Walker Tavern

Built around 1832 at Cambridge Junction, this tavern served stagecoach passengers seeking food and lodging as they traveled between Detroit and Chicago on the Chicago Road and along the La Plaisance Bay Pike from Lake Erie to the intersection. The trip between Detroit and Chicago took five or more days depending on road conditions, and among the travelers were new settlers who helped Michigan become a state in 1837. In 1843 Sylvester and Lucy Walker of Cooperstown, New York, bought the tavern from Calvin Snell, after which it became known as Walker Tavern; they charged twenty-five cents for an overnight stay and twenty-five cents for a meal, and by 1853 their business was successful enough for them to build a larger brick tavern across the road. In 1864 Sylvester Walker sold his taverns to former stagecoach driver Francis Asbury Dewey, who made Walker Tavern his home and, while living there, served as president of the Michigan Pioneer and Historical Society and recorded local history, including stories about the tavern. Dewey family members remained there until 1922, when Francis's great-nephew Wilford C. Dewey sold it to Episcopalian priest Frederick Hewitt and his wife Edna, whose family operated it and the nearby brick tavern as roadside tourist attractions, with Walker Tavern housing antiques and a museum. In 1966 the family sold the property to the State of Michigan, which restored the tavern and opened it as part of the Cambridge Junction Historic State Park, and Walker Tavern was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1971.

Michigan · United States