The City Hotel was built of brick in 1804, and stood near the north-west corner of Washington and Zeigler streets, and was the mansion of George Zeigler.  It ceased to be a public house about a third of a century ago.

Taft’s Tavern stood at the north-west corner of Washington and South streets, near the Roslindale station, on the Dedham Branch railway.  It was built in 1805, and first kept by Sharp & Dunster, and was long famous for good dinners.  The widow of Samuel Burrill kept it during the War of 1813-1815.  It is now the Roslindale Hotel.

The Norfolk House was built in 1781, and was the mansion of Joseph Ruggles, a well-known lawyer of that day.  His uncle Joseph kept an inn in Roxbury in 1765.  After the decease of Capt.  Nathaniel Ruggles the mansion was the residence of Hon. David A. Simmons, who sold it to the Norfolk House Company in 1825, and it was opened in the following year as a public house, a large brick addition having been built containing a hall for public assemblies, known at first as Highland Hall, subsequently as Norfolk Hall, which, in 1853, was moved to the rear.  The old mansion now stands on the north side of Norfolk street, and is occupied as a tenement-house.  It was the starting-point of the Roxbury hourly coaches, which began running to the Old South Church on the first of March, 1826; fare, twelve and a half cents.  It ceased to be a public house a generation ago, and became the pioneer of that large class of domestic and social comforts designated as “family hotels,” no less than sixty of which now stand where, half a century ago, the tide ebbed and flowed.

In 1635 Robert Long with his wife and ten children arrived from Dunstable (Eng.) at Charlestown, and in 1638 purchased the so-called “Great House,” originally erected by Thomas Graves for the governor’s residence, for court-meetings, and public religious worship, which stood in what is now City square, opposite the Waverley House, and the base of the Town Hill.  In a few years it was abandoned.  Long paid L30 for the premises, to be used as a tavern, or ordinary.  No use of tobacco, no card-playing, and no throwing of dice was allowed.  He was allowed the use of a pasture, provided he would fence it, for the use of the horses of the guests.  He was liable to a fine of ten shillings for every offence of selling at a price exceeding sixpence for a meal, or taking more than a “penny for an ale-quart of beer out of meal-times,” or for selling cake or buns except for marriages, burials, or like special occasions.  The tavern was well known afterwards as “The Three Cranes.”  Mr. Long and his sons following him carried on the house for three-quarters of a century, Robert, the first landlord, died January 9, 1664, and his widow May 27, 1687.  In 1683 John, son of Robert, willed the house to his widow Mary, daughter of Increase Nowell.  The estate had a brew-house attached to it.  In 1711 the property was deeded by Mrs. Long to her son Samuel, and named in the deed as the “Great Tavern.”  Samuel, in 1712, sold it to Ebenezer Breed, when the house was called “The Old Tavern.”  The building was probably burnt in the destruction of Charlestown, on the day of the Battle of Bunker Hill, June 17, 1775.  Finally, the land was bought by the town, and is now part of City square.