_Ye Coffee House, Philadelphia’s first coffee house, opened about
1700–The two London coffee houses–The City tavern, or Merchants
coffee house–How these, and other celebrated resorts, dominated
the social, political, and business life of the Quaker City in the
eighteenth century_
William Penn is generally credited with the introduction of coffee into
the Quaker colony which he founded on the Delaware in 1682. He also
brought to the “city of brotherly love” that other great drink of human
brotherhood, tea. At first (1700), “like tea, coffee was only a drink
for the well-to-do, except in sips.”[93] As was the case in the other
English colonies, coffee languished for a time while tea rose in favor,
more especially in the home.
Following the stamp act of 1765, and the tea tax of 1767, the
Pennsylvania Colony joined hands with the others in a general tea
boycott; and coffee received the same impetus as elsewhere in the
colonies that became the thirteen original states.
The coffee houses of early Philadelphia loom large in the history of the
city and the republic. Picturesque in themselves, with their distinctive
colonial architecture, their associations also were romantic. Many a
civic, sociological, and industrial reform came into existence in the
low-ceilinged, sanded-floor main rooms of the city’s early coffee
houses.
For many years, Ye coffee house, the two London coffee houses, and the
City tavern (also known as the Merchants coffee house) each in its turn
dominated the official and social life of Philadelphia. The earlier
houses were the regular meeting places of Quaker municipal officers,
ship captains, and merchants who came to transact public and private
business. As the outbreak of the Revolution drew near, fiery colonials,
many in Quaker garb, congregated there to argue against British
oppression of the colonies. After the Revolution, the leading citizens
resorted to the coffee house to dine and sup and to hold their social
functions.
When the city was founded in 1682, coffee cost too much to admit of its
being retailed to the general public at coffee houses. William Penn
wrote in his _Accounts_ that in 1683 coffee in the berry was sometimes
procured in New York at a cost of eighteen shillings nine pence the
pound, equal to about $4.68. He told also that meals were served in the
ordinaries at six pence (equal to twelve cents), to wit: “We have seven
ordinaries for the entertainment of strangers and for workmen that are
not housekeepers, and a good meal is to be had there for six pence
sterling.” With green coffee costing $4.68 a pound, making the price of
a cup about seventeen cents, it is not likely that coffee was on the
menus of the ordinaries serving meals at twelve cents each. Ale was the
common meal-time beverage.
There were four classes of public houses–inns, taverns, ordinaries, and
coffee houses. The inn was a modest hotel that supplied lodgings, food,
and drink, the beverages consisting mostly of ale, port, Jamaica rum,
and Madeira wine. The tavern, though accommodating guests with bed and
board, was more of a drinking place than a lodging house. The ordinary
combined the characteristics of a restaurant and a boarding house. The
coffee house was a pretentious tavern, dispensing, in most cases,
intoxicating drinks as well as coffee.
_Philadelphia’s First Coffee House_
The first house of public resort opened in Philadelphia bore the name of
the Blue Anchor tavern, and was probably established in 1683 or 1684;
colonial records do not state definitely. As its name indicates, this
was a tavern. The first coffee house came into existence about the year
1700. Watson, in one place in his _Annals_ of the city, says 1700, but
in another 1702. The earlier date is thought to be correct, and is
seemingly substantiated by the co-authors Scharf and Westcott in their
_History_ of the city, in which they say, “The first public house
designated as a coffee house was built in Penn’s time [1682-1701] by
Samuel Carpenter, on the east side of Front Street, probably above
Walnut Street. That it was the first of its kind–the only one in fact
for some years–seems to be established beyond doubt. It was always
referred to in old times as ‘Ye Coffee House.’”
Carpenter owned also the Globe inn, which was separated from Ye coffee
house by a public stairway running down from Front Street to Water
Street, and, it is supposed, to Carpenter’s Wharf. The exact location of
the old house was recently established from the title to the original
patentee, Samuel Carpenter, by a Philadelphia real-estate
title-guarantee company, as being between Walnut and Chestnut Streets,
and occupying six and a half feet of what is now No. 137 South Front
Street and the whole of No. 139.
