Indian Queen Tavern (18PR96)

The Indian Queen Tavern site (18PR96, also known as the Indian Maid Tavern or George Washington House/Inn) is associated with a standing mid-18th-century structure in Bladensburg, Prince George’s County. The structure operated as an inn and tavern during the latter half of the 19th century and the early 20th century.

Indian Queen Tavern is an 18th-century brick structure with a dressed stone foundation and a later frame addition. Although known as the “George Washington House,” it was a store during Washington’s lifetime, but it is possible that he stayed in the frame Indian Queen Tavern formerly located next door. The structure is the last survivor of a commercial complex established by Jacob Wirt during the early 1760s. The complex included a store, billiard hall, tavern, counting house, blacksmith shop, and a number of support buildings. Between 1774 and 1783, it was rented and run by Peter Carnes, who made the first authenticated balloon ascents in the U.S. The extant building was a store from c. 1763 until 1809 or later, a private home from 1832 to 1854, again a store from 1854 until 1857, a tavern, hotel, and store from 1857 to 1858 (and possibly until the mid-1860s), and a tavern and hotel from 1871 until the 20th century. It is currently the headquarters of the Anacostia Watershed Society.

By the mid-20th century the Indian Queen Tavern had fallen into disrepair. In 1972, the Prince George’s Chapter of the Jaycees purchased it and began restorations. An archaeological field school was conducted at the site by Montgomery College, with support from the Maryland Geological Survey. There is no report on this work, so details are sketchy, but based on field notes, five test trenches were excavated. Three trenches were near the building, revealing a lot of disturbance from later activity, but there was enough stratigraphic and artifactual evidence to suggest details about the structure’s construction sequence. A possible chimney builder’s trench was one of the few features found. The other two trenches were in the yard, uncovering a late 19th- to early 20th-century outbuilding foundation and a possible late 18th-century brick walkway.

Additional excavations at 18PR96 were conducted in 2010 by the Maryland State Highway Administration and the University of Maryland as part of a larger project undertaken for the upcoming War of 1812 bicentennial. The Indian Queen Tavern building was witness to one of the most important events of the War of 1812; the 1814 Battle of Bladensburg. The American defeat there led to the burning of Washington, DC.

A ground penetrating radar survey of the building’s parking lot was carried out first, and detected several anomalies. Three trenches were mechanically excavated in order to locate these anomalies. It was clear that portions of the site contained intact deposits from the 18th to 20th centuries. Eleven test units were then excavated, revealing a number of features, including a probable 20th-century brick floor and dry- laid stone foundation, postholes dating from the 18th and 19th centuries, a 19th-century brick-lined well, and a possible filled-in cellar hole that contained artifacts dating from the late 18th to mid-19th centuries.

(Edited from the Maryland Historical Trust Synthesis Project)