Raffle: Tavern Table Replica

Taverns, simple or elaborate, dotted early America in the days before trains and motorcars. They tended to be located close enough to each other on the network of dirt roads where travelers, whether by horses, oxen, or by foot could find rest and refreshment. They also served as gathering places for a community’s locals. The men and women who managed these establishments required licenses for selling liquor and providing services.

In Colrain, one such tavern was the Fox and Goose on Call Road, run by Thomas Fox. His wife, Patience Cannon, who was previously a widow on Catamount Hill, joined him in this enterprise upon their marriage in 1791.

Furniture used in taverns needed to be suitable for the constant use of serving meals, playing cards and activities common in taverns, and a style of table evolved with a broad top referred to as a “tavern table”. When the top of a tavern table became worn and scarred from use it would be turned over and the fresh underside became the new table top.

Among the many documents and objects in the Colrain Historical Society’s collection which explain our local history is an 18th century Connecticut River Valley type tavern table with turned legs separated by box stretchers. Its plain skirt has a center drawer and the original top with “bread board” ends has never been turned --unusual to find in a table of its age. A replica of this table is being newly created by well-known furniture maker, Kenneth Noyes of Colrain. The table top of Noyes’ table is made from a single piece of old growth pine.

The original 18th century tavern table in the collection of the Colrain Historical Society.

Raffle tickets priced $10.00 each or three for $25.00. Tickets will be available next at Catamount Country Store in Colrain, Hagers’ Farm Market in Shelburne, Nancy Dole Books and Ephemera in Buckand and Sawyer’s News on Bridge Street in Shelburne Falls. They will also be available during the Crafts of Colrain Tour, November 10 and 11, at Pine Hill Orchards and at Ken Noyes’ workshop on Jacksonville Road. And they can be bought at Moonlight Magic in Shelburne Falls up until the time of the drawing there.