It was in this setting that Will Rhodes commissioned the historic Spread Eagle Tavern to be built along Plymouth Street in the year 1837. Said to have been erected by canal artisans that were thrown out of work by the Bank Panic of 1837, the tavern is known still today as one of the area's finest examples of Federal Period architecture. The three floors, eleven rooms and twelve fireplaces inside indeed were taken directly from the works of the renowned late 18th Century architect Asher Benjamin, whose pattern books depict many of the fine raised-wood window and door casings, fluted column frames and intricately carved mantles that are seen throughout the tavern.

In 1863, the Sandy Valley Order of Free and Accepted Masons was organized on the third floor. And, finally, there's the folklore of Abraham Lincoln's stagecoach stop, chronicled in the minds of Hanover's early residents.

The wood-framed saltbox which adjoins the Spread Eagle predates the tavern. For many years it was home to Hanover's Justice of the Peace where, no doubt, countless marriages were performed and quarrelsome claims settled.