Standing abandoned at the intersection of Harding Highway and Wheat Road is the Ye Olde Midway Inn.
The original building was built in 1779 by John Campbell (or possibly Archibald Campbell Sr). It was licensed as an inn for travelers from 1817-1832.
For many years it gave weary travelers a place to rest. It served as a Relay House where drivers could exchange their spent horses for fresh ones as stagecoaches traveled from Phila to Cape May through thickly wooded and dense swamp lands.
Though the land seemed menacing towards civilization a settlement developed around the tavern. The settlement was at first called Campbella, the name was later changed to Buena Vista about the time of the Mexican War. Later the name was shortened to Buena.
"If the o'd hotel could speak, it might tell strange tales of what it has seen and heard around the blazing hearth in the bar room and dining room where guests used to sit and tell of the adventures of their grandfathers with the Indians, and in the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812".
The building now is a replacement, the original Inn burned years ago.
Add on: For the first time in over 200 years a tavern no longer sits on this corner. The Ye Old Midway Inn has been torn down...
While it has stood empty for years and had fallen into disrepair it is a shame to lose another tie to our past.
This cache is still there and safe for now.
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original on left and remolded on right.