From Missouri - A Guide to the "Show Me" State -
Tour 1 - Arrow Rock section:
The OLD TAVERN (adm. 25¢, except for
dinner and overnight guests), on the main street, was built by Joseph Huston
about 1834. To the original four rooms with walnut floor boards, generous open
fireplaces, paneled doors, and ladder-like stairways to second-floor bedrooms,
other rooms have been added at different periods. Present furnishings include
walnut, maple, and stenciled chairs, and canopied beds, many of them more than a
century old. The tap room, believed to have housed the store which Huston
operated, contains a collection of portraits, firearms, and personal objects
associated with Dr. John Sappington, Governor Meredith M. Marmaduke, and other
early residents of the community. Above the tap room, and of equal size, was the
ballroom, now divided into bedrooms, in which public meetings and dances were
held. During the 1850s, Miss Amanda Crutcher, lately arrived from the East,
attended a dance here. It was fashionable at that time for ladies to make
several changes of dress during an evening s entertainment. Miss Amanda s
changes from black brocaded silk to pink tarlton, to yellow tarlton, to white,
and, when departing, to a blue cloth traveling dress, made her the belle of the
evening and helped win her a husband.
On the roof of the tavern, beneath a curiously designed weathervane in the
form of a fish, is a bell said to have been taken from a river steamboat more
than eighty years ago. Ordinarily, its brisk, clear tones ring for tavern
meals, but at moments of civic emergency its voice rallies the townspeople.
Built in 1834 with additions throughout the 19th century, the Huston Tavern
is the oldest continuously operating restaurant west of the Mississippi River.
Judge Joseph Huston built the building and it operated as an inn and restaurant.
The community of Arrow Rock became an important town along the Santa Fe Trail,
its location on the bluffs above the ferry crossing of the Missouri River. The
town's population was nearly 1,000 in the 1860's but dwindled when the railroads
bypassed the town. The survival of the town is credited to Daughters of the
American Revolution prevailing upon the State of Missouri in 1923 to purchase
the Huston Tavern and create the Arrow Rock State Historic Site. The tavern has
been restored to it 1840's appearance. The restaurant continues to serve hearty
fare of fried chicken and ham dinners along with other specialties.
The fish shaped weathervane remains on the roof, however the steamboat bell
is now located on ground at the west end of the tavern.