> A house of private entertainment, apart from whatever modern connotations
the name might
> conjure, was in the 19th century a licensed place to sell booze, possibly
meals but which did not
> offer overnight accommodation.

Based on a reading of the Virginia Code, a house of *private* entertainment
did NOT sell liquor but DID offer overnight accommodation.  See below:

From the Code of Virginia, 1860, Title 28, Chapter XCVI (pages 489-490) [the
first major revision of the Virginia code since 1849 and the code that
prevailed through the Civil War]:

OF HOUSES OF ENTERTAINMENT AND BOWLING SALOONS.

Sec. 1. Any person who shall, for compensation, furnish lodging or diet to a
person boarding in his house, or provender for a horse feeding in his stable
or on his land (except a drove of live stock, and persons attending it), and
sell by retail wine or ardent spirits, or a mixture thereof, to be drank in
or at the place of sale, shall be deemed to keep an ordinary or house of
public entertainment.
Sec. 2. Any person who shall, for a time not exceeding one month, if within,
or not exceeding one week, if without a city or town, furnish for
compensation lodging or diet to one boarding at his house, or provender for
a horse feeding his stable or on his land, except as aforesaid, shall, if he
be not the keeper of an ordinary, according to the preceding section, be
deemed to keep a house of private entertainment, unless the place of
furnishing the same, when without a city or town, be more than eight hundred
yards from a public road or highway.
Sec. 3. For a license to keep a house of entertainment, the application
shall be, when the house is in a town having a corporation court, to such
court, and when it is not in any such town, to the court of the county
wherein it is. If the court of opinion that the applicant is sober and of
good character, and will probably keep a house orderly, useful, and such as
the law requires, it may grant such license; and if the house be in a town,
the court, when it grants the same, may, if the applicant desires it,
dispense with the necessity of his providing for horses. If any such
application be refused, the refusal shall be entered of record, and a
license shall not be granted to the applicant before the next March or April
term, unless by a court composed of the same justices to whom the first
application was made, or a majority of the acting justices of the county or
corporation.
Sec. 4. Every person licensed to keep an ordinary, or house of public
entertainment, shall constantly provide the same with lodging and diet for
travelers and their servants, and unless it be dispensed with as aforesaid,
with stableage and provender, or pasturage and provender (as the season may
require), for their horses. Any such person may, at the place of a muster or
public sale, distant a mile or more from another ordinary, with the consent
of the proprietor of such place, vend meat or drink as at his ordinary.
Sec. 5. Upon the motion of the commonwealth's attorney for the county or
corporation, or of any other person, after ten days' notice to any person so
licensed, the court which granted such license may revoke it. It shall
always revoke the same when it is satisfied that the object of obtaining the
license is not to provide lodging or diet for travelers, but to use it
merely as a facility for selling wine or ardent spirits, or a mixture
thereof, to be drank in or at the place of sale.
Sec. 6. A license to keep a bowling saloon or alley, in a town having a
corporation court, may be granted by such court, and when it is to be kept
not in such town, by the court of the county wherein it is to be kept. Such
license may be revoked, like any other license granted under this chapter.

Jill M. Myers
Montgomery Village, MD
[log in to unmask]

To subscribe, change options, or unsubscribe, please see the instructions
at http://listlva.lib.va.us/archives/va-hist.html