Early 18th-century records suggest that the land where the tavern now stands, then owned by the Philipse family, was leased by a Charles Davids (or Davis, in some documents), a tenant farmer. The Albany Post Road was built through the area in 1723, and by 1744 a bridge crossed the brook. The area was a natural crossroads, and Davids built a farmhouse from which at least the foundation and framing survive between 1758 and 1760.
