housed the meetings of ethnic and professional societies. Hull's Tavern hosted anniversary celebrations for the Welsh on St. David's Day, the Scotch on St. Andrew's Day, the Irish on St. Patrick's Day, and the English on St. George's Day. The King's Arms (formerly the Exchange Coffee House) was the meeting place of St. Andrew's Society. The Moot, a lawyers' club, also convened in taverns. These details illustrate that taverns were not merely drinking spots but venues for organized sociability that reinforced community identities.

Documentary Method and Evidentiary Style

Bayles builds his account from primary sources: handbills, newspaper notices, resolutions, and committee reports. He quotes a 1773 address declaring that “Stamp Officers and Tea Commissioners will ever be held in equal estimation.” He notes that Connecticut tavern-keepers posted the names of New York importers and refused them service. The narrative is driven by such evidence rather than by narrative reconstruction. Bayles does not speculate about interior decor or daily life; he sticks to what the documents say about who met where and what they decided. This makes the book a useful reference for researchers interested in the intersection of public houses and colonial politics.

Readers should approach Old Taverns of New York as a documentary history rather than a social or architectural survey. Bayles compiles meeting notices, resolutions, and newspaper excerpts to show how taverns served as the colony's informal civic infrastructure. The book is most valuable for its transcriptions of primary sources and its chronological arrangement of political events tied to specific venues. Those seeking descriptions of buildings or daily life will need to look elsewhere; those interested in the mechanics of colonial protest and association will find a wealth of specific, sourced information.

Reading about Fraunces Tavern’s crowded revolutionary nights, I remembered the furnished rooms of my own past, where arguments and laughter felt like politics. Then I thought of The Englishman in China During the Victorian Era, Vol. 1 (of 2) As Illustrated in the Career of Sir Rutherford Alcock, K.C.B., D.C.L., Many Years Consul and Minister — Context and Discussion, where a lonely consulate felt equally like a threshold for strangers and their quiet negotiations.