Newcom Tavern
 | This article relies largely or entirely on a single source. (November 2012) |
Newcom Tavern, also known as the "Old Cabin", is an historic structure in Dayton, Ohio. It was built in 1796 by Colonel George Newcom, one of the first settlers in Dayton after the Treaty of Greenville (1795).[1] It was established as the New Jersey Land Company, under the leadership of Jonathan Dayton, with partners General Wilkinson, General St. Clair and Colonel Ludlow, employed surveyors to lay out a town site between the two Miami rivers.[1] The Newcom Tavern, built by Robert Edgar, was the first structure in the area.[1] Edgar received seventy-five cents a day for its construction.[1]
The house originally consisted of two rooms: one upstairs and one downstairs, and was located at what became the southwest corner of Main and Water (later Monument) Streets, where "it stood there for almost a century."[1] The size of the cabin was doubled two years after it was built and it served as Dayton's first school, first church, courthouse, council chamber and store. It was best known as a crossroads tavern in the Northwest Territory for all wagon men and drovers.[1]
In 1894 when architect Charles Insco Williams "tried to raze it to make way for an apartment building," the logs beneath the clapboards were found to be those of the old Newcom Tavern.[1] In 1896 the Centennial Celebration Committee helped move the structure to Van Cleve Park on Monument Avenue and the Daughters of the American Revolution raised money to restore it. In 1896 it was opened as a public museum and held relics donated by Daytonians.[1] The Tavern was moved once again in 1965 when it was relocated to Carillon Historical Park and became part of the Settlement Exhibit. The lower level of the tavern is open to the public, but the upper level is no longer open.