User:Thetavernkeeper

THE 76 HOUSE was built with the founding of Tappan (1686) and was expanded by the Mabie family to include additional Tavern space in 1755. The earliest town meetings where held in this Dutch tavern and it remains the the oldest example of Dutch public architecture in America. The earliest town records were kept at the tavern and describe the meetings of the town elders, their appropriations for food, ale and savories as well well as other services provided by the innkeepers: the Mabie family. Being naturally predisposed to separating from the English, these Dutch town elders were among the first to forge their ideas of revolution in a document which was called the resolutions of Orangetown. This document was drafted and signed in the front dining room of the tavern and the original space is maintained in the same fashion it was on July 4 of 1774 when this important local declaration of independence was penned. As the war continued and Fort Lee and New York defined the English might of the hudson river valley and the chain and forts at West point defined the Revolutionary stronghold, The town of Tappan and the 76 house in specific became the front line of the war of independence. This precipitated Washington and his first corp of the continental army to use the 76 House and the Town of Tappan for a significant amount of time and during the year 1780 a number of important events involved the 76 house and our revolutionary founders. The British Spy major John Andre, having been caught north of Tarryatown with Benedict Arnold's plans of West Point and brought to face Washington was imprisoned in the tavern and eventually executed as a spy. This broke tradition and undermined the social structure of the colonies as Major Andre became amongst the first aristocrates executed by colonists and in a very real way defined a war that began about taxation (economics) into a war defined by a call to equality (equal treatment for an equal crime). The 76 also was witness to America's fitful christening as, in Tappan, Washington met with Carlson and received plans of the British evacuation and the official recognition of America as an independent nation on April 19, 1783- our real independence day. The 76 House remains the last Colonial Tavern providing service to travelers in the exact same unaltered structure for over 325 years!