Philadelphia’s first coffeehouse opened in 1703, and by mid-century half a dozen operated within the city limits. Their purpose, however, changed in important ways as the eighteenth century progressed. Early coffeehouses primarily served the needs of traders and mariners, acting as crucial centers of commerce.  

The first coffeehouses sprung up in the Ottoman Empire in the fifteenth century, and spread to Europe over the following two hundred years. By 1663 the City of London boasted over eighty establishments, which often became hubs of economic and political life. They soon crossed the Atlantic, though early American coffeehouses were often modest ventures.

A land deed for Philadelphia’s first coffeehouse, opened by Samuel Carpenter in 1703 on Front Street just north of Walnut Street, described a “tenement” measuring just twenty-four feet wide by thirty feet deep. Later coffeehouses grew in size and often set aside rooms for special groups or functions. The coffeehouse opened in 1720 by a Captain Roberts, also on Front Street, had enough space to host board meetings of the Library Company, North America’s first circulating library. His wife, the “Widow Roberts,” continued to manage the business after his death until 1754. She was one of three women known to operate coffeehouses in Philadelphia by the 1750s.

 In some ways colonial coffeehouses functioned like taverns or inns. They offered food and drink, and both served coffee and alcohol. But there were also important differences. Coffeehouses were centers of commercial activity, particularly during exchange hours, when traders compared currency prices and bought or sold bills and coins. The space in front of the Old London Coffee House at Front and Market Streets was one of Philadelphia’s most popular auction blocks and was used to sell everything from imported bags of coffee and barrels of rum to indentured servants and enslaved Africans. 

By the 1760s, the Old London was Philadelphia’s leading coffeehouse, owned by printer William Bradford. Centrally located in the business district and adjacent to the waterfront, it was a well-known landmark. It was thus the ideal meeting place for merchants and storekeepers when they began formulating their responses to new, and largely unwanted, British commercial legislation and voicing their discontent.  

By the 1790s and early 1800s, many of the commercial functions formally associated with coffeehouses had become professional industries in their own right, such as banks, insurance companies, post offices, and auction houses. As a result, coffeehouses had to remake themselves. Some relocated to the outskirts of town, such as Manayunk and Passyunk, or near suburban parks. Other coffeehouses expanded their services in the city. Some offered menus that changed by time of day and season of the year, competing with taverns and restaurants. Some entrepreneurs featured special shows, including lecturers on topics from philosophy to politics, scientific experiments, and traveling music or theater productions. These trends continued during the nineteenth century, as coffeehouses became less associated with the world of business and more with entertainment, culture, and the culinary arts.  

Adapted from the new book Greater Philadelphia and the World, Vol. 3, A New History for the Twenty-First Century (University of Pennsylvania Press): “Coffeehouses,” by Michelle Craig McDonald.