The Smith’s Drove/Drover Tavern was built c. 1818 at the Elam Crossroads in Elam Village (the northwest corner of Smithbridge Road and the Wilmington-West Chester Pike). The crossroads area was originally known as “Pleasant Hill Crossroads,” but postal authorities required the name to the changed in 1844 after discovering an established post office named Pleasant Hill in the Lancaster County area.
The tavern license was first granted in 1823 to James Smith after several failed attempts at obtaining a license years prior beginning in 1819. Smith operated the tavern under the name “Smith’s Drove Tavern.” The tavern was quite busy due to the prime commercial location along the Wilmington-West Chester Pike. The tavern remained in the Smith family until 1844, when Milton Stamp purchased the property. The name changed over the years to Drove Tavern, Drovers & Travelers Inn, Pleasant Hill Tavern, Farmers & Drovers Inn, and Elam Hotel. The property changed landlords frequently through the mid to late 1800s, with the tavern falling into ownership to families such as the Gilpins, Cheyneys, Mays, Speakmans, and Jenkins. At the end of the 1800s, the tavern license was revoked due to the growing temperance movement, and the property was sold to the Brandywine Summit Kaolin Company, a feldspar mining company that operated the quarry to the south.
In 1908, the Order of United American Mechanics Lodge purchased the building, retaining it into the 1930s, and converting the building into that of a lodge hall.
In later years, the building served as apartments, a clog shop, and pool care store.
The building itself is a large Italianate stucco-over-fieldstone 3 story structure.
Concord Township Historic Resource #35
