"Though an old man, I am but a young gardener."
-- Thomas Jefferson

The Parker Tavern, Reading's oldest remaining seventeenth century structure, is owned and operated by the Reading Antiquarian Society. It is located at 103 Washington Street, Reading, and is open for tours from 2:00 to 5:00 pm, Sundays, May through October.

The early New England family found it necessary to have a kitchen garden near the house, providing food and herbs for the family. Herbs were used for medicinal purposes but could also be used to flavor food and to dye cloth. The Reading Garden Club plants and tends a typical dooryard garden at the Parker Tavern. Care is taken to have plants authentic to the 18th and early 19th centuries and some of these plants are still familiar to us today. Click here for a plant list of what is growing in the gardens.

The Parker Tavern also has a vegetable garden, tended by board members of the Reading Antiquarian Society, to reflect the many period vegetables grown by families who lived in the Tavern during the 18th and 19th centuries. These vegetables include squash, pole beans, chards, carrots, radishes, pumpkins, corn and potatos.