Inn where Washington ate still stands on Elm Street

President George Washington once had breakfast in Andover and kissed the 
cheek of the innkeeper’s daughter for mending his glove. The inn, now a 
private residence, was owned by Harvard graduate Isaac Abbot and still stands 
at 70 Elm Street in Andover, across from the intersection of Whittier Street.

The house was probably built circa 1680 on land of Deacon William Lovejoy, 
whose granddaughter. Phebe Lovejoy Chandler married Lt. Isaac Abbot, the 
innkeeper at the time Washington visited the inn on Nov. 5, 1789. Washington 
had been touring the northeast region of the new nation and stopped in 
Andover on his way from Haverhill to Billerica.

Of his trip, Washington wrote,” About sunrise I set out, crossing the 
Merrimack River at the town over to the township of Bradford, and in nine 
miles came to Abbot’s tavern in Andover, where we breakfasted… “The country 
from Haverhill to Andover is good and well cultivated. In and about the 
latter (which stands high) is beautiful. A mile or two from it you descend 
into a pine level, pretty sandy, and mixed with swamps, through which the 
town of Bellarika stands, which is also pleasantly situated 10 miles from 
Andover.”

Lt. Abbot was one of several Minute Men wounded at the Battle of Bunker Hill. 
His son, Deacon Isaac Abbot, reportedly was the last Colonist to leave the 
battlefield after it was overrun by British troops. A Gardner historian, who 
claims the last to leave was David Foster of that town, disputes that claim, 
however.

Upon graduation from Harvard in 1728, Lt. Abbot became a schoolmaster. In 
1776, he petitioned the court to open a “house of general entertainment” on 
Elm Street, an old stagecoach road. The tavern became Andover’s first post 
office. The building has been altered over the years, but retains its unusual 
paneling in the dining room, broad floorboards and overhead beams.