The Rider Tavern
Location
The Rider Tavern
255 Stafford Street
Charlton, Massachusetts
Directions
From Massachusetts Turnpike, take exit 9 (Sturbridge). Turn right at second exit onto Route 20 east. After entering Charlton, at the fourth set of traffic lights turn left onto Center Depot Road. Then turn right at the blinking light. The Rider Tavern, 255 Stafford Street, is about 1 mile on the left, at the intersection with Northside Road.
Excerpts from "A Bicentennial History of the Rider Tavern 1797-1997"
By William O. Hultgren
Located
on the former Worcester and Stafford Springs Turnpike twelve miles
west of Worcester Massachusetts is the most outstanding historic
building in the Town of Charlton, The Rider Tavern. The tavern is
being restored by and is the home of the Charlton Historical Society.
The imposing architectural features of the structure, together
with its original interior woodwork, stenciling and hardware make
Rider Tavern one of the least altered and best documented examples
of a wayside tavern of the Federal period in New England.
Work began in early 1797 on the ninety foot long by thirty two
foot wide, three story building. Eli Wheelock, a local innkeeper
and distiller, planned that this new inn would be the finest building
on the road between Worcester and Hartford. To help him in building
the new tavern he formed a partnership with a local businessman,
Leonard Morey.
On September 18, 1797, during the construction of his new tavern,
Eli Wheelock died. Village tradition attributes the thirty-seven
year old man's death to injuries sustained in a fall from the third
story roof of the uncompleted building.
In October, 1799, Morey brought the construction work to completion
after being named administrator of Wheelock's estate. His Accounts
as Administrator against the Estate of Eli Wheelock 1797-1799 has
provided an invaluable resource in the researching the sources and
prices of materials used in the construction of the tavern.
The record provides information that tells us that every item used
in the construction of the twenty-one room building came from within
six miles of the Northside Village except for the whiting and white
lead for the paint which came from the store of Stephen Salisbury
in Worcester, twelve miles away.
Following Wheelock's death the tavern building was divided into
thirds to settle his estate. In 1800, the recently remarried widow
of Eli Wheelock received the eastern one third as her dower or widow's
third. The remaining two-thirds of the building was then sold at
auction.
The exterior and to some extent the interior indicate very early
alterations of the building. It is suspected that these changes
were made to accommodate the widow's third.
In 1801, the west two-thirds of the building was bought by brothers
Isaiah and William Rider. This purchase included the distillery
begun by Eli Wheelock.
The west section bought by the Riders contains the important public
rooms. Immediately inside the west door, on the right of the stair
hall, is the barroom. On the left are the public dining room and
the ladies parlor. An arched doorway connected the two rooms. In
the dining room, the west wall partition could be swung up out of
the way, doubling the size of the room.
Directly behind the barroom is a small dining room called the "Lafayette
Dining Room". In 1824, Lafayette was the guest of the United States,
traveling through the country receiving tumultuous greetings from
all who could see him. General Lafayette, the ardent young Marquis
de Lafayette, who left France to assist America's cause in the Revolutionary
War was entertained in this room.
It was during this tour that the General visited the tavern. Preparations
were made well in advance of his visit on September third. The cavalry
companies and militia from Charlton and surrounding towns were gathered
in the "militia lot" opposite the tavern to welcome him. The General
then reviewed the assembled troops, greeting many an old comrade
among the veterans. After dining, a receiving line was formed.
Clearly, this was the greatest date the tavern had witnessed. Unfortunately,
Isaiah Rider had not lived to see it. Rider had died the year previous
and in January of 1824, Nathaniel Wilson, Jr. of Spencer acquired
the tavern. Wilson promptly changed the name to Wilson's Coffee
House.
On the second floor is a ballroom twenty by sixty feet long along
the front of the building. A stencil pattern of swags and tassels
in black follows along the top of the walls. Another design of leaves
and rays outlines each window and door and repeats above the wainscoting.
Dances, balls, lectures and the then popular lyceums were frequently
held in this room with crowds numbering 300 sometimes attending.
Three plain and one fancy bed chambers are also on the second floor
in the east end. The one door from the ballroom into these rooms
is the only door in the building connecting the eastern former widow's
third with the west two thirds.
A small sitting room is directly off the east hallway on the first
floor with a large parlor beyond. Investigation revealed nine layers
of wallpaper on the receiving room walls. The two oldest layers
were of the early type of papers, printed in blocks and pasted end
to end to form a roll. The earliest printed on sheets fifteen by
nineteen and one-half inches, consisted of four strips, two red
and two white, in a free flowing vermicular pattern on a beige ground.
The other was a paisley print on a black ground, a rarity since
very few wallpapers were printed in black.
The plaster walls beneath the papers were found to be painted in
red coral color decorated with a hand painted design in four colors.
Extended commas of white, yellow, green and black arch in wide vine-like
arcs across the walls. The signature "Betsey Town Rider, Charlton,
Mass." Is scratched into the plaster over the mantel.
The parlor is this building's most elegant room. The mantelpiece
shows the greatest attention to detail of any in the tavern. Raised
panel wainscoting is tipped with a band of reeding and stops under
a moulded chair rail. The ceiling mouldings reflect the same design.
The walls of this room were also found to be decorated with a stencil.
Under eleven layers of wallpaper the baby-blue color of the walls
served as a base for a stencil pattern in indigo-black.
Behind these two rooms are the family's kitchen and a small bedroom.
The fireplace in the kitchen has been altered by mortaring in a
large kettle for boiling clothes. The east bedroom has been altered
by adding a partition wall to provide for a pantry and the old exterior
doorway has been covered but its threshold clearly shows in the
eastern exterior wall.
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