Historic Williamsburg

33. John Crump House

Williamsburg, VA

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The John Crump House was previously called the Red Lion Inn. This particular name was very popular for taverns in both England and the United States, so the establishment on Duke of Gloucester Street, which was constructed in 1719, was one of many "Red Lion Inns" already in existence. During the patriotic fervor of the Revolution its name was temporarily changed to the Union Tavern, but was soon changed back. John Crump owned the inn around the beginning of the 19th century, according to an 1802 insurance record. Victoria Lee, a nineteenth-century Williamsburg resident, described the original building as being a long one and a half story house, with three doors that opened to the main street. In the years before the Civil War, a mural of a hunting scene decorated the space above the fireplace mantel in the west living room. The establishment may have also had a billiard room. In his book Recollections of Williamsburg, John Charles claimed that the old tavern was in dangerously poor condition after the war, and was torn down because it became a fire hazard. An eighteenth century drawing of the original building and a historic photograph were used to create an accurate reconstruction.