Built 1744 Opened 1744 Added to NRHP 24 July 1974 | NRHP Reference # 74000040 Area 1 ha | |
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Location 283 Maple Valley Rd., Coventry, Rhode Island | ||
The Waterman Tavern is a historic house and tavern at 283 Maple Valley Road, near Whaley's Hollow in Coventry, Rhode Island. The 2-1/2 story wood frame house, five bays wide with a central chimney, was built sometime before 1747 by John Waterman, who in that year was licensed to operate a tavern on the premises. The site was advantageously located on what was then the main road between Providence and Plainfield, Connecticut. The tavern was a center of civic discourse, and town meetings were regularly held there until 1835.
The tavern is also notable as being one of the first stops along the march route of the Count de Rochambeau's army during its march from Providence to Yorktown, Virginia in 1781, during the American Revolutionary War. The main army camped near the tavern, while the officers were quartered in the tavern itself.
The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974.