Jean Bonnet Tavern
Pennsylvania
The stone building at this fork in the road near Bedford, Pennsylvania has been welcoming travelers since seventeen sixty-two, making it one of the oldest continuously operating inns in America. It was built on Forbes Road, the military highway General John Forbes carved through the Alleghenies to drive the French from Fort Duquesne. Robert Callender, an Indian trader, held the original warrant.
A French-born innkeeper named Jean Bonnet purchased the property in seventeen seventy-nine and opened it as a tavern. Local farmers protesting the whiskey tax gathered here during the Whiskey Rebellion in seventeen ninety-four, before forces under Washington suppressed the protests. The tavern was added to the National Register of Historic Places in nineteen seventy-nine and still operates as a bed and breakfast today.
