The Kemp Hotel was built by Danel Levan in about 1740, in Maxatawny Twp. Daniel Levan built the sturdy stone structure beside the highway that ran between the towns of Reading and Easton. The road was improved in 1755 because traffic had become so heavy. In about 1765, Daniel Levan doubled the size of his building and began operating what is said to be the oldest hostelry in the eastern part of
Berks County. At the start of the Revolution, the first defenders of the colonies marched to Cambridge, MA on the Easton road where the Levan house was located. The Continental Congress adjourned on September 18, 1777 as Howe’s British Army was approaching. John Adams mentions stopping over night at the Levan Tavern in his diary. The following is an excerpt from the book "Genealogical record of the LeVan family: descendants of Daniel LeVan and Marie Beau (Huguenots), natives of Picardy, France, who settled in Amsterdam, Holland, 1650 to 1927" by Warren Patton C**n
“On the evening of November 12th, 1777, there was a group of half a dozen men at Levans’s, whose conversation one might wish had been more fully reported. William Ellery, a Signer of the Declaration of Independence, and, as Representative from Rhode Island, at this time a Member of the Continental Congress sitting at York, Pa. From his Diary under that date we learn,–”From thence to Levan’s about 15 miles from Snell’s, where we lodged. Here we met Col. John Brown and four other New England men. Brown gave us an account of his expedition to Ticonderoga and of the Mode of Surrendry of the vaunting Burgoyne.”
The Levan Housel is very important in history because most of the noted characters of the American Revolution passed over this “Easton Road”, en route to and from York, Pa., where the Congress sat so long, and, with every probability, many of them “dined” or remained over night at the Levan Tavern.”
Daniel Levan died in 1777, bequeathing the building to his son Daniel. The elder Daniel’s daughter Susana and her husband, Captain George Kemp, took possession of the home in 1788. There are two special stones on the front face of the building. One says the name of George Kemp, and the other, Susana Kemp. Both have the date of 1795 with their names. The Kemps operated the renamed Kemp’s Hotel for the next 52 years. The above history was published by Dave Weller on his informative website http://wellerharvey.wordpress.com/ .
