From collection Eastern Illustrating & Publishing Company Collection
The Elkins Tavern - Built in1787 Peacham VT
Three-quarter view of The Elkins Tavern, an old farmhouse with an ell and attached wagon shed. The house has a Victorian porch on its side, which reaches back along the ell. The property is listed on The National Register of Historic Places for its historical and architectural significance. According to its 1977 nomination to the National Register, the Elkins Tavern was built in 1787 by Jonathan Elkins, from Haverhill, MA, as a business providing lodging for travelers on the Bailey-Hazen Military Road. The road, "...started in 1776 after a recommendation from General George Washington, was to run from Wells River, Vermont, on the Connecticut River, to St.Johns, Quebec, to aid in the plans to capture Canada as a fourteenth colony...after the effort failed....the road [had] only reached Hazen Notch, in Westford, VT...[opening] up the interior of Northern Vermont for settlement. "Although in its earliest years the tavern was well used, subsequent re-routing of northern traffic isolated the structure on a dirt road,where it has been fortunately preserved by sensitive owners. The Tavern is ...significant architecturally in that it contains one of the better Eighteenth Century interiors still intact in the state of Vermont." The hand-scrawled title on the negative suggest the image was printed as a postcard. [The Jonathan Elkins Tavern -- Nomination to the Natinal Register of Historic Places, U.S.Dept. of the Interior, prepared by Richard C. Cote and John P. Dumville]
