Tun Tavern was a tavern in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania which served as a founding or early meeting place for a number of notable groups. It is traditionally regarded as the site where the United States Marine Corps held its first recruitment drive.[1] It is also regarded as the "birthplace of Masonic teachings in America."[2]
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Samuel Carpenter and his brother Joshua erected the tavern beginning in 1685 at the intersection of King (later called Water) Street and Tun Alley. Tun Tavern was named for the Old English word "tun", meaning a barrel or keg of beer.[3] In the 1740s, a restaurant, "Peggy Mullan's Red Hot Beef Steak Club", was added to the tavern.[4]
Tun Tavern hosted the first meetings of a number of organizations. In 1720, the first meetings of the St. George's Society (forerunner of today's "Sons of the Society of St. George") were held there.[5] The Society was a charitable organization founded to assist needy Englishmen arriving in the new colony. In 1732, the tavern hosted St. John's No. 1 Lodge of the Grand Lodge of the Masonic Temple in its first meetings. (The Masonic Temple of Philadelphia recognizes Tun Tavern as the birthplace of Masonic teachings in America.) In 1747, it became the founding point of the St. Andrew's Society, which, similarly to the St. George's Society, aided newly arriving Scottish.
Tun Tavern was a significant meeting place for other groups and individuals. In 1756, Benjamin Franklin used the inn as a recruitment gathering point for the Pennsylvania militia as it prepared to quell Native American uprisings. The tavern later hosted a meeting of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and the Continental Congress.
According to tradition, Tun Tavern was also where the United States Marine Corps held its first recruitment drive. On November 10, 1775, the First Continental Congress commissioned Samuel Nicholas, a Quaker innkeeper, to raise two battalions of marines in Philadelphia. The tavern’s manager, Robert Mullan, was the "chief Marine Recruiter." Prospective volunteers flocked to the place, enticed by cold beer and the opportunity to join the new corps. The first Continental U.S. Marine unit was composed of one hundred Rhode Islanders commanded by Captain Nicholas. Some three million U.S. Marines have been exposed to the significance of Tun Tavern. Each year on November 10, U.S. Marines worldwide toast the colonial inn.[2]
Tun Tavern no longer exists, having burned down in 1781. Its location is now occupied by Interstate 95 where it passes along Penn's Landing. Tun Alley was once between Walnut and Chestnut Streets east of Front Street. There is a commemorative marker on the east side of Front Street in that locale, across from Sansom Walk.[6]
The National Museum of the Marine Corps in Quantico, Virginia contains a Tun Tavern-themed restaurant with a lunch menu, alcoholic beverages, and bread pudding.