Previous Damon Tavern restorations          Latest Update on the Current Restoration Project
 Some Views of the Rufus Porter Murals

  The David Damon Tavern was built in 1817 by Ebenezer Damon for his older brother, Captain David Damon, a Revolutionary War veteran. Here at the half way stop of the Salem-Lowell and Boston-Haverhill routes coaching roads, the 21 room and 9 fireplaced tavern also served as the town's first Post Office. In the early 1900's the town's first telephone switchboard was located here. Until her death in the 1950's, a daughter of a long line of tavern keepers lived here and kept a variety store in one end of the building.

When the Damon Tavern was enlarged in 1828, a handsome second story ballroom was added. About 1835, Rufus Porter (1792-1884)  painted scenic murals on the plaster walls of the ballroom. An artist, inventor, and traveling painter, his murals were found on the walls of many fine old New England homes'. The few surviving examples of his work are today regarded treasures being part of the young American Republic's rise in the interest in arts and decoration. In 1961, with aid from the Massachusetts Council of the Arts, the murals were restored by the North Reading Historical and Antiquarian Society. Today these murals as well as the building itself are in need of further restoration and preservation.

Local resident, William W. Weeks, left a sum of money for the establishment of a library. In 1958 the town's library moved across the street to its third home. Thus the historic tavern became the Weeks Memorial Library Building . In 1991, the library returned to its earlier home, Flint Memorial Hall, after extensive renovation to the former Town Hall Building.

Today many people wish to see the Damon Tavern come to life again and be an important part of the public and cultural life of the community. With the help from individual, corporate, and other resources, this can be accomplished.

The Tavern is expected to open to the public in the Spring of 2001.

If you would like to learn about saving the Damon Tavern, have your name added to the mailing list, or be a volunteer, please send your name, address, and telephone number to Barbara O'Brien, 95 Park Street, North Reading, MA, 01864.

Please send any comments or suggestions to //vlmills3@earthlink.net
Updated: VLM-02/04/2001-20:00