Becky Libourel Diamond at the Doylestown Historical Society: City Tavern
About this Event
Join The Doylestown Bookshop and The Doylestown Historical Society as we welcome Becky Libourel Diamond, who will discuss her new book as a part of Doylestown Celebrates USA 250! programming on Thursday, October 8th, 2026 at 6:00 pm in the Doylestown Society Barn at The Doylestown Historical Society.
Doylestown Celebrates USA 250! is a yearlong program by Doylestown Historical Society in partnership with community businesses and organizations.
This is a ticketed event. A portion of the proceeds from each ticket sold will be donated to The Doylestown Historical Society. The Doylestown Bookshop will be on-site, selling the author's books at this event.
DATE: Thursday, October 8th, 2026, at 6:00 pm
LOCATION: The Doylestown Historical Society, 56 S. Main Street, Doylestown, PA 18901
The event will be held in the Doylestown Historical Society Research Center, which is located at the rear of the Doylestown Historical Society Campus at 56 South Main Street.
About The Doylestown Historical Society
Our mission is to preserve and celebrate the creative and historic significance of Doylestown and its neighboring communities. We document the human connection to our shared history with events that commemorate, speakers who share through our Video History Series, and lecturers who enlighten with information through our Speakers Series. historic exhibits, tours, and educational programming.
About the book
Several blocks from Independence Hall, City Tavern was a hub of life in colonial Philadelphia and its dining table an important political and social meeting place. Like George Washington’s “Rising Sun” chair and the desk where the Declaration of Independence was signed, the tavern table, and the patrons, meals, and discussions it witnessed, captures the imagination. From America’s early years, taverns were vital in urban spaces for sharing news, making business deals, holding club meetings, and discussing political issues. When a movement toward independence from Great Britain began to take hold in the eighteenth century, the central seaboard city of Philadelphia became a popular meeting location. By the 1770s, its residents saw the need for a grand, new tavern that could provide food and drink, overnight accommodations, and space for larger political and business discourse as well as social and cultural activities. Built through a subscription model funded by fifty-three of Philadelphia’s wealthiest and most socially connected men, City Tavern soon became an important meeting place for political discussion. When the Continental Congress convened in Philadelphia, City Tavern was designated as a neutral spot for delegates to make connections, solicit opinions, and offer off-the-record thoughts and solutions—all over a pint of ale or glass of Madeira. This important role continued throughout the Revolution and beyond. Many of the founding fathers dined there, and George Washington even used it briefly as his headquarters. The tavern also became a social center for music, dancing, and festive dinners.
City Tavern: The Founding Table—Colonial Dining, Revolutionary History, and the Restaurant at the Center of it All views this crucial time in America’s history through the tavern’s lens. Here the reader can follow history as it unfolds from the unique perspective of the dining table, from the decision to break from England and the prosecution of the war to Constitutional debate and the grand banquet Washington enjoyed at City Tavern in 1789 as he passed through Philadelphia on the way to his presidential inauguration in New York City. Throughout, the business of an eighteenth-century tavern is described in detail along with the food and drink enjoyed by customers at the crossroads of the American Revolution.. Illustrated with period images, City Tavern provides a unique perspective on an extraordinary part of our nation’s history.
About the Author
Becky Libourel Diamond is a food writer, librarian, and research historian. She is the author of two cookbooks, The Gilded Age Cookbook and The Gilded Age Christmas Cookbook, and two books of culinary history, The Thousand Dollar Dinner and Mrs. Goodfellow: The Story of America’s First Cooking School. She holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Rider University and a master’s of library and information science from Rutgers University. She has worked as a business librarian at Rutgers–New Brunswick since 2020. She lives in Yardley, Pennsylvania.
Where is it happening?
Event Location & Nearby Stays:
USD 11.49
