nt of the woodwork in the ballroom. Happily, the floor is
original. The inventory called for a coal grate, and in the attic the
original grate, of Adam design, was found.

In 1937-38, the Alexandria Association made a careful restoration of the
roof, cornice and dormers, enabling other much needed work to go forward
and before this book goes to press the original doorway in which
Washington stood to receive his last official tribute in Alexandria will
have been brought back from the Metropolitan Museum of Art (where it has
been for four decades) to its rightful location. This patriotic
restoration of the doorway by the Alexandria Association has been made
possible by the past president and Honorary President of the
Association, Colonel Charles B. Moore, U.S.A., Ret.]

When Alexandria was one of the three largest seaports in America, a busy
city of shipping merchants, a rendezvous for travelers, soldiers, and
people of note, it was from necessity a city of taverns and hotels.

Many are the tales, handed down from the late eighteenth and early
nineteenth century travelers, and from the advertisements of the
journals of that time, that, put together, form a very complete picture
of this early American hostelry.

The most famous tavern in Alexandria, perhaps in America, are the
buildings on the corner of Cameron and Royal Streets, generally known
and spoken of today as Gadsby's Tavern. Built in 1752, the smaller of
these buildings was known for fifty years or more as the City Tavern,
and sometimes as the Coffee House. John Wise built the large brick
addition adjoining the City Tavern in 1792. On February 20, 1793, the
_Alexandria Gazette_ carried the following announcement of Mr. Wise's
City Tavern:

SIGN OF THE BUNCH OF GRAPES

The Subscriber informs the public in General that he has removed from
the Old House where he has kept Tavern for four years past to his new
elegant three story Brick House fronting the West end of the Market
House which was built for a Tavern and has twenty commodious,
well-furnished rooms in it, where he has laid in a large stock of
good old liquors and hopes he will be able to give satisfaction to
all who may please to favor him with their custom.

* * * * *

David Rankin Barbee says that the hotel was opened on February 11 with
festivities commemorating the birthday of General Washington: "As the
guests assembled they were amazed a