King George II Inn being at Threat from Foreclosure
In the latest mauling of America’s heritage is the foreclosing of King George II Inn at Bristol. Perhaps George Washington had slept in this inn going back to 1681. It has the distinction of being America’s oldest running inn. Last month it was shut down. The owners are up to their necks in debt and are threatened with foreclosure.
The three years of recession is taking its toll of historic buildings – the inn being one of them.
The owners said that the three years of recession have finished them off. As per the papers filed in Bucks County Court the owners owe over $42,000 as taxes starting from 2008. They are defaulting on their mortgage also for the last two months amounting to $13,625.76.
One of the owners is John Caparrelli. His creditors were a couple from Colorado from whom they took a loan in 2004. Writing to them Caparrelli wrote, “The recession over the past 3 years has taken a tremendous toll on (the inn) and on Bristol in general.”
Robyn Trunell of the Borough Council was furious that without warning the inn was being closed – a restaurant that had been running for more than three centuries – 329 years to be precise. Trunell bemoaned that the riverfront heritage has fallen silent.
There used to be rehearsals of weddings, anniversary celebrations, First Communions and you name it on the plank floors flanked by stone fireplaces. The wide stairs had wooden handrails. Everybody going there had a feeling of showing off as they looked at the Delaware River. It epitomized an era that has gone but was yet present.
Jeffrey Brenner is the former manager of the inn. His family had been the owners from 1979. Brenner who now lives in Colorado said he cannot think or Bristol sans the inn. He is in a state of shock and has not yet recovered from it.
The tavern and the town both go back to 1681 when Samuel Clift was given 262 acres of land – it being the present borough of today. The condition was that Clift was to maintain the ferry service from his land to Burlington as also a public house in the Pennsylvania region. This has led to arguments to it being the oldest inn of America.
Historian Harold D. Mitchener who specializes in the history of Bristol said, “I am always leery when anybody makes a claim like that. I always say that it is one of the oldest continuously used sites for an inn. Somebody can always call you on that.”
