[Illustration: Ready for the big move from Monument Avenue to Carillon Park, in summer of 1964, Tavern stood trussed in I-beams and heavy timbers. Newcom Manor apartments, barely visible at right of photo, were built on Tavern’s original site at southwest corner of Main and Monument.] The Tavern stood on its original site almost a century. It was an inn until 1836, after which it served as a general store. The years saw many changes in the rude structure: it was plastered on the inside and weather boarded on the outside; even the shape of the roof was changed. Townspeople were generally unaware of its historic significance when, in 1894, architect Charles Insco Williams started to raze it to make way for the apartment building. Removal of the clapboards revealed the original logs. John H. Patterson, always interested in local history, had the Tavern moved at his own expense to the Monument Avenue location. The Daughters of the American Revolution raised money by public subscription to have it restored, and the Montgomery County Historical Society subsequently operated it as a museum of pioneer relics. [Illustration: With only a couple of inches to spare, the roof of Newcom Tavern is eased through Route 25 underpass on its way to Carillon Park.] Current contents of Newcom Tavern pertain strictly to the earliest days of Dayton, without the items from later periods that were displayed at the Monument Avenue location. We see a set of antlers, possibly from one of the deer shot by Robert Edgar during his daybreak vigils at the Miami river. A rocker and a cradle came up the river with the Thompson family, from whom the Wright brothers were descended. Among other interesting furniture are Colonel Newcom’s favorite chair, a rope bed typical of the period, a spinning wheel, and the long table which served in the tavern dining room. Pewter, odds and ends of dishes, brooms, stone jugs, a bullet mold, a corn grinder and a coffee mill are among the artifacts. An item of special curiosity is a sand box dating from the time the cabin was used as a school. The box wasn’t for play, however; pupils, lacking paper, inscribed their lessons in the smooth sand, and “erased” them after the schoolmaster’s inspection. For the two-mile trailer trip from Monument Avenue to Carillon Park, the roof of the Tavern was removed so the structure would pass under power lines. The sides were braced with stout timbers and steel framing, and a number of termite-weakened logs were replaced. Fortunately, some weathered but sturdy logs were found in an old barn, so all of the structure retains the 1796 appearance. All in all, it was a touchy job of moving—likened by one observer to “holding a house of cards in one hand while dodging under low doorways.”