How long Ye coffee house endured is uncertain. It was last mentioned in
colonial records in a real estate conveyance from Carpenter to Samuel
Finney, dated April 26, 1703. In that document it is described as “That
brick Messuage, or Tenement, called Ye Coffee House, in the possession
of Henry Flower, and situate, lying and being upon or before the bank of
the Delaware River, containing in length about thirty feet and in
breadth about twenty-four.”
The Henry Flower mentioned as the proprietor of Philadelphia’s first
coffee house, was postmaster of the province for a number of years, and
it is believed that Ye coffee house also did duty as the post-office for
a time. Benjamin Franklin’s _Pennsylvania Gazette_, in an issue
published in 1734, has this advertisement:
_All persons who are indebted to Henry Flower, late postmaster of
Pennsylvania, for Postage of Letters or otherwise, are desir’d to
pay the same to him at the old Coffee House in Philadelphia._
Flower’s advertisement would indicate that Ye coffee house, then
venerable enough to be designated as old, was still in existence, and
that Flower was to be found there. Franklin also seems to have been in
the coffee business, for in several issues of the _Gazette_ around the
year 1740 he advertised: “Very good coffee sold by the Printer.”
_The First London Coffee House_
Philadelphia’s second coffee house bore the name of the London coffee
house, which title was later used for the resort William Bradford opened
in 1754. The first house of this name was built in 1702, but there seems
to be some doubt about its location. Writing in the _American Historical
Register_, Charles H. Browning says: “William Rodney came to
Philadelphia with Penn in 1682, and resided in Kent County, where he
died in 1708; he built the old London coffee house at Front and Market
Streets in 1702.” Another chronicler gives its location as “above Walnut
Street, either on the east side of Water Street, or on Delaware Avenue,
or, as the streets are very close together, it may have been on both.
John Shewbert, its proprietor, was a parishioner of Christ Church, and
his establishment was largely patronized by Church of England people.”
It was also the gathering place of the followers of Penn and the
Proprietary party, while their opponents, the political cohorts of
Colonel Quarry, frequented Ye coffee house.
The first London coffee house resembled a fashionable club house in its
later years, suitable for the “genteel” entertainments of the well-to-do
Philadelphians. Ye coffee house was more of a commercial or public
exchange. Evidence of the gentility of the London is given by John
William Wallace:
The appointments of the London Coffee House, if we may infer what
they were from the will of Mrs. Shubert [Shewbert] dated November
27, 1751, were genteel. By that instrument she makes bequest of
two silver quart tankards; a silver cup; a silver porringer; a
silver pepper pot; two sets of silver castors; a silver soup spoon;
a silver sauce spoon, and numerous silver tablespoons and tea
spoons, with a silver tea-pot.
[Illustration: THE SECOND LONDON COFFEE HOUSE, OPENED IN 1754 BY WILLIAM
BRADFORD, THE PRINTER
Up to the outbreak of the American Revolution, it was more frequented
than any other tavern in the Quaker city as a place of resort and
entertainment, and was famous throughout the colonies]
One of the many historic incidents connected with this old house was the
visit there by William Penn’s eldest son, John, in 1733, when he
entertained the General Assembly of the province on one day and on the
next feasted the City Corporation.
_Roberts’ Coffee House_
Another house with some fame in the middle of the eighteenth century was
Roberts’ coffee house, which stood in Front Street near the first London
house. Though its opening date is unknown, it is believed to have come
into existence about 1740. In 1744 a British army officer recruiting
troops for service in Jamaica advertised in the newspaper of the day
that he could be seen at the Widow Roberts’ coffee house. During the
French and Indian War, when Philadelphia was in grave danger of attack
by French and Spanish privateers, the citizens felt so great relief when
the British ship Otter came to the rescue, that they proposed a public
banquet in honor of the Otter’s captain to be held at Roberts’ coffee
house. For some unrecorded reason the entertainment was not given;
probably because the house was too small to accommodate all the citizens
desiring to attend. Widow Roberts retired in 1754.
