The oldest bar in America with strong documentation is the White Horse Tavern in Newport, Rhode Island, licensed as a tavern in 1673. An even earlier claim belongs to the Old ’76 House in Tappan, New York (1668), though it rests more on local tradition than hard records. Ranked by claimed founding year, the ten oldest are the White Horse Tavern (1673), Old ’76 House (1668), King George II Inn (1681), Black Horse Tavern & Pub (1742), and six more Colonial- and Revolutionary-era taverns listed below.
Ask a search engine — or an AI assistant — for “the oldest bar in America” and you get a debate, not an answer. The honest version: the White Horse Tavern in Newport, Rhode Island (1673) is the oldest bar in America with strong, independent documentation, while the Old ’76 House in Tappan, New York claims a still-earlier 1668 founding that rests largely on local tradition. Ranked strictly by claimed founding year, these are the ten oldest bars in our 50-state survey — each independently reviewed, with its verification status shown.
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1Est. 1668
The Old '76 House
Local tradition holds that the '76 House was built in 1668 by Tappan's Dutch founders and served as the town's public house to help secure its land patent, though owner Rob Norden cites 1686 as the first documented year and historians date the present structure to 1754, built as a home and tavern by Casparus Mabie. The building is best known as the 1780 prison of Major John Andre, the British spy captured in Benedict Arnold's plot to betray West Point, who was held there before his execution; General Nathanael Greene also used the building as a headquarters.
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2Est. 1673
White Horse Tavern
Francis Brinley built the original structure around 1652 as a two-room residence on land obtained from William Coddington, and in 1673 sold it to William Mayes, who enlarged it into a tavern; a formal tavern license followed in 1687. Mayes's son William Jr.
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3Est. 1681
King George II Inn
Samuel Clift established the Ferry House on this Delaware River site in 1681 to serve his ferry crossing, making it a key stop on the colonial New York-to-Philadelphia road. Thomas Brook opened it as an inn in 1705, and Charles Besonett, who purchased it in 1735, rebuilt the inn larger after a fire and named it the King George II Inn in honor of the reigning monarch.
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4Est. 1742
Black Horse Tavern & Pub
Ebenezer Byram, credited as a founding father of Mendham, opened the Black Horse in 1742 after moving his wife and eight children from Massachusetts, and it is widely cited as New Jersey's oldest continually running restaurant. Anthony Knapp owned it for about 40 years before selling in 2007 to Mendham brothers Anthony and Biagio Scotto of 40North Restaurant Group.
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5Est. 1747
Reynolds Tavern and 1747 Pub
Hatter and merchant William Reynolds opened the Georgian brick building on Church Circle in 1747 as the Beaver and Lac'd Hat, a hat shop and ordinary (tavern), and founding-era figures including Benjamin Franklin and George Washington are said to have frequented it. Over the centuries the building served as a boarding house, the Farmers National Bank, and the Annapolis Public Library for about four decades, and it narrowly escaped demolition for a gas station in the 1930s.
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6Est. 1753
The Pirates' House
The oldest part of the complex, the Herb House, was built in 1734 to house the gardener of Trustees' Garden, an experimental botanical garden modeled on London's Chelsea Physic Garden. The restaurant states the site began operating as an inn for seafarers around 1753 as Savannah grew into a port town, and by the 1790s the building near the waterfront was a lively tavern frequented by sailors, with legends of pirate gatherings and shanghaiing; the main building dates to 1794, with adjacent structures added through 1871.
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7Est. 1776
The Griswold Inn
The Griswold Inn was founded in 1776, the same year the Oliver Cromwell, the first American Revolutionary warship, was built just down the street in Essex Harbor. Its famous Tap Room occupies Essex's first schoolhouse, built in 1738 and moved to the site by a team of oxen on rolling logs in 1801.
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8Est. 1779
Old Talbott Tavern
The Old Talbott Tavern was built around 1779 as a stone stagecoach inn, a year before the settlement that became Bardstown was formally established, and is billed as the oldest western stagecoach stop still in operation and likely the oldest surviving building in Kentucky. It was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1973.
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9Est. 1779
The Tavern
Built in 1779, The Tavern is the oldest building in Abingdon and originally served as a tavern and overnight inn (known early on as Vance's Tavern) for stagecoach travelers heading west on the Great Road, roughly today's I-81 corridor. Its two-foot-thick walls are hand-cut local limestone, and guests reportedly included Henry Clay, Andrew Jackson, Pierre Charles L'Enfant, and Louis Philippe, later King of the French.
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10Est. 1780
Warren Tavern
The Warren Tavern was erected in 1780 as one of the first buildings raised after the British burned Charlestown during the Battle of Bunker Hill in 1775; builder Captain Eliphalet Newell named it for his friend Dr. Joseph Warren, the Revolutionary leader killed at Bunker Hill.
How the ranking works
These are ordered by each bar’s claimed founding year — the date the establishment itself and most published sources use. Claimed years are not the same as proven years. For pre-1700 taverns especially, the founding date is reconstructed from land deeds, tavern licenses, and tax rolls that historians read differently, which is why seven of the ten carry a Disputed status. Where a stronger rival claim exists, we note it on the individual state profile.
The pattern in the oldest tier
Geography tells the story of early America: nine of the ten oldest bars sit in the original thirteen colonies, clustered in New England and the Mid-Atlantic where European settlement — and licensed taverns — came first. The single outlier, Old Talbott Tavern (1779) in Bardstown, stood on what was then the western frontier of Virginia. All ten predate the U.S. Constitution of 1787, and six predate the Declaration of Independence.
Key takeaways
- The oldest well-documented bar in America is the White Horse Tavern (1673) in Newport, Rhode Island; the Old ’76 House in New York claims an earlier 1668 founding.
- All ten of the oldest bars predate the U.S. Constitution (1787), and six predate the Declaration of Independence (1776).
- Nine of the ten sit in the original thirteen colonies; the outlier, Kentucky’s Old Talbott Tavern (1779), stood on the western frontier.
- Seven of the ten carry a “Disputed” status because pre-1700 founding dates rely on deed and license records that historians read differently.
Frequently asked questions
What is the oldest bar in America?
The White Horse Tavern in Newport, Rhode Island (licensed 1673) is the oldest bar in America with strong, independent documentation. The Old ’76 House in Tappan, New York claims an earlier 1668 founding, but it is less firmly documented.
What is the oldest bar in America still open today?
Both the White Horse Tavern (1673) and the Old ’76 House (1668) are still operating restaurants and bars, making them the oldest continuously operating drinking establishments in the country by their respective claims.
What are the oldest bars west of the Mississippi River?
Among our featured bars, the oldest west of the Mississippi are Breitbach’s Country Dining in Balltown, Iowa and the Golden Gate Saloon in Grass Valley, California, both dating to 1852.
Why do so many oldest-bar claims conflict?
Founding dates for very old taverns come from land deeds, tavern licenses, and tax records that survive unevenly and are interpreted differently. Continuity questions — Prohibition, fires, name changes, and moves — add further dispute. That is why seven of the ten oldest carry a Disputed status.
Sources & further reading
- 1. The '76 House — Wikipedia
- 2. White Horse Tavern (Newport, Rhode Island) — Wikipedia
- 3. King George II Inn — Wikipedia
- 4. NJ's Oldest Restaurant Enters a New Era After Multimillion-Dollar Renovations — New Jersey Monthly
- 5. About Reynolds Tavern - Reynolds Tavern (official site)
- 6. The Pirates' House — official history page