Page:Historic highways of America (Volume 10).djvu/167

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TAVERNS AND TAVERN LIFE
167

of the food and drink. Eccentric old "Boss" Rush in his famous tavern near Smithfield (Big Crossings) even kept his poker under lock and key.

The tavern signs so common in New England were known only in the earlier days of the Cumberland Road as many of the tavern names show. The majority of the great taverns bore on their signs only the name of their proprietor, the earliest landlord's name often being used for several generations. The advancing of the century can be noticed in the origin of such names as the National House, the United States Hotel, the American House, etc. The evolution in nomenclature is, plainly, from the sign or symbol to the landlord's name, then to a fanciful name. Another sign of later days was the building of verandas. The oldest taverns now standing are plain ones or the two story buildings rising abruptly from the pavement and opening directly upon it. Of this type is the Brownfield House at Uniontown and numerous half-forgotten houses which were early taverns in Pennsylvania and Ohio.

The kitchen of the old inn was an im-