May 01, 2024
Provided Image/Tun Tavern Legacy Foundation
A rendering shows plans for the Tun Tavern, a restaurant that will be built at 19 S. Second St. in Old City. It is a recreation of the bar where the Marines were established by the Continental Congress in 1775.
A legendary tavern and brewery that was a cornerstone of Philadelphia's colonial era will be recreated near its historic location in Old City, with construction set to begin in November.
The Tun Tavern, built in 1686, originally stood at the corner of Water Street and Tun Alley on the Delaware River waterfront, between Walnut and Chestnut streets. It was the birthplace of numerous organizations in the 18th century, including the Marine Corps during the American Revolution. It also was the first documented lodge used by freemasons in North America.
For years, the nonprofit Tun Tavern Legacy Foundation has been working to identify a site to reconstruct the original building designed by Joshua Carpenter, the brother of Quaker merchant Samuel Carpenter. The name "tun" is derived from the Old English word for a barrel of beer. The original tavern burned down in 1781, leaving behind only illustrations and descriptions of the building.
The foundation has acquired a parking lot on Second Street, between Market and Chestnut streets, to serve as the home of the new Tun Tavern. The site is about 250 yards from the original tavern's location, which now sits beneath Interstate 95. A historical marker for the Tun Tavern can be found near Front and Sansom streets.
"With the land acquisition, we have a strong base to move forward with the fundraising necessary to rebuild the historic Tun Tavern," said Rob Brink, the foundation's board chair. The bulk of the fundraising is expected to come from private donations, corporate partnerships and federal and state grants.
The building will be a functioning mariner's tavern and restaurant that offers educational exhibits and special events, Brink said. All of the restaurant's profits will be donated to organizations championed by the foundation, which is largely comprised of Marines and freemasons.
In the early 1720s, the Tun Tavern hosted the first meetings of the St. George's Society (later the Sons of the Society of St. George), a charitable organization that supported English settlers in need. It also became the home of St. John's #1 Lodge, a Masonic temple where Benjamin Franklin later served as grand master.
An artist's sketch shows the Tun Tavern at the outset of the Revolutionary War.
Other organizations tied to the Tun Tavern included the St. Andrew’s Society, which served Scottish Settlers, and the Friendly Sons & Daughters of St. Patrick, which supported immigrants from Ireland.
Initially dedicated to beer, the tavern expanded to include Peggy Mullan's Red Hot Beef Steak Club, named after the wife of proprietor Thomas Mullan. It hosted dignitaries including Franklin, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and John Adams.
The tavern first served as a military recruitment site for the Pennsylvania Militia, which was organized by Franklin as the colony faced Native American uprisings in 1756. And as the Revolutionary War began in 1775, the Continental Congress used the tavern as a recruitment site for the first two battalions of the Marines and to strategize the fledging nation's first naval fleet.
The groundbreaking for the new building at 19 S. Second St. will be timed to coincide with the 250th homecoming celebration for the Marines and the Navy.
Plans to revive the Tun Tavern come amid a wider effort to revitalize the historic area around Penn's Landing, where an 11 1/2-acre park is being constructed over I-95.
Two other restaurants housed in colonial era buildings also are anticipated to make comebacks in the near future. Society Hill's A Man Full of Trouble Tavern, closed to the public for decades, is expected to reopen this summer after undergoing extensive renovations. And City Tavern, the former restaurant at Second and Walnut streets, will reopen under a new operator from the National Park Service. It closed during the COVID-19 pandemic.
