Alexandria's Gadsby's Tavern: Thomas Jefferson Slept Here

PHOTOS: Thomas Jefferson, courtesy of The White House; Jefferson's ledger, courtesy of New York Public Library/Gadsby's Tavern

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ALEXANDRIA, VA -- Founded in 1749, Alexandria is steeped in history and it's always fun for history buffs to discover something new about the City's past.

Recently, the City's Gadsby's Tavern Museum announced such a discovery, that Founding Father Thomas Jefferson stayed overnight at the tavern in January 1801, while he was waiting to hear whether he would become the nation's next president during an election season just as raucous as the one between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump.

"We suspect it was the evening of January 2," Liz Williams, acting director, Gadsby's Tavern Museum, City of Alexandria, said Friday. Jefferson was on his way back to Washington, D.C., from visiting Martha Washington at Mount Vernon, she said, noting that there was no love lost between the two and the meeting was likely for show.

The recent discovery occurred after Jefferson's accounting ledger was digitized and published by the New York Public Library. "Thanks to his newly digitized account book at the NYPL The New York Public Library, we discovered this jewel on p133," the Tavern announced this week. "It cost Jefferson $5.50 for dinner + lodging." Researchers also say Jefferson likely tipped 75c to Gadsby's enslaved hotel staff.

"At this point, in January 1801, this is when, for all the 'Hamilton' fans, there was a question of who was going to be president -- Jefferson or Aaron Burr?" Williams said. "It was thrown to the House; nobody knew what was going to happen. Some people forget the 1800 election was not pretty. He arrived in DC in November and that is the context of him being in town."

The presidential election of 1800 provided Alexander Hamilton, former secretary of the treasury, with a dilemma, the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History writes. "A tie between Thomas Jefferson, a man whose principles were in direct opposition to Hamilton's own, and Aaron Burr, a man Hamilton believed to have no principles at all. As the House of Representatives prepared to vote to break the deadlock, Hamilton conducted a furious letter-writing campaign to urge fellow Federalists to vote for Jefferson. "

At the time of his overnight stay Jan. 2 at Gadsby's Tavern, the election was in limbo. After visiting Martha Washington at Mount Vernon, instead of heading back to his boarding house in Washington, D.C. while he waited to find out if he would become president, Jefferson decided to spend the night at Gadsby's Tavern or what was then known as the City Hotel.

Williams said it's not yet known what Jefferson ate while at the tavern or which room he stayed in. But the amount he paid, $5.50, was considerably more, she said, than the average of about $1.50. "We suspect he had a traveling companion, a senator from New Hampshire." He would have dined on whatever was in season; the tavern likely made use of the farmers market across the street that still exists today, Williams noted.

A wine lover, it's possible too that Jefferson might have enjoyed a glass of Madeira in Alexandria after his visit with Lady Washington.

When he left on Jan. 3, Jefferson took a ferry back to Georgetown to return to the Conrad & McMunn's boarding house, Williams said. He stayed there before moving into the White House in March.

Jefferson returned to Gadsby's Tavern in March after he became president, for a lavish inaugural banquet. An account was written about it in the local newspaper, the Alexandria Advertiser.

Other famous guests included the first five presidents as well as the Marquis de Lafayette, who stopped by on his goodwill tour in the 1820s and Benjamin Latrobe, architect of the national Capitol.

Today the tavern is a museum and restaurant, located at 138 N. Royal St. The restaurant offers authentic fare, and the servers wear 18th-century attire. The tavern, comprised of the 1785 tavern and the 1792 City Hotel, was a central part of the social, economic, political, and educational life of the city of Alexandria, and was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1963. Learn more about tours and events coming up at the museum here.