The claim
A three-storey Georgian brick tavern facing the Annapolis City Dock, linked to Horatio Middleton's ferry across the Chesapeake. Washington, Jefferson and Franklin are said to have drunk here. After spells as a store, it returned to tavern life in 1968 and is known for its oyster bar, weekend bands, piano nights and a famous oyster shooter.
What the records show
The Maryland Historical Trust's survey file for the property dates it to about 1754, built as a tavern and boarding house on the Ship Carpenters Lot that Governor Francis Nicholson set aside about 1696 for shipwrights, and known first as the Inn for Seafaring Men. The Middletons' fifty-year tenure was reported often in the Maryland Gazette, and George Mann ran the house through much of the Revolution, lodging Washington and Jefferson. What follows is why the tradition of unbroken trade does not hold. John Randall bought the property in 1793, possibly having run the tavern since 1786, and converted it to his store and dwelling; it was the Marx Hotel under Frederick Marx in the mid-1860s and under the Baltimore brewer George Rost; from the mid-1870s Thomas Tydings made it two shops with living space above and tenements along Randall Street; by 1939 it was the Mandris Restaurant. Jerry and Bo Hardesty leased it from Cleo and Mary Apostol in 1968 and opened Middleton Tavern, naming it for Horatio Samuel Middleton. Two fires in the early 1970s did severe damage, and the exterior has been restored to its mid-eighteenth-century look.
What to look for inside
- Oyster shooter created here over 50 years ago
- Local ghost 'Roland' said to leave cigar smoke
- Tavern revived in 1968 after 19th-century commercial use
Visiting
Middleton Tavern is in Annapolis, United States, at 2-6 Market Space, Annapolis, MD 21401. 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/Middleton_Tavern
- www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=6383
- middletontavern.com/annapolis-downtown-middleton-tavern-about
- savingplaces.org/stories/historic-bars-middleton-tavern-in-annapolis-maryland
- apps.mht.maryland.gov/medusa/PDF/AnneArundel/AA-1817.pdf
- archive.org/details/theancientcityhi00riley
Know something we don’t?Suggest a correctionLast checked Sept 2026
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