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thedrifter
06-02-05, 06:48 AM
June 06, 2005

Pennsylvania recognizes Tun Tavern
Birthplace of Marines to get marker

By George G. Sheldon
Special to the Times


PHILADELPHIA — Tun Tavern, known as the birthplace of the Marine Corps, will finally receive official recognition from the state. The Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission has approved the placement of an official state historic marker.
“The marker is going to happen,” said Bob Giannini, National Park Service museum curator with the Independence National Historical Park. “That is, it was approved by the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission’s State Marker Division.”

The marker is expected to be placed later this year. There is no marker of any kind commemorating the existence of Tun Tavern in Philadelphia; the last markers were removed in the 1960s.

“We have not yet set a date for the unveiling of this important marker, but it will definitely happen within the next six months,” Giannini said. The erection and dedication are likely to be in October.

The Tun Tavern marker will be on the east side of Front Street between Walnut and Chestnut streets in Philadelphia. This location will be within one block of where the tavern stood, since the original location “is now part of the cavernous hole that tunnels Interstate 95 through Philadelphia,” Giannini said.

Benjamin Franklin, who lived about three blocks from Tun Tavern, used it to recruit the first members of the Pennsylvania Militia when the state needed men to quell Indian uprisings. George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and other members of the First and Second Continental Congress dined there.

“Tun” means a large cask, especially for wine, though Tun Tavern was known for its fine beers. Built along what was then the waterfront of the Delaware River, near Carpenter’s Wharf, the tavern was a meeting place for charitable societies and the Masons. But it is best known because of Robert Mullan, the tavern’s proprietor, who was commissioned by an act of Congress on Nov. 10, 1775, to raise two battalions of Marines.

Pennsylvania’s historical marker program was established in 1946; more than 2,000 blue-and-gold markers highlight people, places and events significant in state and national history. But it took nearly 60 years for the state to approve the Tun Tavern marker.

“I believe everyone knows that the Marine Corps was founded in Independence Hall,” Giannini said. “Nonetheless, the Marine Corps Heritage Foundation at Quantico, Va., and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania have generously funded the marker.”

Tun Tavern was also home to the St. Andrews Society, a charitable group dedicated to helping underprivileged settlers from Scotland settle in Philadelphia. And it served as St. John’s #1 Lodge, a Grand Lodge of the Masonic Temple.

“However, the new Pennsylvania State Historical Marker is only going to recognize the Marine Corps because we receive more questions per year from Marines as to the location of Tun Tavern than anyone else,” Giannini said.

George G. Sheldon is a freelance writer in Pennsylvania.



Ellie

thedrifter
06-02-05, 06:48 AM
June 06, 2005

Original site proves difficult to find

By George G. Sheldon
Special to the Times


PHILADELPHIA — The place Marines are most likely visit the first time they come here is Tun Tavern. At least, that’s what they want to do.
It doesn’t take long to realize that any search for the historic tavern won’t be easy. In fact, it might be easier to find a Marine sniper covered in mud, hiding in a bug-infested swamp.

Ask a native Philadelphian where the tavern is, and you’ll get a blank stare. Even those who live and work in Philadelphia’s historic area can offer little help.

Tun Tavern, the recognized birthplace of the Corps, was located on Water Street at Tun Alley in Colonial Philadelphia.

So where’s Water Street? Few Philadelphians seem to know that, either. What remains of Water Street is blocks from where the beloved tavern once stood.

A mail carrier working the historic district provided directions to the 900 block of Water Street but had never heard of Tun Alley. “I am sure there is no Tun Alley here,” she said, confidently.

It should be much easier to find the location after the state installs historic markers later this year.

Several Web sites say that Tun Tavern stood where Penn’s Landing is now. Located on the east side of Interstate 95 and more than a mile long, it offers hotel rooms, exhibits and free concerts. But there are no markers for Tun Tavern.

At the Independence Seaport Museum, located in Penn’s Landing, someone had at least heard of Tun Tavern.

“People walk in here and ask about it,” one of the employees said. “So we printed out some information from a Web site and keep it here in a book.”

It took several minutes to find that book; Tun Tavern information was there, in the last pages. The Web page they included said the tavern was located near Penn’s Landing. But the friendly people behind the museum’s front desk had no idea where the tavern actually stood.

Independence Hall is several blocks west. Help finally came at the Independence Visitor Center.

“Tun Tavern burned down in 1781,” Bill Caughlan, a National Park Service ranger, said without hesitation. “It was located approximately under the Chestnut Street Bridge that crosses I-95.”

It is a question posed to the National Park Service rangers regularly.

“I get asked that about once an hour,” said ranger Lynn Nash.

Caughlan noted that there is a small replica of Tun Tavern in the National Park Service’s Military Museum. Although probably not a true representation, it’s nevertheless the only official recognition of the long-gone building.

Free maps offered by the National Park Service do not mention Tun Tavern as part of Philadelphia’s heritage.

Although there are no plaques marking Tun Tavern, it wasn’t always that way.

There used to be three plaques recognizing the Marine Corps, the Masons and the Sons of St. Andrew, said Bob Giannini, National Park Service museum curator with the Independence National Historical Park. “All three organizations had their roots at Tun Tavern.

“The Marine Corps plaque that marked the site from circa 1917-1960 evidently was removed by the Marines and went to Quantico when construction of the interstate began during the 1970s,” Giannini said. “To my knowledge, no marker has marked the site of Tun Tavern here in Philadelphia since these markers were removed some 35-plus years ago.”

The closest a visitor can safely get to tavern’s original site is on a bridge that crosses one of the nation’s busiest highways. Few, if any, drivers on I-95 realize they are racing over the place where America’s first Marines were recruited.



Ellie