Editor, Gazette-Journal:

Is Edge Hill House a better name than Long Bridge Ordinary?

In early America, the terms tavern and ordinary were interchangeable. Some ordinaries did provide lodging, but it was not necessary to meet the definition.

As settlements proceeded westward from Tidewater, there were some as primitive as a one-room structure. There were laws that specified that there be one at a Court House location. They often served more agreeably than court offices. Williamsburg’s Raleigh Tavern is a premier example. At times, proceedings could get rather fuzzy. As a location, it promised fair reward. Our Seawell’s Ordinary, of the Battle of the Hook fame, may have offered lodging. Structurally, it does not appear to have done so.

The location of the subject at hand is as good as one could ask for. It is at the junction of two important roads, a nearby fresh-water stream spanned by a bridge, and is close by the courthouse. It is self-evidently prime and why not for an ordinary?

As for lodging, had there been, it was not that uncommon to pack a single room with strangers overnight to suffer the discomfort as best they could.

If there is irrefutable evidence that the name Long Bridge Ordinary was pulled out of the sky, has much been gained by changing it? It has been known by that name by four generations in my own memory. It surely came from somewhere.

Philip W. Hamilton Jr.

White Marsh, Va.