Our Story
The Alexander Dobbin Story
"Built in 1776 by an Irish-born clergyman with little but conviction and stone, the Dobbin House has outlasted empires, presidents, and the war that nearly ended a nation."
The Reverend Alexander Dobbin emigrated from County Tyrone in 1773. Three years later, with the Revolution underway, he raised a two-and-a-half story stone house on the Pennsylvania frontier — part home, part classical academy for the sons of the surrounding farms. It would become the first such school west of the Susquehanna.
The Dobbins raised ten children here. They opened their home to travelers, to runaway freedom-seekers along the Underground Railroad, and — in July of 1863 — to the wounded of both blue and gray after the Battle of Gettysburg.
In 1976, on the bicentennial of its construction, the house was carefully restored as a candlelit tavern and inn. Every beam, every fireplace, every uneven floorboard remains as Alexander Dobbin built it. We are merely its keepers.
Welcome. Sit by the fire. Stay awhile.