Salem Tavern has held its ground at 800 South Main Street in the Old Salem Historic District of Winston-Salem, Forsyth County, North Carolina. Once a tavern in the 18th-century town of Salem, now part of Winston-Salem, it was built in 1784 and enlarged in 1815. It was the first entirely brick building in what is now Old Salem and is one of the oldest surviving brick tavern buildings in the United States.
Declared a National Historic Landmark in 1964, it is owned by Old Salem Museums & Gardens and is open as an Old Salem tour building to visitors. The tavern stands on the west side of South Main Street between Blum and East Walnut Streets and actually consists of two separate buildings, one brick and one wood frame; both rise two-and-a-half stories and have gabled roofs. The brick building sits on a raised foundation with a single-story shed-roof porch extending across the front, supported by square posts and accessed from the sidewalk by side-facing stairs.
The front portion houses public rooms on the ground floor and sleeping quarters for guests above, with the kitchen and landlord's quarters in an ell to the rear. Notice how this combination of form and rooms reflects its history as a tavern with guest chambers. Picture the shed-roof porch, the side-facing stairs, and the two joined buildings that meet at this corner.