1808 - Baltimore native, John Dickson settles in Erie, PA after a lifetime of maritime adventures in the Mediterranean and North Atlantic. Click here for the “Exploits of John Dickson”.

1812 - During the War of 1812, John Dickson joins the American 40th Infantry, Capitan John Fillebrown Jr’s Company, he is captured by the British and is a prisoner of war.

1814 - Dickson acquires a 115 ft. by 142 ft.t plot of land at the corner of Second and French Streets, near the busy French Street wharf, and hires William Himrod to construct a building on this site.

1815 - Construction of a three-story Federal Style building is completed and John Dickson opens his tavern for business.

1815 - A British ship that was in the Battle of Lake Erie, the “General Hunter” is acquired by Dickson, renamed the “Hunter” and used to ship cargo between Buffalo, Erie, and Detroit.

1820 - Dickson places an advertisement in the Erie Gazette for his tavern the “Exchange Coffee House”.

1821 -Dickson places a notice in the Erie Gazette that he will continue to keep the Steam Boat Office at the Exchange Coffee House. Dickson boasts that he can accommodate persons wishing passage on the steamboat, has a wharf for easy landing, a storehouse to store goods on low terms, and a sailboat to ship goods entrusted to his care.

1825 - Gilbert du Motier, the Marquis de Lafayette visits the Exchange Coffee House and John Dickson caters a banquette in his honor on the adjacent 170-foot-long Second Street bridge. An awning covering the tables on the bridge is made from the sails of British ships captured at the Battle of Lake Erie.

1827-1837 - Father Phelan of Butler, PA travels to the Exchange Coffee House once a month to celebrate mass for Erie’s early Irish Catholics. The Catholic Diocese of Erie was later founded 1853.

1841 - John Rodgers purchases the building and it is used as a single-family home. A South addition is constructed and the building is renovated in the Greek Revival Style.

1913 - On the 100th anniversary of the Battle of Lake Erie, the City of Erie forms a special commission to preserve the building. A sign is placed on the building renaming it the “Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry U.S.N. Memorial Building.”

1924 - The “Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry U.S.N. Memorial Building.” is acquired by the City of Erie.

1936 - The building is documented by the Historic American Building Survey (HABS).

1957 - Demand for off-street parking at this site's reduced the original 115 ft. by 142 ft. plot of land to its current size. The building is also threatened with demolition to make room for more parking.

1959 - Erie City Council forms a seven-member commission under the City of Erie’s Department of Parks and Public Property “to preserve and promote this historic landmark”.

1962 - The “Sesquicentennial Committee” is formed to prepare events for the 150th anniversary of the Battle of Lake Erie. The committee assists with renovating the “Commodore Perry Memorial House” and operates it as a museum to commemorate the War of 1812 and the Citizens of Erie’s role in the Battle of Lake Erie.

1990 - The building is individually listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

2004 - After years of neglect, the “Perry Memorial House” is closed.

2009 - Architects Chip Wachter and Jeff Kidder aquire the property from the City of Erie.

2012 - The building is carefully renovated into office space and occupied by an Kidder Wachter Architecture & Design for ten years.

2017 - A Historic Preservation Award is granted by Preservation Pennsylvania.

2021 - UPMC Hamot opens a new $111 million dollar, seven-floor patient tower across the street from historic Dickson Tavern. Click here for more information Click here for a UPMC Hamot Campus Map.

2021 - Wachter aquires Kidder’s shares in Dickson Tavern and is the sole owner of the property.

2022 - The building is renovated and is available as leasable office space.