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Built after 1822 · licensed 1824
Founded: Built after the Ewing family's arrival in 1822; in licensed operation by 10 August 1824, when Alexander Ewing received a tavern licence the same day and at the same $12.50 fee as Suttenfield (county record quoted in the 1907 Fort Wayne News "First Taverns" piece) — The exact build year is not established on the sources in hand. Name variant flagged: Castaldi / History Center call it Washington House; the News-Sentinel city history and local business writing call it Washington Hall. Both renderings are in the record; the entry carries both rather than picking one silently.
Founder: Alexander Ewing (d. 1 January 1827 per his Lindenwood Cemetery / DAR record; Castaldi gives his death year as 1826 — conflict flagged, not resolved here), Revolutionary War veteran and War of 1812 colonel, who brought his family to Fort Wayne in 1822.
What it did: The town's first tavern (with Suttenfield's, licensed the same day), at the southwest corner of Barr and Columbia streets. It was civic infrastructure before there was a courthouse: Allen County was organised there in 1824, the newly elected county commissioners' first acts were carried out in the house, and Alexander Ewing himself was elected to the Board of Justices of the Peace and appointed to the first grand jury there (History Center).
Course / fate: The sources in hand follow the family (Ewington land purchase 1823; the sons' fur company — entry 4) rather than the tavern house itself; no renaming, sale or closure date for Washington Hall was found. Directory and ACGSI hotel research is the route to settle it.
Sources:
- History Center Notes & Queries, Tom Castaldi, "The Ewings and the Indian Trade on the Midwestern Frontier" — http://historycenterfw.blogspot.com/2013/10/the-ewings-and-indian-trade-on.html
- News-Sentinel city history (Hanna-era chapter: "Alexander Ewing ran his Washington Hall tavern at the southwest corner of Barr and Columbia. It was the first tavern in town") — http://egen.fortwayne.com/ns/projects/history/rhist7.php
- ACGSI, "The First Things in Fort Wayne" (licence, 10 Aug 1824; SW corner) — http://www.acgsi.org/genweb/fort-wayne/first-things-fort-wayne-indiana.html