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. During the Revolutionary War it was patriotically renamed the Fountain House — George Washington's image replaced the king's on its sign — and it later operated as Ye Olde Delaware House from 1892 before Francis O'Boyle restored the King George II name in the early 1970s. The inn closed in 2010, reopened in 2011, and changed hands again in 2015; it still serves food and drink overlooking the Delaware River and is widely described as the oldest continuously operated inn in the United States.

During the Revolutionary War the innkeepers swapped King George II's portrait for George Washington's on the tavern sign and renamed it the Fountain House — the royal name wasn't restored until the 20th century. Local lore also holds the 343-year-old inn is haunted, a legend chronicled by the Pennsylvania Independent.