Ye Olde Centerton Inn - History of Ye Olde Centerton Inn

History of Ye Olde Centerton Inn

Ye Olde Centerton Inn was situated on the road leading from Cumberland County to Grate Egg Harbor, about 200 yards from the Centerton Bridge. In Colonial Days, Ye Olde Centerton Inn was a stagecoach stop on the long journey between the Port of Greenwich and Philadelphia, birthplace of the Declaration of Independence. The early settlers of the area made it their meeting place for the exchange of news and stories of the Colony. In those early American days the rural taverns were places of the greatest consequence. They were the freight depots as well as the hotels where travelers rested, slaked their thirst and ate.

At this time there was a growing trade along the Grate Egg Harbor Road that was due to have large significance when the 13 Colonies moved toward battle with England. Many a ton of strategic merchandise, much of it, no doubt, smuggled contraband, was transported and stored at the Centerton Inn. Munitions of war poured out of South Jersey to Washington’s hard pressed troops. Some were purchased in France, with the consent of King Louis XVI, by Benjamin Franklin under the name of the Ortega firm.

The massacre at Hancock’s Bridge was perpetrated in a British-directed effort by Tory irregulars to break up the traffic from the old Grate Egg Harbor Road on which Ye Olde Centerton Inn was the most significant relay. It is said the staff of the General Marquis de la Fayette frequented the spot. Their leader, the Gallant Marquis himself, was rumored to have been accompanied on several occasions by a very beautiful lady whose name was never disclosed.

Records indicate that after the Revolution, Ye Olde Centerton Inn was well kept. In 1836, a local wholesale liquor dealer, writing to a cousin in St. Louis, said, "Dan Bowen has just come in from Centerton. I filled his three jugs with 15 gallons of the very best article and got the lucre paid down." Dan Bowen was the proprietor of the Centerton Inn and what the dealer wrote over a century and a quarter ago conveyed more than he knew about the quality of the trade Dan Bowen served. First, the article was "the very best" and second, with "lucre paid down" the place had to have a prosperous business.

In 1857, John Wright, who came over from Sharptown, was granted a license for the Centerton Inn, where he remained until 1861. He was followed by David Madara, Frederick Fritz, Jacob Beck, William Casper, Samuel F. Pancoast, David A. Wilson, Charles Gruff, John Koob, Samuel Garrison and Joseph W. Veight, III.

Today, under the direction of The Goode Family, assisted by an efficient staff, the romantic inn serves probably the finest food in all of South Jersey with the most gracious service. Its wine cellar lists the best names of imported and domestic wines and liquors. Dining rooms of Colonial 18th Century atmosphere are filled with treasures of the past in the form of oil paintings, documents and Early American Furniture.

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