The claim
A fieldstone tavern at the fork of the old Forbes and Burd roads west of Bedford, built around 1762 and run as an inn by Jean Bonnet from 1779. Farmers raised a liberty pole here during the 1794 Whiskey Rebellion. It still offers a tavern room, restaurant and bed-and-breakfast rooms, with a herb garden and goats outside.
What the records show
The stone building is dated about 1762 in its National Register listing, built by the Indian trader Robert Callender, who sold it in 1779 to Jean Bonnet and his wife; documented inn use begins there, and the Pennsylvania marker has Bonnet and his heirs keeping it from 1779 to 1815. A meeting of Whiskey Rebellion men here in 1794 is recorded. So the 1762 belongs to the walls and 1779 to the trade. The house is a restaurant, tavern and bed and breakfast today, publishing hours of eleven to nine Monday to Saturday and closed on Sunday, with the tavern open later than the kitchen. The listing itself was read on 17 September 2026 through the National Park Service's register locations service, which had only been taken from an encyclopedia before. It confirms reference 79002164, certified on 1 August 1979, for a building four miles west of Bedford at the junction of US 30 and PA 31 in Napier Township — and records the house under the name Bonnet's Tavern rather than Jean Bonnet's. The register entry carries no construction date of its own, so the about-1762 still rests on the nomination text, which the Park Service has not digitised.
| Year | What | Source |
|---|---|---|
| 1762 | Claimed founding | The pub |
| c.1762 | Present building | Stone building dated c. 1762 in its National Register listing |
| 1779 | First record of a drinking house here | National Register of Historic Places |
What to look for inside
- Liberty pole raised here in the 1794 Whiskey Rebellion
- Stands where the Forbes and Burd roads diverged
- Bed-and-breakfast rooms upstairs
Visiting
Jean Bonnet Tavern is in Bedford, United States, at 6048 Lincoln Highway, Bedford, PA 15522. We do not list opening times, because they change; the pub’s own site is the place to check before you set out.
Sources
- en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_Bonnet_Tavern
- www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=60115
- www.jeanbonnettavern.com/
- www.jeanbonnettavern.com/hours/
- mapservices.nps.gov/arcgis/rest/services/cultural_resources/nrhp_locations/MapServer/0/query?where=NRIS_Refnum%3D%2779002164%27&outFields=NRIS_Refnum%2CRESNAME%2CResType%2CAddress%2CCity%2CState%2CCertDate&returnGeometry=false&f=html
Know something we don’t?Suggest a correctionLast checked Sept 2026
Run this pub? There is a badge for it
Free to put on your own site, no permission needed. It shows what the pub claims and what the records support, and it changes when the data does.
How to use it, and how to change what it says — if you have a document we have not seen, we would like to read it.
