[Illustration: Ballroom of Gadsby's Tavern, purchased and taken from
Alexandria by the Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York, where it is
now on exhibit]

The Fairfax Resolves were prepared here--those resolves that eventually
grew into the Virginia Bill of Rights. In this tavern met the little
convention called by General Washington to settle the import duties upon
the Potomac River commerce which led in time to the convention in
Philadelphia which prepared the Constitution of the United States.

In 1802 Gadsby entered into a new lease with Wise for fifteen years. In
the indenture, reference is made to a three-story brick house and a
two-story brick house, a brick kitchen and several wooden houses. Gadsby
at this time was granted permission by Wise to erect at his own expense
a brick stable one hundred feet long and twenty-seven feet wide and of
a suitable height. He was also given permission to erect at his own
expense another brick house forty-five feet long and fifteen or sixteen
feet wide and two stories high, finished in a neat and decent manner so
as to be habitable, and he also agreed to extend a wall thirty feet long
and of the same height. The annual rent was to be two thousand dollars,
and Gadsby agreed to paint the three-story brick house and the two-story
house outside and inside, and he had permission to remove what wooden
buildings were necessary and to keep the remainder in good repair.

[Illustration: In the ballroom the musicians played from the balcony
suspended from the ceiling. This is the restored ballroom]

That Gadsby did not desire to keep the tavern so long is borne out seven
years later when on November 13, 1809, John Wise, N.S. Wise, and R.I.
Taylor leased the tavern to William Caton for three months and then for
nine years for two thousand dollars a year, and stated the tavern was
"formerly occupied by John Gadsby."[107] But the following year Caton
had had enough and the _Alexandria Gazette_, on March 9, 1810, carried
the following advertisement:

To the Public

The Subscriber has taken for a term of years that noted and eligible
establishment known by the name of the City Hotel, and once occupied
by Mr. Gadsby whose distinguished abilities as a Publican gave it an
eclat which the subscriber hopes to preserve by his unremitting
exertions.... James Brook.

[Illustration: Ballroom fireplace containing original grate before which
the gentry were wont to stand on winte