y. Early colonial records do not make it clear
whether the London coffee house or the Gutteridge coffee house was the
first to be opened in Boston with that distinctive title. In all
likelihood the London is entitled to the honor, for Samuel Gardner Drake
in his _History and Antiquities of the City of Boston_, published in
1854, says that "Benj. Harris sold books there in 1689." Drake seems to
be the only historian of early Boston to mention the London coffee
house.

Granting that the London coffee house was the first in Boston, then the
Gutteridge coffee house was the second. The latter stood on the north
side of State Street, between Exchange and Washington Streets, and was
named after Robert Gutteridge, who took out an innkeeper's license in
1691. Twenty-seven years later, his widow, Mary Gutteridge, petitioned
the town for a renewal of her late husband's permit to keep a public
coffee house.

The British coffee house, which became the American coffee house when
the crown officers and all things British became obnoxious to the
colonists, also began its career about the time Gutteridge took out his
license. It stood on the site that is now 66 State Street, and became
one of the most widely known coffee houses in colonial New England.

Of course, there were several inns and taverns in existence in Boston
long before coffee and coffee houses came to the New England metropolis.
Some of these taverns took up coffee when it became fashionable in the
colony, and served it to those patrons who did not care for the stronger
drinks.

[Illustration: THE CROWN COFFEE HOUSE, BOSTON

One of the first in New England to bear the distinctive name of coffee
house; opened in 1711 and burned down in 1780]

The earliest known inn was set up by Samuel Cole in Washington Street,
midway between Faneuil Hall and State Street. Cole was licensed as a
"comfit maker" in 1634, four years after the founding of Boston; and two
years later, his inn was the temporary abiding place of the Indian
chief Miantonomoh and his red warriors, who came to visit Governor Vane.
In the following year, the Earl of Marlborough found that Cole's inn was
so "exceedingly well governed," and afforded so desirable privacy, that
he refused the hospitality of Governor Winthrop at the governor's
mansion.

[Illustration: COFFEE MAKING AND SERVING DEVICES USED IN THE
MASSACHUSETTS COLONY

These exhibits are in the Museum of the Essex Institute at Salem, Mass.
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