George Washington did, in fact, stop at Roe Tavern in Setauket on April 22, 1790. That part is not folklore. The part that gets a little fuzzier over time is everything built around it: why he came, whether he specifically gathered former spies there, and whether the famous “Washington slept here” version is as ironclad as people like to say. The real story is better anyway, because it shows how one stop in Setauket opens up a much bigger Long Island trail of spies, taverns, damaged farmland, presidential travel, and a tavern building that has somehow kept reinventing itself for more than 300 years.
By 1790, Washington was president, but New York City was still serving as the national capital. Before Washington, D.C., there were the first two presidential residences in Manhattan: the Samuel Osgood House and then the Alexander Macomb House. A 2024 brochure published by the Manhasset Public Library History Center places Washington’s Long Island tour in that context, noting that he was living in New York City, taking stock of the region, and traveling with a small entourage that included escorts, a coach, and support staff. The brochure also says he had a strong interest in agriculture and recorded the land conditions he saw along the route, which tracks with the diary tradition around the trip.
That tour was no quick swing through one village. According to the Manhasset Library brochure and a Town of Huntington history handout, Washington’s route ran through what are now parts of Brooklyn, Nassau, and Suffolk, including Hempstead, Copiague, West Bay Shore, West Sayville, Patchogue, Setauket, Smithtown, Huntington, Oyster Bay, Roslyn, Flushing, and back toward Manhattan. In other words, this was not some casual little Sunday drive down 25A. This was a real presidential circuit across Long Island while the nation was still brand new…