_The James Coffee House_
Contemporary with Roberts’ coffee house was the resort run first by
Widow James, and later by her son, James James. It was established in
1744, and occupied a large wooden building on the northwest corner of
Front and Walnut Streets. It was patronized by Governor Thomas and many
of his political followers, and its name frequently appeared in the news
and advertising columns of the _Pennsylvania Gazette_.
_The Second London Coffee House_
Probably the most celebrated coffee house in Penn’s city was the one
established by William Bradford, printer of the _Pennsylvania Journal_.
It was on the southwest corner of Second and Market Streets, and was
named the London coffee house, the second house in Philadelphia to bear
that title. The building had stood since 1702, when Charles Reed, later
mayor of the city, put it up on land which he bought from Letitia Penn,
daughter of William Penn, the founder. Bradford was the first to use the
structure for coffee-house purposes, and he tells his reason for
entering upon the business in his petition to the governor for a
license: “Having been advised to keep a Coffee House for the benefit of
merchants and traders, and as some people may at times be desirous to be
furnished with other liquors besides coffee, your petitioner apprehends
it is necessary to have the Governor’s license.” This would indicate
that in that day coffee was drunk as a refreshment between meals, as
were spirituous liquors for so many years before, and thereafter up to
1920.
[Illustration: SELLING SLAVES AT THE OLD LONDON COFFEE HOUSE]
Bradford’s London coffee house seems to have been a joint-stock
enterprise, for in his _Journal_ of April 11, 1754, appeared this
notice: “Subscribers to a public coffee house are invited to meet at the
Courthouse on Friday, the 19th instant, at 3 o’clock, to choose trustees
agreeably to the plan of subscription.”
The building was a three-story wooden structure, with an attic that some
historians count as the fourth story. There was a wooden awning
one-story high extending out to cover the sidewalk before the coffee
house. The entrance was on Market (then known as High) Street.
The London coffee house was “the pulsating heart of excitement,
enterprise, and patriotism” of the early city. The most active citizens
congregated there–merchants, shipmasters, travelers from other colonies
and countries, crown and provincial officers. The governor and persons
of equal note went there at certain hours “to sip their coffee from the
hissing urn, and some of those stately visitors had their own stalls.”
It had also the character of a mercantile exchange–carriages, horses,
foodstuffs, and the like being sold there at auction. It is further
related that the early slave-holding Philadelphians sold negro men,
women, and children at vendue, exhibiting the slaves on a platform set
up in the street before the coffee house.
The resort was the barometer of public sentiment. It was in the street
before this house that a newspaper published in Barbados, bearing a
stamp in accordance with the provisions of the stamp act, was publicly
burned in 1765, amid the cheers of bystanders. It was here that Captain
Wise of the brig Minerva, from Pool, England, who brought news of the
repeal of the act, was enthusiastically greeted by the crowd in May,
1766. Here, too, for several years the fishermen set up May poles.
Bradford gave up the coffee house when he joined the newly formed
Revolutionary army as major, later becoming a colonel. When the British
entered the city in September, 1777, the officers resorted to the London
coffee house, which was much frequented by Tory sympathizers. After the
British had evacuated the city, Colonel Bradford resumed proprietorship;
but he found a change in the public’s attitude toward the old resort,
and thereafter its fortunes began to decline, probably hastened by the
keen competition offered by the City tavern, which had been opened a few
years before.
Bradford gave up the lease in 1780, transferring the property to John
Pemberton, who leased it to Gifford Dally. Pemberton was a Friend, and
his scruples about gambling and other sins are well exhibited in the
terms of the lease in which said Dally “covenants and agrees and
promises that he will exert his endeavors as a Christian to preserve
decency and order in said house, and to discourage the profanation of
the sacred name of God Almighty by cursing, swearing, etc., and that the
house on the first day of the week shall always be kept closed from
public use.” It is further covenanted that “under a penalty of £100 he
will not allow or suffer any person to use, or play at, or divert
themselves with cards, dice, backgammon, or any other unlawful game.”
