Asa Kingsbury Tavern

Site: N09-66
Municipality: Plainfield, NH
Location: Route 12A
Site Type: Tavern (former).

Asa Kingsbury Tavern. It is handsomely located on a rise just north of Plainfield village on the east side of Route 12A. It was built by Asa Kingsbury over a period of two years after he purchased the land in 1801 from Josiah Russell of Tolland, Connecticut.(2) It was designed as a tavern with a bar room on the first floor and a ballroom on the second floor with a wall bench all around it. The first license to sell liquor was granted to Asa Kingsbury in 1803 and in most years thereafter through 1813. The building also served as a store for a few years. (See Chapter 10, Business and Commerce.) The house has a lowpitched hip roof and a symmetrical arrangement of windows and transomed lights over the doors. Over the years, the house became run down, and Curt Lewin kept chickens there in the late 1800s. One section of the tavern, used for the servants' quarters, was moved down the hill and is now part of the home of David Scott (1991). Subsequent owners were Charles Empey, Mrs. Clara Davidge Taylor, Mrs. Cutler, Dr. Burton and Mrs. Renihan, Donald and Vera MacLeay, Alfred and Susan Posnanski, and Judith Atwater (1991).
(Source 165:376)