The Folsom Tavern: Washington Slept Here

Around seventeen seventy-five, a colonial tavern rose on this spot in Exeter, New Hampshire, and it became one of the most storied roadside inns in the new republic. In November of seventeen eighty-nine, President George Washington passed through on his grand tour of the northeastern states, stopping here as a guest of the Folsom Tavern. Washington spent weeks touring New England that autumn, meeting citizens and cementing the presidency's place in public life.

The tavern served travelers for well over a century before being moved to its current location at the corner of Spring and Water Streets, where it still stands today. Exeter itself was no ordinary stop. During the Revolution it served as the de facto capital of New Hampshire, and the state's first constitution was drafted here in seventeen seventy-six.