The Abbott Tavern in Holden, MA

Lt. John Abbott’s Worcester County Stagecoach Stop

Jul 2, 2008

The Abbott Tavern in Holden, Massachusetts existed during those colorful days when stagecoaches dashed up to an inn, hostelers scurried about and a portly host emerged.

It began as a modest country tavern and had a growth spurt when turnpike fever hit Worcester County in the early 1800's. An equally swift decline in business came when railroads absorbed passenger and freight traffic.

When Lt. John Abbott, a Sudbury blacksmith, moved to Holden in the early 1760's, he paid the town's first minister 17 pounds, 6 shillings, 8 pence for 9 acres across from the meeting house, with a "heap of stones" at each corner--so reads the deed. Here he built the tavern which three generations of Abbotts innkeepers ran more than a century--Lt. John, Capt. Lemuel, then Major Chenery Abbott.

The property grew from 9 to 70 acres at the peak of prosperity in the 1840's. Ells flanked each end of the inn. A central portion in the rear held a ballroom. Outside were three stables, two blacksmith shops, coach shelters, paddock and farm buildings.

Until 1836, when the town hall was built, the tavern housed Holden's public entertainment and auctions. In 1791, broadsides advertised the sale "at Public Auction...at the House of Leml Abbott inn Holder in Holden that Noted House in Said Town Known by the Name of the Old Publick Meeting House.”

The tavern was also the village club and substitute for a daily paper. Men flocked there to learn what was going on, then headed home full of Abbott's Flip, the hot rum, brandy and beer drink the tavern was noted for.

One winter during the Revolution the tavern sheltered Holden's women and children while their men were in the army. For mutual protection and fuel economy they pooled provisions till spring. When the fire went out, they had two choices--strike a gun flintlock and rekindle it, or walk a mile through snow to the nearest neighbor for live coals.

Prices paid at Abbott's during Revolutionary Days are in the town record. Selectmen, together with the Committee of Safety, established ceiling prices: "Lodging, 3 pence per night. Potluck, 8 pence per meal. New England Flip, 9 pence per mug. Glass New England rum, 2 coppers. Boarding Commons, Men, 4 shillings, 8 pence." But women with their reputed sparrowlike appetites had a financial edge: the list concludes "Boarding Commons, Women, 2 shillings."

A windfall came to Abbott's when the Sixth Massachusetts Turnpike was routed through Holden. Chartered in 1799, it extended from Amherst 43 miles east to Shrewsbury to connect with the Boston Road. There was also North-South traffic through Holden--stagecoaches from Providence and Worcester to Keene, NH and Brattleboro, VT. Holden also prospered from woolen, cotton, boot, grist and saw mills, plus its tanneries, brickyard and potash works.

Holden's last innkeeper, Chenery Abbott, had the three "g's" typical of his job--generosity, geniality and girth.

The last big event at Abbott's was the 50th anniversary of the Worcester County Knights Templar in 1875. They had been organized there. Chenery Abbott, now 80, welcomed them with a lavish banquet and gave them as souvenirs such old inn furnishings as a chandelier and ancient bench.

Tavern records were passed down through the Rice family, which bought the tavern from the Abbotts and converted it to a private residence, living there 50 years. Those records were published in the March, 1974 issue of The Rice Family News-Journal.

The copyright of the article The Abbott Tavern in Holden, MA in American History is owned by Rosemary E. Bachelor. Permission to republish The Abbott Tavern in Holden, MA in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.