Folsom Tavern

One of the things I enjoy discovering is that many of the most important homes in American history were also places of business. The Folsom Tavern in Exeter is one of those places. Built around 1775 as the home of Colonel Samuel Folsom and his family, it also served as the community’s tavern, where travelers found lodging, neighbors gathered to exchange news, and the political conversations that shaped a new nation unfolded.

Colonel Samuel Folsom built the tavern around 1775, just as the American Revolution was beginning. Exeter had become New Hampshire’s revolutionary capital after Royal Governor John Wentworth fled Portsmouth, and the town quickly emerged as the political heart of the colony. In a time before hotels, newspapers, or public meeting halls, taverns were where people gathered. They were places to eat, sleep, exchange news, conduct business, debate politics, and discuss the uncertain future of the colonies.

The Folsom Tavern became one of those important gathering places. Revolutionary leaders, military officers, merchants, and local citizens met here as New Hampshire helped shape a new nation. In 1783, officers of the Continental Army gathered at the tavern to establish the New Hampshire chapter of the Society of the Cincinnati, one of the nation’s oldest patriotic organizations. John Sullivan, Nicholas Gilman, and other prominent Revolutionary leaders were among those who met within these walls.

Only six years later, on November 4, 1789, President George Washington stopped at the tavern during his tour of the New England states. The Folsom family served him breakfast before he continued his journey. It was a brief visit, but one that forever connected this modest tavern with the nation’s first president.

The building itself has had an extraordinary journey. Over the years it served many purposes beyond a tavern, including apartments, shops, and even a Chinese laundry. It narrowly escaped demolition in 1929 when preservationists and the Society of the Cincinnati purchased the building for one dollar and moved it to save it from being replaced by a gas station. It has since been moved several times, each relocation helping to preserve an important piece of New Hampshire’s Revolutionary past.

Today, the tavern stands in Exeter as a reminder that history was not made only in legislative chambers or on battlefields. Some of the most important conversations about liberty, independence, and the future of a nation took place around tavern tables like these. Every time I visit a place like the Folsom Tavern, I am reminded that America’s story was shaped not only by famous leaders but also by the communities where they gathered, debated, and dreamed of a new republic.