Unionville Tavern photograph

Photograph of the Unionville Tavern, also known as the Old Tavern, in Unionville, Ohio. The oldest surviving tavern in Ohio, the Unionville Tavern began as a log cabin in 1798. Over the years, the tavern expanded, providing fine accommodations and food for travelers in northeastern Ohio. Among the tavern's more famous guests were Thomas Edison and Henry Ford. During the early 1800s, it served as a stop for stagecoaches traveling between Buffalo, New York, and Cleveland, Ohio. During the 1840s and 1850s, the tavern's owners also provided a safe haven for runaway slaves traveling along the Underground Railroad. An Ohio Historical Marker, erected at the tavern in 2001, reads "First known as the Webster House, later as the New England House, and more recently as the Old Tavern, this inn has served travelers on the old Cleveland-Buffalo Road (now State Route 84) since before Ohio became a state. As traffic on the old Indian trail increased and it became a post and stage road, the two original log cabins, built in 1798 and later, were converted to this two-and-a-half story inn between 1815 and 1820. While the tavern was the scene of Civil War-era parties and dances in the second-floor ballroom, local tradition suggests it offered much more clandestine hospitality to escaping slaves as a station on the Underground Railroad. The Unionville Tavern was added to the National Register of Historical Places in 1973.