St. George's Society

Tun Tavern was a tavern and brewery in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, which served as a founding or early meeting place for a number of notable groups. It is traditionally regarded as the site where what would become the United States Marine Corps held its first recruitment drive during the American Revolution. It is also regarded as one of the "birthplaces of Masonic teachings in America."

The tavern was erected in 1686 at the intersection of King (later called Water) Street and Tun Alley by settler Joshua Carpenter, brother of Samuel Carpenter, a Quaker merchant who made a fortune trading in Barbados. Joshua Carpenter built the Tun on the caraway that led to Carpenter's Wharf. Tun Tavern was named for the Old English word "tun," meaning a barrel or keg of beer. In the 1740s, a restaurant appelation, "Peggy Mullan's Red Hot Beef Steak Club" was added to the name of the tavern.

Tun Tavern hosted the first meetings of a number of organizations. In 1720, the first meetings of the St. George's Society (a charitable organization founded to assist needy Englishmen arriving in the new colony—predecessor of today's "Sons of the Society of St. George") were held there. In 1732, the tavern hosted the first meetings of St. John's Lodge No. 1 of the Grand Lodge of the Masonic Temple. (The Masonic Temple of Philadelphia also recognizes Tun Tavern as the birthplace of Masonic teachings in America.) In 1747 Tun Tavern became the founding place of the St. Andrew's Society, which like the St. George's Society helped newly arrived Scottish.

Tun Tavern was a significant meeting place for other groups and individuals. In 1756 Benjamin Franklin used the inn as a recruitment gathering point for the Pennsylvania militia as it prepared to fight Native American uprisings. The tavern later hosted a meeting of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and the Continental Congress.

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