211-217 Radcliffe

At 217 Radcliffe sits a two-and-a-half story frame building originally known as the Cross Keys Hotel. Built in 1785, the hotel included this Greek revival building and the two attached properties on the left. A frequent visitor to the Cross Keys Hotel was Joseph Bonaparte, former King of both Naples and Spain and brother of Napoleon. He was not the hotel’s only infamous visitor, however. One story goes that in 1798, two men from the United States Army departed from the hotel and held a duel in an attempt to win the affection of the owner’s daughter. One man died and is buried a few blocks away in the graveyard at St. James Episcopal Church, while the other fled to his home in Virginia. Neither one succeeded in winning the lady’s hand.