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Episode 5: The Black Horse

Episode 5: The Black Horse

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 (Listen on your favorite podcast player: iTunes, Spotify, Overcast, HeartRadio, Amazon Music)Outside of New York City, New Jersey has some of the oldest restaurants in the U.S. Sitting near the top of that list is an institution that started out as an Inn waaaay back in 1743, but has weathered more than one storm to become an icon of Mendham: The Black Horse.For those who don’t know, the Black Horse Tavern and Pub is essentially the geographical and cultural center of Mendham Borough. You can’t drive down Main Street without noticing the big white colonial era building at the northwest corner of Mountain Avenue. I arrived in Mendham in the midst of the pandemic. Restaurants were closing everywhere. Businesses were struggling. But The Black Horse was still open, thriving even. And then I find out that it has been operating since before we even had a constitution. How is this possible???The answer has to do with consistency. The story of humanity is the story of consistency. When life changes, consistency sets you at ease. Sad events like funerals, happy ones like marriages - world-changing events like 9/11 or local events like a hurricane - these things all drive a need for consistency. Nowhere in Mendham is this felt more than at the Black Horse, where this town was essentially founded. Where weary travelers stopped on their journey west. Where a future president (whos name rhymed with Florge Floshington ) maybe stopped to discuss revolutionary matters. Where a modern-day diva came for a night out with her family and enjoyed the bubbly shrimp. According to menutiger.com, three out of five restaurants won’t make it past their first year. But somehow, The Black Horse managed to beat the odds again and again, for 275 years., making it the oldest continually operating restaurant in New Jersey. Perhaps the original proprietor, Ebenezer Byram, read this statistic from menutiger.com and thought “Good sir, those facts are preposterous and must be fixed…I’ll mend ‘em!” (Theme)Welcome to Hometown History, a series about the iconic places and events that make a town someplace people call home. Stories that people can tell to their friends old and new about the place they live, did live, or will live: In my case, Mendham, New Jersey. And today we talk about the unique recipe that one of Mendham’s iconic institutions - a Tavern, Inn and Pub - used to stay in business for 275 years.(Theme end)It started as a farmhouse. In 1743, Fifty two year old Ebenezer Byram moved his large family - five sons and three daughters - from Bridgewater, Massachusetts to the backwoods of New Jersey. There’s no record of how many times Byram endured the phrase “Are we there yet?” as he underwent this arduous family trip. Undoubtedly the Byrams were relieved to arrive at their new home - a large farmhouse that was situated along an ancient Lenape trade route. Today, we call it Main Street. In the 1964 book, The Mendhams, the authors note “It seems a mystery as well as legend that a man of considerable means and religious fervor should travel into a far country to set up a tavern in sparsely inhabited hills.”It does sound strange, but from the little we know about Byram, perhaps it shouldn’t be surprising. Byram was a devoutly religious man, civic minded, with a pioneer’s spirit. He was a risk-taker, and was prescient about the future of his new hometown and the significance of his position within it. In 1749, just a few years after Byram arrived, Mendham was officially incorporated as a Township in New Jersey. And this, my dear listeners, is perhaps what you’ve been waiting five episodes to hear about: Where does the name Mendham come from?Well, there are several different theories. Some have said that it was the anglo saxon term for “my home”. Another source claimed that the words “I’ll mend ‘em” were spoken by Rev. Eliab Byram in reference to some unruly customers at his father’s tavern. But the most likely origin story is that it was named after Byram’s ancestral home in Mendham, England, or perhaps borrowed from a town close to Bridgewater, Massachusetts named Mendon. But if it were up to me, I’d prefer to believe in option #2. Byram converted his farmhouse into an Inn, naming it “The Black Horse“ which, metaphorically and literally, put Mendham on the map. The Inn became the township’s center, sitting at the crossroads of two popular trade routes: One from Morristown, New Jersey to Easton, Pennsylvania and another south to what would become Bernards Township. At the onset of the American Revolution Mendham was a small but thriving little village. As travelers underwent the journey from New York to Pennsylvania by horse and carriage, they would stop at the Black Horse Inn, the political, legal and social center of the community, where one could hear all the local news and gossip. The Inn was not just a meeting place, but also a place you could enjoy a ...

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