Inside Kelly’s Logan House, the oldest, continuously operated Irish family bar in America

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When it comes to the best place to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day, you’d be hard-pressed to find a location with deeper history than Kelly’s Logan House in Wilmington. The oldest, continuously operated Irish family bar in America is now owned by the family’s fifth generation.

John D. Kelly bought the tavern with his wife, Hannah, in 1889 after the pair met in America and discovered they had lived 5 miles apart in Ireland. It quickly became a popular gathering spot for Irish immigrants, who were guided into their new lives by the tavern’s owners. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Irish immigrants to America had to list their destination on their passports. Many indicated they were relocating to the Kelly’s Logan House. A passport can be seen even today on the walls along with other family pictures.

The structure was named after Union General John A. Logan, who ran for vice president with William Blaine in the 1884 election. The tavern in the center of Wilmington’s Trolley Square was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980.

Their great-granddaughter, Mary Ann Kelly MacDonald, said Hannah was the brains behind the business.

“She owned several properties around there and became like the landlady for [the immigrants], and [the tavern] was like the basis of the whole Irish Catholic community to come to that area, predominantly from County Cork,” said MacDonald, a former trustee of the Delaware Historical Society. She and her husband had five children, MacDonald said. All were college-educated, and one became an Ursuline nun.

MacDonald grew up in a Wilmington rowhouse owned by her great-grandmother. It was a block away from the tavern. She asked her father if they could move, and he told her they lived in the perfect location: one block from the Logan House and one block from the church.

“So we all grew up in a rowhouse and I’m proud of that,” added MacDonald, who managed the business from 1985-91.

For many years, the tavern had hotel rooms. It was close to a B&O Railroad station, the gateway to the West. Al Capone, John L. Sullivan, Buffalo Bill and Wild Bill Hickok were among its guests.

Today, it’s owned by brother and sister Joanna and Patrick Kelly, great-great-grandchildren of John and Hannah Kelly. They inherited the tavern from their father, Michael Kelly, who passed away in 2022.

“I mean, it is very weighty to have that many generations of ancestors, who kept the Logan House running and made it such a staple of the neighborhood, and so there’s a fair amount of pressure, but I feel very grateful to be able to do it, and really excited to kind of carry on that legacy,” Joanna Kelly said.

“I think that my brother and I feel there’s so much intergenerational effort and love that’s gone into this business and this building,” she said. “I mean, my great-grandfather was born in the building that the Logan House is in. It carries so much significance for our family. There have been weddings there, engagement parties, birthday parties. Everything you can think of has happened there and so it holds so much importance to the Kelly family. My brother and I feel a lot of pressure to continue, leading it in a successful way, a way that continues to incorporate the values of our family and our community.”

The pressure of that legacy is magnified as both Joanna and Patrick Kelly have full-time jobs outside of the tavern. She’s an attorney, and he’s a high school teacher.