mcgillin s olde ale house type small business industry restaurant founded 1860 philadelphia pennsylvania usa headquarters philadelphia pennsylvania usa key people christopher & mary ellen spaniak mullins owners christopher mullins jr. general manager products food and beverage to order to be consumed on the premises . number of employees approx 25 50 worldwide website www.mcgillins.com opened in 1860 mcgillin s olde ale house is the oldest continuously operated tavern in philadelphia pennsylvania . it is located on drury street an alley connecting 13th street and south juniper street between chestnut street and sansom street in center city . 1 2 contents 1 history 2 notable paraphernalia 3 see also 4 external links 5 references history edit the famous pub officially called the bell in hand opened its doors in 1860 in the home of irish immigrant william pa mcgillin the owner and operator of the establishment . it was nicknamed mcgillin s by those who frequented the establishment and the bar took on the title as its official name . pa mcgillin operated the establishment until his death in 1901 . then his wife known as ma mcgillin continued running the business which had grown to encompass the oyster house next door as well as the remainder of the mcgillin s house displacing her 13 children . ma ran the restaurant until her own death in 1937 at age 90 . 2 3 after ma s death the tavern was run by her daughter mercedes mcgillin hooper until 1958 when she sold it to henry spaniak and joe shepaniak brothers and experienced bartenders who used different spellings of their last names . since 1993 the bar has been owned by henry s daughter mary ellen spaniak mullins and her husband chris mullins . their son christopher mullins jr. also helps run the day to day operations . 2 3 the ceramic tile floor main floor though not original to the bar was installed by pa mcgillin because he was tired of replacing the wooden floors because of wear and tear from workers boots . william got the idea from a local butcher shop little wear and tear easy to clean . 3 there is a ship bell and a cow bell behind the bar which the bartenders ring when they get a great tip . they also ring it to gong or boo a bad karaoke singer . during a philadelphia phillies philadelphia eagles or philadelphia flyers game it can be expected that the bell will be rung when the home team scores . the political website politicspa named it to their list of restaurants frequented by politicians . 4 in 2007 the national trade magazine nightclub and bar included mcgillin s in its editors choice top 100 bars and clubs in the united states . the list is based on annual revenue effective marketing and advertising uniqueness to market and other factors . 5 notable paraphernalia edit mcgillin s has become the home to a sizable collection of historical philadelphia paraphernalia including a catalogue of every liquor license held by the pub since 1871 saved by william mcgillin and each successive owner . the original bell in hand sign the original sign that william pa mcgillin had designed for the pub when it originally opened . the sign has survived through the years and is an amazing carved piece of wood of an arm ringing a bell you can almost hear the crier calling the public to mcgillin s 3 the john wanamaker s signature logo sign from the original wanamaker s department store at 13th and market streets . the strawbridge & clothier seal of quality logo sign from the market street store presented to mcgillin s by peter strawbridge the founder s great grandson . 3 gimbel s department store tiled subway sign . lit brothers department store tiled subway sign . f.w. woolworth s tiled subway sign indicating the defunct market street store . a corestates financial group sign . crusader s bank sign . there are also several hand drawn scenes of mcgillin s and philadelphia drawn by various artists through the 1960s and 1970s . see also edit philadelphia portal market east philadelphia pennsylvania external links edit mcgillin s official website restaurant review by city paper mcgillin s olde ale house to celebrate 150 years of business an article by kathy matheson for the huffington post coordinates 39 56 54 n 75 09 50 w 39.94845 n 75.16378 w 39.94845 ; 75.16378 references edit philadelphia nightlife mcgillin s olde ale house . new york times . a b c mcgillin s olde ale house website . mcgillins.com . retrieved 2007 12 13 . a b c d e interview . luminosity.antisoc.net . 2006 12 31 . retrieved 2006 11 21 . 2002 politics pa restaurant guide . politicspa . the publius group . archived from the original on 2003 02 02 . unsigned 2007 . top 100 2007 . nightclub & bar magazine . archived from the original scholar search on may 16 2008 . retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title mcgillin % 27s olde ale house & oldid 743595529 categories restaurants in philadelphiairish american culture in philadelphiairish american culture in pennsylvaniataverns in pennsylvaniarestaurants established in 1860center city philadelphiahidden categories pages using infobox company with unsupported parameterscoordinates not on wikidata navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages add links this page was last modified on 10 october 2016 at 09 43 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; 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