Welcome to the Merchants and Drovers Tavern Museum Online!
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Click to view our Fall 2009 Newsletter!
Welcome to the official website of the Merchants and Drovers Tavern Museum, one of New Jersey’s premier 19th century taverns and hotels, restored today to its 1820’s appearance. The Merchants and Drovers Tavern Museum is a new museum of early tavern life and stagecoach transportation, opened to the public in June 2001. The Merchants and Drovers Tavern Museum is a recipient of a General Operating Support Grant from the New Jersey Historical Commission, a Division of the Department of State.
Questions? Comments? Concerns? Contact Alex Shipley, Director of Museum Operations at (732) 381-0441, or e-mail mdtavernmuseum@aol.com
Upcoming Events
Ghosts Nights for Children – February 27, 2010 at 6:00PM, 7:00PM and 8:00PM
Admission: $5.00/children, $7.00/accompanying adults
Reservations are required.
Mission, Location, and Contact Info
The Merchants & Drovers Tavern Museum Association is dedicated to preserving the Merchants and Drovers Tavern (1795/1820) and to interpreting early tavern life. The tavern, located at the corner of St. Georges Avenue (Route 27) and Westfield Avenue, is recorded in the Historic American Buildings Survey and listed in the National and New Jersey Registers of Historic Places. The Association also own and operates the Abraham Terrill Tavern as the Museum Gift Shop.
Mailing Address: P.O. Box 1842, Rahway, NJ
E- Mail: mailto:mdtavernmuseum@aol.com
Website URL: http://www.merchantsanddrovers.org
Window into the 19th Century
Welcome to the Merchants and Drovers Tavern, built around 1795 on the country road to Elizabethtown at the intersection of the road to Westfield. John Anderson purchased the building in 1798 and applied for a license to operate a "tavern at Rahway... in the house lately occupied by Squire Pierson as a store."
It was not long before Anderson, obviously a tavern keeper of some success, enlarged the tavern, expanding it laterally to the north. The building became the four-story federal style inn that stands today by the mid-1820s, probably shortly after Dr. David Craig bought the site in 1822.
In early New Jersey, taverns such as the Merchants and Drovers served a multitude of functions. In the absence of civic and other public buildings, this inn was utilized for government meetings, auctions, business transactions, patriotic celebrations and public entertainment. It also served as a stagecoach stop. Both travelers passing through and newcomers to the community could find accommodation. Here newspaper and traveler would impart the news of the day, and men of the neighborhood shared their stories in the club-like atmosphere of the taproom.
Operated continuously as an inn from 1798 until the mid-1930s, the hotel has remained substantially unchanged. Its two parlors, taproom, kitchen, long room, twelve bedrooms, and servant quarters have been painstakingly restored to their 1820s appearance and furnished with period antiques and reproductions.
To step across the threshold is to call upon the ghosts of the past and recapture the romance of another age.
Visitors to the Merchants and Drovers Tavern can experience the hospitality of the 1820s. The visitor may quench his thirst in the taproom, sit for a while in the parlor or, perhaps, try a bed for size at this "hands-on" museum. In addition to daytime hours and programs, the tavern is also open for evening candlelight tours and events. The 18th century Terrill Tavern, also on the property, houses the Museum Shop.
Living History Club for Children!
The Merchants and Drovers Tavern Museum is now accepting enrollments for its Living History Club for children, aged 9-17. The club’s aim is to supplement the local public school Social Studies curriculum, as well as to encourage students to continue learning about specific areas of history they have an interest in, whether ancient history or modern history. Within this club, children will be able to learn about and identify with a particular period of history that they find intriguing. The camp will also utilize field trips and living history reenactors from various periods of history in order to augment the children’s education and experience at the museum.
We are also looking for volunteers to help run and supervise the program. If you are a professional educator, college student, or plain history buff, we can use your help in teaching and promoting the study of history to our local children. If interested in enrolling in the program, please call David Walker at (908) 967-2495. The program is sure to continue to foster your child’s interest in history! Application available online! Just fill out and mail in! Living History Club Application
Volunteer for History and Put Your Skills to Great Use!
This is an exciting time here at the Merchants and Drovers Tavern Museum, and we don’t want you to miss out on great opportunities to become involved in history!
This year we will begin costumed interpretation of the tavern on weekends, with volunteer interpreters guiding our visitors throughout the tavern, and helping to bring their experience with the Merchants and Drovers Tavern Museum to life! We are also beginning the Merchants and Drovers Tavern Museum Living History Club for children aged 9-17 this upcoming fall, in conjunction with the school year and local school districts.
In order to offer the general public quality programs and events, we need your help! If you would like to become a historical interpreter, a volunteer within our living history club for children, or a volunteer in another capacity, give us a call now by phone at (732) 381-0441, or drop us an e-mail at this address: mdtavernmuseum@aol.com.com. Any amount of time you can volunteer is appreciated, whether it is one hour a week or ten!