300-year-old inn goes kosher

09/15/2005

300-year-old inn goes kosher

By Anthony Roberts


When Rabbi Shraga Sherman's sledgehammer struck a beam in the main room of the former General Wayne Inn, it marked a symbolic beginning to a renovation project at the building.

It also represented the symbolic linking of two age-old institutions, as the 300-year old landmark building will soon house Chabad Lubavitch of the Main Line, a center for Jewish life. While Chabad Lubavitch had been looking to expand from its current digs at 139 Montgomery Ave., Sherman admitted the building's history dovetailed nicely into his organization's mission.

"Driving down Montgomery Avenue and seeing a sale sign on the General Wayne Inn prompted an immediate phone call because it was a confluence of so many positive factors," Sherman explained. "Mainly, location. Number two, space. It's also extremely noteworthy in the community, and four, the historic depth of that building was a tremendous parallel to the tremendous depth of Jewish heritage we're coming to present."

The Chabad Center for Jewish Life is an education, social and religious organization dedicated to creating and strengthening the Jewish experience for everyone, regardless of affiliation. It's the world's fastest growing network of Jewish educational centers, with more than 1,500 locations.

Sherman, a Wharton graduate known for his non-traditional style, wants to create a resource for the entire community, providing a library and media center, parenting center, adult education classes, seminars, special events, and one element the current space certainly doesn't have, a restaurant.

General Wayne has changed hands a few times over the past decade, but none have provided the type of niche the dining room will become.

"We're in conversation with a number of potential restaurateurs. A kosher restaurant of this nature (strict rabbinical supervision) is new to the Main Line," Sherman said. "As a result of that, it requires a little more research to insure it is the right formula or the right concept."

The General Wayne Inn was built sometime between 1704 and 1709 for Robert Jones, a member of the Provincial Assembly and a justice of the peace. It became a popular watering hole for British and colonial patriots traveling between Philadelphia and Lancaster, and in 1777, Washington's Valley Forge troops fought with British and Hessian soldiers at the inn. It was likely named for General "Mad" Anthony Wayne after his 1779 triumph at Stony Point, N.Y. It also served time as a polling place and post office, before being sold in a sheriff's sale in 1936, and eventually falling to legendary landlord Bart Johnson for many years.




©The Suburban and Wayne Times 2005