I will remember that I remain a member of society, with special obligations to all my fellow human beings, those sound of mind and body as well as the infirm.
Excerpt from The Modern Hippocratic Oath - Dr. Louis Lasagna, 1964
Tavern pilgrim, Jon Hart revisits ‘The Little House’ next to The Tavern on the Square. 2023
This place, this building holds so much. I got to spend a full day on the job site and we made about 35 decisions regarding renovating, restoring and esthetic. What should change? What should we strive to keep? The big decisions are made but there are a lot of nuances when you’re working on a 174-year-old building. Lots of things are called on the fly as original joists or flooring or early plumbing is revealed.
I was sitting down in our office upstairs over the future Mercantile/former doctors’ office, trying to get out the June Journal, when Jon Hart, visiting from Wisconsin, wandered onto the site. Matt called me down to meet him and progress on my progress report was paused. The Tavern had been poked, prodded and discussed all day and now it wanted to do some talking.
Legacy of Service
Jon grew up in the area and had been visiting his daughter and grandchildren when he decided to see what was going on with the The Tavern. He stood in a stream of sunlight in ‘The Little House’ and, with his arms stretched wide, started his story with, ‘My grandfather’s desk used to be right here.’ I was hooked…
Dr. Hugh Hart was born to missionaries in Egypt and, in 1907, was sent to the US to be raised by an aunt in New Wilmington, Pennsylvania. Hugh attended Westminster College and was on the football team and later served as a General Practitioner to the New Wilmington community in the same office as abolitionist town doctor, Seth Poppino, who built 108 N. Market Street in 1849.
In 1931, Cora and Ernst Durrast moved their restaurant, The Tavern into the old home, renaming their business, The Tavern on the Square and eventually let-out the small side building, (Dr. Poppino’s office) to Dr. Hart until he retired in 1951.
Jon remembers, ‘Every day, my grandfather would go next door and sit at the trestle table just off the kitchen door. It could seat one, maybe two and that’s where he’d have his lunch.’
Jon’s father, George Hart also became a physician serving the New Castle area after a career with the Navy. Both George and Jon Hart worked for Mrs. Durrast at the The Tavern in their youth. Jon remembers watching Cora take inventory after lunch service, ‘She’d make up lots of little boxes with what was left and send people off to deliver them to the folks in town that she took care of.’
Cora ran The Tavern on the Square for 66 years and, with her decisive nature and quiet compulsion to nurture, she left a lasting impression on many.
Founder, Cora Durrast in front of her restaurant, The Tavern on the Square. 1980
Jon’s face as he looked around the gutted old building, the reverence for a place his family holds dear weighs on me; thinking about those lives well lived and Jon, left with the memories. After someone is gone, our relationships transition from the possibility of the present to reflections on the past, which is hard, but that is where legacy is born. We can still do something with our memories. Heal. Help. It’s perpetual future, if we give ourselves up to the interruption and continue to tell the stories.
Earliest photograph of 108 N. Market Street, later The Tavern on the Square in New Wilmington, Pennsylvania.
The Tavern on the Square is a charming edifice but that is not its legacy. First and foremost, it’s been about service, and about people. Dr. Poppino knew that. Both Dr. Harts knew that and Cora new that, and it almost feels like they were reminding me through our pilgrim.
Jon also reminisced about the sticky bun. I hear ya, Cora. We’ll have it.
So, as we continue to be influenced by the past, we turn our gaze towards the future…
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