{"nrhp_refnum":"95001351","name":"Downer Tavern","other_names":["Downer,Jonathan,House"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"US 40, Wharton Township","address_restricted":false,"city":"Chalkhill","county":"Fayette County","state":"PA","lat":39.84409752400006,"lon":-79.61730026799995,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1995-11-27","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Commerce","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A five-bay, two-and-a-half story brick tavern built with a center hall plan and a two-story brick kitchen ell, located about forty-five feet off the south side of U.S. Route 40 on the western slope of Chalk Hill in Fayette County, Pennsylvania. It is dated to c. 1826 and sits with a late nineteenth-century wash house and an early nineteenth-century stone spring house on the property.","why_significant":"The nomination argues the tavern is significant for its association with the early commercial development of the National Road and for its architecture as a good example of vernacular tavern design with Federal style details. It is presented as one of a small group of surviving taverns from the early National Road era, and the nomination notes that few masonry taverns of the period retain as many Federal details.","narrative":"Built around 1826 on the western slope of Chalk Hill, Fayette County, this five-bay, two-and-a-half story brick house has a center hall plan and a two-story kitchen ell along its west gable end, set about forty-five feet from U.S. Route 40. Its brick walls are laid in Flemish bond on the front and common bond elsewhere, and its interior keeps oak floors, a Federal-period open staircase with bracketed stringers, and Doric-columned mantels in the parlors. The building was associated with Jonathan Downer, who was taxed as an innkeeper in Wharton Township from 1816 until his death in 1833. Its size and large kitchen ell mark it as a tavern, and the property is regarded as representing the earliest commercial period of the National Road. Among the few masonry taverns of that era to keep so many Federal details, it has been valued for both its commercial history and its vernacular architecture.","period_of_significance":"C. 1826 - C. 1852","architect_builder":"Jonathan Downer (builder of tavern, per nomination's attribution)","architectural_style":"Federal","criteria":["A","C"],"status_note":null,"vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-haiku-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.1-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 17:11:36.041352-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_PA/95001351.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/95001351/c1e21a070a-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/95001351/c1e21a070a-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"Generic1139","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Downer_Tavern.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Generic1139</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 3.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Downer_Tavern.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/71992906","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Downer_Tavern","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q5303119"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/pennsylvania/fayette-county/downer-tavern-95001351/"}