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. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and retains much of its original 1747 woodwork and all-header-bond brick facade. Tavern use returned via a 1984 renovation, and the Petit family, who bought the property in 2000, restored it to its original use with dining and afternoon tea upstairs and the 1747 Pub in the original basement. The building changed hands in April 2024, with the restaurant and pub continuing to operate.

The 'oldest tavern' now pouring pints spent about forty years as the Annapolis Public Library and was very nearly torn down for a gas station before preservationists saved it.

What to order: Afternoon tea upstairs and craft beer in the 1747 Pub, the brick-walled original basement reached by the building's 18th-century stairwell — featured by the National Trust for Historic Preservation in its historic bars series.