[Illustration: THE CITY TAVERN, BUILT IN 1773, AND KNOWN AS THE
MERCHANTS COFFEE HOUSE
The tavern (at the left) was regarded as the largest inn of the colonies
and stood next to the Bank of Pennsylvania (center). From a print made
from a rare Birch engraving]
It would seem from the terms of the lease that what Pemberton thought
were ungodly things, were countenanced in other coffee houses of the
day. Perhaps the regulations were too strict; for a few years later the
house had passed into the hands of John Stokes, who used it as dwelling
and a store.
_City Tavern or Merchants Coffee House_
The last of the celebrated coffee houses in Philadelphia was built in
1773 under the name of the City tavern, which later became known as the
Merchants coffee house, possibly after the house of the same name that
was then famous in New York. It stood in Second Street near Walnut
Street, and in some respects was even more noted than Bradford’s London
coffee house, with which it had to compete in its early days.
The City tavern was patterned after the best London coffee houses; and
when opened, it was looked upon as the finest and largest of its kind in
America. It was three stories high, built of brick, and had several
large club rooms, two of which were connected by a wide doorway that,
when open, made a large dining room fifty feet long.
Daniel Smith was the first proprietor, and he opened it to the public
early in 1774. Before the Revolution, Smith had a hard struggle trying
to win patronage from Bradford’s London coffee house, standing only a
few blocks away. But during and after the war, the City tavern gradually
took the lead, and for more than a quarter of a century was the
principal gathering place of the city. At first, the house had various
names in the public mind, some calling it by its proper title, the City
tavern, others attaching the name of the proprietor and designating it
as Smith’s tavern, while still others used the title, the New tavern.
The gentlefolk of the city resorted to the City tavern after the
Revolution as they had to Bradford’s coffee house before. However,
before reaching this high estate, it once was near destruction at the
hands of the Tories, who threatened to tear it down. That was when it
was proposed to hold a banquet there in honor of Mrs. George Washington,
who had stopped in the city in 1776 while on the way to meet her
distinguished husband, then at Cambridge in Massachusetts, taking over
command of the American army. Trouble was averted by Mrs. Washington
tactfully declining to appear at the tavern.
After peace came, the house was the scene of many of the fashionable
entertainments of the period. Here met the City Dancing Assembly, and
here was held the brilliant fête given by M. Gerard, first accredited
representative from France to the United States, in honor of Louis XVI’s
birthday. Washington, Jefferson, Hamilton, and other leaders of public
thought were more or less frequent visitors when in Philadelphia.
The exact date when the City tavern became the Merchants coffee house is
unknown. When James Kitchen became proprietor, at the beginning of the
nineteenth century, it was so called. In 1806 Kitchen turned the house
into a bourse, or mercantile exchange. By that time clubs and hotels had
come into fashion, and the coffee-house idea was losing caste with the
élite of the city.
In the year 1806 William Renshaw planned to open the Exchange coffee
house in the Bingham mansion on Third Street. He even solicited
subscriptions to the enterprise, saying that he proposed to keep a
marine diary and a registry of vessels for sale, to receive and to
forward ships’ letter bags, and to have accommodations for holding
auctions. But he was persuaded from the idea, partly by the fact that
the Merchants coffee house seemed to be satisfactorily filling that
particular niche in the city life, and partly because the hotel business
offered better inducements. He abandoned the plan, and opened the
Mansion House hotel in the Bingham residence in 1807.
[Illustration: EXCHANGE COFFEE HOUSE SCENE IN "HAMILTON"
In this setting for the first act of the play by Mary P. Hamlin and
George Arliss, produced in 1918, the scenic artist aimed to give a true
historical background, and combined the features of several inns and
coffee houses in Philadelphia, Virginia, and New England as they existed
in Washington's first administration]