c. 1695, Lexington, Wessex County, Massachusetts
To view more photos from Lexington and Concord or purchase prints, click here
This venerable old structure was for a period of an hour or so, a refuge from the first battle in the War of Independence. Actually its role in that battle, the battles of Lexington and Concord began the evening before. Solomon Brown of Lexington had been to Boston earlier in the day, and on his return had passed a patrol of British soldiers, which he reported to the proprietor of the tavern, William Monroe, a British exile and member of Captain John Parker’s minutemen.
Before the sun had risen the next day, the British soldiers were massed on the village green at Lexington, and the war for Independence began in earnest. Following the brief skirmish there, the British marched on to Concord, whereupon they again engaged the minutemen. The trip back to Lexington was a horror show for the British, who found themselves under fire the whole way and took heavy casualties. Upon reaching Lexington, Colonel Hugh Earl Percy and his thousand reinforcements turned the tavern into a field hospital, and also drank and ate their fill. A bullet hole in the ceiling of the taproom is a startling reminder of the haphazard conduct by the British during their short stay there.
Later, George Washington dined here, and the table that he sat at is on display upstairs.
Today Munroe Tavern is preserved as a museum by the Lexington Historic Society, open weekends beginning April 16 and daily May 30-October 30.
