Georgia

Eagle Tavern, Watkinsville, Georgia (33.863932, -83.409412)

Primary House Felling Dates: Spring 1803, Winter 1802/3, Winter 1801/2

Site Master 1714-11802 (yellow pine) ETGAx1 (t = 7.23 GEORGIA1; 6.32 CHH23; 5.59 CHGAx1).

[with house history and description in italics by Mark Reinberger]

The Eagle Tavern rose contemporaneously with the town of Watkinsville, the newly designated county seat of Clarke County, also newly formed. The tavern stood on Lot 21 and fronted on the public square, created in 1807. The owner of the land on which the tavern stands is not yet known, but by the early 1820s the Moore family, brothers Thomas and George W., and George’s wife, Mary, had possession. George and Mary owned and operated the Eagle Tavern for at least fifteen years, at the same time acquiring substantial other land in the town and four nearby counties. No doubt whoever was the owner intended to profit by the attorneys, judges, and others who would inhabit or at least regularly need to visit a courthouse town

The tavern was a substantial two-over-two structure for its place and date, and had fairly fine interior woodwork, much of which still survives. Across the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, many additions encapsulated the original building, but these were removed in the 1980s and the building restored to its original form. It now serves as a welcome center and historic museum.

Dendrochronological analysis has shown that the building was constructed from timbers felled in the winter of 1801/2, the winter of 1802/3, and the spring of 1803.

Worthington and Seiter 2024 "The Tree-Ring Dating of the Eagle Tavern, Watkinsville, Georgia." Oxford Tree-Ring Laboratory 2024/16.

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