Craft's Tavern

Craft's Tavern was built in 1785 by Archibald Morgan and at one time was one of the two oldest buildings in Holyoke. It was located on Northampton Street on the present site of the John J. Lynch School. 

Morgan, who was owner of the property, leased the building to Abner Miller, who ran the Abner Miller Inn there until 1832. Just north of the tavern was the First Congregational Church, which was built in 1834.

It was in the year 1832 that Chester Craft purchased the property and ran it as a tavern, post office and general store until 1872, during this time it was a twice a day stop on the Old Post Road mail route from Springfield to Hanover.

In 1926, the Daughters Of The American Revolution marked the property as an historic spot, and in 1928 the land was leased by the city of Holyoke, (who had taken ownership of the land in 1882), to the Eunice Day Chapter of the Daughters Of The American Revolution who opened it as a regular tavern.

Years later, the city which had taken 47 acres of land behind the tavern in the early 1880s for a park which later became Anniversary Field, and who also intended on making Craft's Tavern a museum, demolished the building to make way for the future John J. Lynch Junior High School which was built in 1952.  (Photos courtesy of The Seminole Bailey Archives)