The claim
A clapboard inn on the common at Hancock, built as a tavern for Noah Wheeler and traditionally dated 1789, though the National Register district nomination thinks it may be a little later. Eaton put a mansard storey on it in 1875 and the great portico came in the 1900s. It shut for three years and reopened in May 2026 with fifteen suites, three dining rooms and the Hunt Bar, which opens at four.
What the records show
The inn says on its own pages that it has been welcoming locals and travellers since 1789 and is regarded as New Hampshire's oldest, and its reopening announcement and the press repeat both. The National Register nomination for the Hancock Village Historic District, entered on 8 March 1988, is the reason this is graded C rather than higher: it says the building was put up as a tavern for Noah Wheeler and that 1789 is the traditional date, but that it may have been built somewhat later. The same nomination is the earliest dated record traced of the house as an inn, in its entry on the Fox House across the street, built for Jedediah Fox about 1830 soon after his sale of the inn in 1828. Of the forty-three principal buildings in the district it is the only one that began as a tavern, and the rest of its life is written in its roofline: two bays added to the east, a Greek Revival two-storey porch that appears in a view of 1867, a mansard storey put on by J. F. Eaton in 1875, and a monumental Colonial Revival portico in the early twentieth century. It closed for three years and reopened on 1 May 2026 after a rebuilding as a luxury inn of fifteen suites, and the answer to whether the public may drink there is in the operator's own words: the Hunt Bar and Scullery, open daily from four until nine, is for guests staying at the inn and, it says, for local patrons who want a setting to meet friends in.
| Year | What | Source |
|---|---|---|
| 1789 | Claimed founding | The pub |
| 1828 | First record of a drinking house here | National Register of Historic Places |
What to look for inside
- The only one of the forty-three principal buildings in the Hancock village district that began as a tavern
- Franklin Pierce, Ralph Waldo Emerson and Mark Twain are all named among its guests
- Reopened on 1 May 2026 after three years closed
Visiting
The Inn at Hancock is in Hancock, United States, at 33 Main Street, Hancock, New Hampshire. We do not list opening times, because they change; the pub’s own site is the place to check before you set out.
Sources
- npgallery.nps.gov/NRHP/GetAsset/NRHP/88000178_text
- www.boston.com/travel/new-england-travel/2026/08/13/take-a-look-inside-new-hampshires-oldest-continuously-operated-inn/
- innathancock.com/dining/
- innathancock.com/the-inn/
- en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hancock_Village_Historic_District
- www.openstreetmap.org/way/1207128034
- archive.org/details/newhampshireguid00federich
Know something we don’t?Suggest a correctionLast checked Sept 2026
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