This site on the waterfront originally had a brick Ferry House, built in 1760, that was burned down by the British in May 1813. The Ferry House and tavern were owned by William Brooke Stokes, son of Havre de Grace’s founding father, Robert Young Stokes (1757-1784). The tavern was known previously as “Mrs. Sears’s Tavern,” rented and run by Mary Sears, where some overnight guests were staying when the British attacked. One guest that night, Daniel Mallory, has written of their terror as the exploding Congreve rockets, cannon fire and musket shots, woke them out of their sleep and sent them fleeing. (Mallory, Daniel. Short Stories and Reminiscences of the Last Fifty Years. By an Old Traveler. 1842.) The Tavern was burned down and the contents plundered by the officers, although Mary Sears survived.

The tavern had also been a place where the City Commissioners sometimes held their meetings. The remaining property after the War included 10-11 water lots that William B. Stokes sold in 1818 to the Havre de Grace Ferry Company, along with Mrs. Sears Tavern’s remaining stables, and the wharf and ferry rights for crossing the river. The deed reads: “. . . water lots on which stood the brick tavern laterly burnt down with the stables now remain thereon and the walls and materials together with the wharf and all the said William B. Stokes right of feriage across the river Susquehanna.”

In 1834, George Bartol (1799-1848), Treasurer of the Ferry Company, announced that the lots and a tavern house on one of them had been ordered for sale by the court. The public sale took place and the highest bidder was banker Abraham Jarrett Thomas (1777-1841). Thomas constructed the current building in 1835 on the tavern foundation and used it as a family residence. His wife Mary Stump Thomas had died in 1826 with whom he had at least three sons. One son, Herman S. Thomas, a cavalry soldier of the Mexican War, conspicuous for gallantry in the front ranks, was mortally wounded at battle in Monterrey, Mexico, in 1845. Another son, William T. Thomas, died in 1851 and Oliver Hough Thomas, born in 1822 died in 1870.

The building was remarkable for its large scale; it was five bays wide with three dormers on the third level. Large connected multiple flue chimneys graced the gable ends in good proportion to the overall scale. The stucco surface, front porch, and rear section were added later. Abraham Thomas in his Will left the property to the Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore (PW&B) Railroad Company, and his Estate deeded it to the Company in 1856. They owned it until 1922 when they sold it James H. Robinson, Jr. and his wife, Susan Novaretta Robinson.

After remodeling it as a hotel, the Robinsons opened The Lafayette Hotel. Being right next to the entrance to the former double-decker bridge, the hotel served horse-racing enthusiasts attending races at The Graw racetrack from 1912–1950 and also served as the Greyhound Bus Depot until 1947. They advertised a restaurant serving steak, chicken, and seafood with Frank Murphy as the Manager in 1938. Its garage housed the first Ambulance Corps, and a tennis court was added east of the building around this time. Also east of the Hotel (or in the rear) was Abraham’s Market with a “complete line of fresh sea food, peelers, shrimp, and rockfish.”

The Robinsons sold The Lafayette Hotel just five years later (in 1927) to Emil and Margaret Baumgartner (of Philadelphia) but they sold it right away to locals, Michael H. Fahey (1865-1940), Mayor from 1915-1917, and Mary Fahey. Ownership then passed through Joseph P. Fahey to Georgia E. Howard in 1943 and then to Michael W. and Margaret Fahey in 1946, followed by the Susquehanna Trading Company and The Havre de Grace Printing & Publishing Co., Inc. also in 1946. The latter published The Record newspaper from 1946 to 1948.

In 1947, Post No.47 of the American Legion purchased the building from the Havre de Grace Printing and Publishing Company and renovated it as the Post’s home. It became the Joseph L. Davis Post No.47 American Legion of Havre de Grace, named in honor of the city’s first WWI casualty. It is thus the oldest building in the United States to serve as an American Legion Home. The Legion used to have a Rathskeller in the lower level lounge.

The “Mackin Property” was 12 x 18 foot parcel of land used by John J. Mackin as a storage area on the old Havre de Grace Water Company Wharf at the bottom of Warren Street on the water. It was conveyed by Doris May Mackin to the Legion Post in 1992 in memory of her husband, John Melvin Mackin. This entire property is now owned by The American Legion Department of Maryland, Inc.

County Records
Built 1834. 12,147 sq ft, 43,200 sq ft lot. Club house.