e British coffee house were decidedly
opposed in their views on the questions of the day. While the Green
Dragon was the gathering place of the patriotic colonials, the British
was the rendezvous of the loyalists, and frequent were the encounters
between the patrons of these two celebrated taverns. It was in the
British coffee house that James Otis was so badly pummeled, after being
lured there by political enemies, that he never regained his former
brilliancy as an orator.

It was there, in 1750, that some British red coats staged the first
theatrical entertainment given in Boston, playing Otway's _Orphan_.
There, the first organization of citizens to take the name of a club
formed the Merchants' Club in 1751. The membership included officers of
the king, colonial governors and lesser officials, military and naval
leaders, and members of the bar, with a sprinkling of high-ranking
citizens who were staunch friends of the crown. However, the British
became so generally disliked that as soon as the king's troops evacuated
Boston in the Revolution, the name of the coffee house was changed to
the American.

The Bunch of Grapes, that Francis Holmes presided over as early as 1712,
was another hot-bed of politicians. Like the Green Dragon over the way,
its patrons included unconditional freedom seekers, many coming from the
British coffee house when things became too hot for them in that Tory
atmosphere. The Bunch of Grapes became the center of a stirring
celebration in 1776, when a delegate from Philadelphia read the
Declaration of Independence from the balcony of the inn to the crowd
assembled in the street below. So enthusiastic did the Bostonians become
that, in the excitement that followed, the inn was nearly destroyed when
one enthusiast built a bonfire too close to its walls. Another anecdote
told of the Bunch of Grapes concerns Sir William Phipps, governor of
Massachusetts from 1692-94, who was noted for his irascibility. He had
his favorite chair and window in the inn, and in the accounts of the
period it is written that on any fine afternoon his glowering
countenance could be seen at the window by the passers-by on State
Street.

After the beginning of the eighteenth century the title of coffee house
was applied to a number of hostelries opened in Boston. One of these was
the Crown, which was opened in the "first house on Long Wharf" in 1711
by Jonathan Belcher, who later became governor of Massachusetts, and
sti