Tun Tavern and the Founding of the Continental Marines

Tun Tavern is remembered as the traditional birthplace of the United States Marine Corps. Its Revolutionary War story connects Philadelphia’s waterfront, the Second Continental Congress, Samuel Nicholas, Robert Mullan, and the creation of the Continental Marines in 1775.

Congress Creates the Continental Marines

By late 1775, the Revolution was expanding beyond land battles and political resistance. Congress was trying to build the machinery of war while the fighting was already underway, including forces that could support the new American naval effort.

On November 10, 1775, the Second Continental Congress resolved that two battalions of Marines should be raised. The resolution called for officers and enlisted men suited to maritime service, including men described as “good seamen” or familiar enough with sea duty to serve effectively when required.

The purpose of the new force was practical. Marines could serve aboard ships, help protect vessels, support landings, and fight in operations where the war moved between land and water. This mattered because Britain’s power was tied closely to the Royal Navy, and the American war effort needed men who could operate in that maritime world.

The creation of the Continental Marines shows how quickly the Revolutionary cause moved from protest and militia action into organized military planning. Congress was not only debating independence. It was building the forces, offices, and recruiting systems needed to fight a wider war.

Samuel Nicholas and Robert Mullan

Samuel Nicholas became the central figure in the early organization of the Continental Marines. Marine Corps tradition identifies Nicholas as the officer charged with raising Marines in Philadelphia and later remembers him as the first Commandant because of his senior role in the early force.

Robert Mullan, the proprietor of Tun Tavern, is closely tied to the recruiting tradition. Marine Corps accounts connect Nicholas, Mullan, and Tun Tavern to the earliest recruiting efforts for the Continental Marines. In that tradition, the tavern became the place where congressional authorization met the practical work of finding men for service.

The clearest way to understand the story is this: Congress created the Marines, Nicholas organized the early force, and Tun Tavern became the remembered recruiting ground.

Why the Waterfront

Tun Tavern’s location helps explain why it became attached to Marine Corps memory. Philadelphia was not only the political center of the Revolution. It was also a port city tied to the Delaware River, shipbuilding, sailors, merchants, warehouses, and waterfront labor.

For a force meant to serve by sea when needed, that environment mattered. The tavern’s recruiting role was strengthened by its proximity to the Delaware River and the maritime world around the Continental Navy.

Taverns also served a larger public role in colonial cities. They were gathering places, news centers, meeting rooms, and recruiting spaces. Tun Tavern did not need to be grand to be important. It stood in the kind of place where sailors, military men, political news, and wartime recruiting could cross paths.

The Original Site and Legacy

The original Tun Tavern no longer stands. Marine Corps accounts state that the tavern burned down in 1781, and the historic waterfront location is now beneath or within the modern I-95 corridor in Philadelphia.

Modern commemoration has brought the name back into the city, but the modern Tun Tavern should be understood as a commemorative recreation, not the surviving colonial building.

Tun Tavern’s importance comes from the way one remembered place connects the Second Continental Congress, Philadelphia’s waterfront, Samuel Nicholas, Robert Mullan, and the creation of the Continental Marines. The tavern itself is gone, but the memory remains powerful because it gives the founding of the Marines a physical setting.