Mar 15, 2018 4 min read

The story behind Dry Tavern’s name has a spirited history.

“They had taverns all along (the road). At this one, you couldn’t drink,” local businesswoman Alice Caputo explains about the one dry inn along a heavily-traveled path in eastern Greene County that took in weary settlers in the early 1800s.

While that tavern didn’t serve alcohol two centuries ago, Caputo and her staff offer plenty of beer and spirits at her Caputo’s Dry Tavern Inn, the only bar in the tiny village on the northeastern edge of Jefferson Township. Her restaurant along Route 88 doesn’t have any connection to that original tavern once located nearby, but customers still enjoy a touch of irony that comes with her establishment’s name.

“Everyone thinks (the history) is great,” Caputo says. “They buy shirts and hats.”

But while it seems obvious that there once was a tavern in town that didn’t serve alcohol to travelers, its exact location, name and when it was operating remains somewhat of a mystery. An Observer-Reporter news story in September 1988 described the building as a “large” tavern that didn’t serve liquor, nor did it have a bar.

“It was a prominent place because it was located on the main road leading south from Pittsburgh to Virginia and was widely traveled,” the story explains about a path that could be considered modern day Route 88. “Everyone who stopped over knew they could not get a drink of sprits.”

Most people traveling to the region in the late 18th century usually came by way of boat up the Monongahela River, says Rea Andrew Redd, a professor at Waynesburg University. Most likely, they would land on the western bank of the river in what is now Rices Landing.

“That ‘dry tavern’ was only a couple miles from Rices Landing,” Redd says. “It probably was the first wagon stop. There was a tavern to rest up the horses and get them a meal. Then they would proceed onto the frontier of Dunkard Creek and to what would become Waynesburg.”

Redd says there were few roads from Morgantown to Pittsburgh. One of them took travelers through the heart of Dry Tavern. He doubts the road was in place during the American Revolution, but suspects travelers would be using it around the turn of the century heading into the 1800s.

“We’re talking when Jefferson was president,” Redd says. “Lewis and Clark would be leaving Pittsburgh.”

According to a map located at the Cornerstone Genealogy Society in Waynesburg, there was no town named “Dry Tavern” in 1790. The location at the time was shown as “The Park.” Another map from 1876 also doesn’t label Dry Tavern. The parcels where Route 88 and Route 188 meet once were owned by a Miss R+M Martin and Wm. Devall, according to the map. There also is a “B shop” shown in the map.

The vague or non-existent references to Dry Tavern don’t surprise Redd, since it was never an incorporated borough with its own municipal government. Mapmakers would probably avoid listing it for that reason, he says.

“It’s easy to think that Dry Tavern would be skipped if it didn’t have a charter from Pennsylvania,” Redd says. “It’s less than 100 people with no more than a tavern and a mill. But that makes civilization on the frontier.”

He thinks the only place where the story of the dry tavern along the trail would have been passed along was in family Bibles. “Who lives there and when? The historical society only has what you gave them. Genealogists might have their names,” Redd says. “It’s a puzzle. Is this the corner, the middle?”

Redd believes the folklore about the dry tavern is true and pointed to his research elsewhere about how towns got their quirky names.

“I doubt it’s a tall tale,” Redd says. “I do Civil War history and there are so many taverns. Cold Harbor north of Richmond because there once was a tavern that did not serve hot meals. Now you have Cold Harbor Battlefield.”

Redd says these little historic footnotes passed down for generations make Dry Tavern a quintessential frontier town along the trail. “Dry Tavern is typical about what’s going on in the 1800s. All of these little villages that are hanging on,” he says. “That’s what Dry Tavern is.”