SEMPER FI

On Philadelphia’s Front Street, a historical marker labels the spot where Tun Tavern once stood and cites it as the “traditional birthplace of the U.S. Marine Corps.” Countless Marines have toasted the memory of Tun Tavern, and the Marine Corps endorses the story. But is it true?

A SAILOR WENT TO SEA

The United States Marine Corps was born as the Continental Marines on November 10, 1775, during the Second Continental Congress in Philadelphia, where the Founding Fathers were meeting to prepare for their break from England. And where else to find seamen than in Philadelphia, one of the busiest ports in the American colonies?

It was left to Samuel Nicholas, the first commandant of the Marine Corps, to find a few (actually more than a few) good men. Nicholas had a choice: He could march up and down the wharves of the Delaware River with a placard reading “Seamen Wanted,” or he could set up shop in one of the many taverns that lined the streets near the waterfront. He chose the latter and went to the corner of Water Street and Tun Alley, where Tun Tavern was located. (Tun wasn’t the proprietor’s name; it’s an Old English word meaning “cask” or “barrel of beer.”)

A TUN OF FUN

Nicholas didn’t pick Tun Tavern by chance. It had been the original headquarters for organizations such as the first American Masonic lodge as well as the St. Andrew’s Society and the St. George’s Society, for aid to Scottish and English immigrants, respectively. George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, and other Founding Fathers met at the tavern and its restaurant—Peggy Mullan’s Red Hot Beef Steak Club—to discuss business and draft resolutions for the First and Second Continental Congresses. In 1756, it was a recruiting center for the Pennsylvania militia when they were raising forces to fight Indians.

The tavern’s owner, Robert Mullan, served as chief Marine recruiter and raised two battalions in less than a month. He must have been a natural salesman—or maybe it was the free-flowing beer. No matter what his secret was, for more than 200 years and wherever they’re stationed, Marines gather on November 10 to toast the birthday of the Corps and the place where it all began: Tun Tavern. Sadly, Marines can’t visit the original Tun Tavern; it was demolished in 1781.

DON’T BLAME THE MESSENGER

Uncle John hesitates to incur the wrath of even one leatherneck, but he must report that recent research has uncovered a series of conflicting dates and facts that make it unlikely that Tun Tavern played this key role in launching the Marine Corps, at least according to the National Park Service. (Blame them!) Here’s what historians have found:

• Robert Mullan sold Tun Tavern in 1773, several years before he supposedly began recruiting Marines there. George Washington’s diaries back up this fact when he writes of dining at Mullan’s new restaurant on the Schuylkill River in 1775.

• Recruitment posters mentioning the Tun Tavern (supposedly dating from the 18th century) posted online could not be authenticated by either the person who posted them or by the curator of the Marine Corps Museum in Quantico, Virginia.

• Other historians say that Samuel Nicholas did the recruiting in a tavern called the Conestoga Wagon at Fourth and Market Streets. The earliest mention these historians can find of Tun Tavern as the Marines’ birthplace comes from the 1920s.

TRADITIONS DIE HARD

Okay, so it doesn’t look good for all those Tun-toting Marines out there, but take heart. The National Park Service isn’t ruling out Tun Tavern completely. It certainly was in the right area to attract rugged seamen; there just isn’t any supporting documentation.

The USMC will no doubt continue to toast Tun Tavern every November 10. In the meantime, disappointed and/or confused Marines can always quench their thirst for possible authenticity at the “Tun Tavern–themed restaurant” at the National Museum of the Marine Corps in Quantico. Cheers and Semper Fi!

What do Apple, Amazon, Google, Hewlett-Packard, Mattel, Disney, and Harley-Davidson have in common? They were all started in garages.