King of Prussia Inn
|
King of Prussia Inn
|
|
King of Prussia Inn in February 2017
|
|
 
|
|
| Location | 101 Bill Smith Blvd, King of Prussia, Pennsylvania |
|---|---|
| Coordinates | 40°05′04″N 75°22′58″W / 40.08444°N 75.38278°WCoordinates: 40°05′04″N 75°22′58″W / 40.08444°N 75.38278°W |
| Built | 1719 |
| Architect | William Rees (builder) |
| NRHP Reference # | 75001656 |
| Added to NRHP | December 23, 1975 |
The King of Prussia Inn is a historic tavern in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania, United States. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1975.
The original Inn was constructed as a cottage in 1719 by the Welsh Quakers William and Janet Rees, founders of nearby Reesville. The cottage was converted to an inn in 1769 and was important in colonial times as it was approximately a day’s travel by horse from Philadelphia. A number of settlers heading from there for Ohio would sleep at the inn for their first night on the road. In 1774 the Rees family hired James Barry (or Jimmy Berry) to run the inn, which henceforth became known as "Berry's Tavern". General George Washington first visited the tavern on Thanksgiving Day in 1777 while the Continental Army was encamped at Whitemarsh; a few weeks later Washington and the army bivouacked at nearby Valley Forge.
Parker's spy map, created by a Tory sympathizer of the Kingdom of Great Britain, listed the inn as "Berry's" in 1777, but a local petition in 1786 identified it as the "King of Prussia". It was possibly renamed to entice German soldiers fighting in the American Revolution (including Prussians) to remain in this area; colonial generals such as Johann de Kalb and Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben had many Prussians as officers. At some point a wooden signboard of the inn depicted King Frederick the Great of Prussia. The inn was listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places on December 23, 1975.
...
Wikipedia