The Red Lion Inn, 1776

The inn began as a tavern in 1762 called “The Wagon,” standing across Easton Road at the point created by York and Easton Roads as a large two-and-a-half-story stone structure with 23 rooms. In 1768 its proprietor, John Paul, advertised it for sale with 102 acres of land, describing stabling for a hundred horses and calling it the best tavern between the Rising Sun in Philadelphia and Coryell's Ferry in New Hope; the building was said to have a 44-foot front, a depth of 62 feet, and a two-story 194-foot stable sufficient for accommodating 75 horses or cattle. During the Revolutionary War it was known as the Red Lion Inn and was kept by Joseph Butler, and in 1777 it served as a hospital when the wounded from the battle of Edge Hill were brought there. William Homer later recalled in discussions with historian William Buck that divisions of the Continental Army encamped several times in the orchard behind the inn, where soldiers, mostly Virginians, practiced shooting at marks one hundred yards distant with rifles, and Homer cut the balls from the trees with a hatchet so the lead could be remolded into bullets and used again. The inn was owned by William Heaton in 1787 and by Israel Michener from 1809 to 1822; Michener became the first postmaster in Willow Grove, and local residents came to the inn to pick up their mail. In 1842 Jacob E. Buck bought the inn and eighteen acres of land and renamed it the J. E. Buck Hotel. In 1868 Buck sold the property to John E. Berrell, owner of the Mineral Springs Inn directly across York Road, who closed the Buck Hotel to eliminate his competition. From 1848 to 1851 James Gordon Bennett, Sr. and his family stayed at the Red Lion Inn while his wife underwent treatment at Dr. Schiffendecker's Hydropathic Institute on nearby Sampsons Hill, where Schiffendecker promoted the curative powers of the local mineral springs; Bennett was the founder and editor of the New York Herald Tribune. In the early 1900's the lower part of the building was used as a meat and provision store kept by David J. Nolan, while the rooms became a boarding house operated by Mrs. Emma Masterson, until the building was destroyed by fire on November 21, 1906.

Willow Grove, Pennsylvania · United States