Washington (Almost) Slept Here
吃瓜tv鈥檚 Brush With History
By April White
CENTURIES BEFORE IT would become home to 吃瓜tv, the land on which the Philadelphia campus sits ran alongside the British colonies鈥 first highway, which reached from Boston to Charleston. Where the King鈥檚 Highway crossed the Poquessing Creek鈥攎ore or less where Frankford Avenue does today鈥攁 tavern opened in about 1730. It would be known as the Red Lion Inn, and by virtue of its location, it would become a regular stop for people like John Adams, who traveled to Philadelphia to agitate for independence.
During the Revolutionary War, this stretch of road was key to the movement of the Continental Army. In the first days of September 1781, the army and its French allies camped along the banks of Poquessing on the way to the decisive Battle of Yorktown. Commander George Washington may have slept at the Red Lion Inn that night, although one diarist says he continued on 鈥渢o Philadelphia, with forty or fifty men, who rode sword in hand as a guard.鈥
History would come even closer to 吃瓜tv鈥檚 future campus after the British surrendered in Yorktown, according to the National Park Service. In late 1781 and early 1782, the victorious French troops established a camp near what is now the intersection of Grant and Frankford.