February 2014

While working near Charlotte North Carolina I ventured out over a weekend to explore the local area and went to an old historic town called Salem where I had lunch at The Tavern.

Old Salem is very historic. Experience early American history in the unique Moravian settlement of Salem. Original structures, gardens, tours, artifacts, hands-on workshops, fun family events and shopping

The Tavern is in Old Salem in Winston-Salem, NC. This 1816 historical two-story building still has the design of years past with the kitchen in the basement and intimate dining rooms on the first and second floor.

I had a good time visiting and touring Salem and checking out all the historic buildings and shops and when I was done visiting, I went to the Tavern to grab some lunch before hitting the road back to my hotel that was north of Charlotte.

The history in this building was absolutely fascinating. The fact it had been there that long and had been visited by our country’s founding father was amazing.

The Salem Tavern was originally built 1775. Salem’s most famous visitor stayed here in 1791. President George Washington, touring the southern battlefields of the Revolutionary War, spent two nights in Salem, attending a service, studying the waterworks system, and speaking to the townspeople.

Constructed on the foundations of an earlier 1771 Tavern which burnt to the ground in 1784, the Salem Tavern was quickly rebuilt, because it formed an important function in the Moravian Church community which was a trade town.

Constructed by mason Johann Gottlob Krause using bricks already on hand for another building, the Tavern reopened quickly. The Tavern complex was later expanded by the construction of a wooden building to the north in 1815, then a building connected the two was constructed in 1832.