It was built by the Tacony-Palmyra Bridge Company, after receiving approval from both the United States Congress and the United States War Department, and opened to traffic on August 14, 1929. Once construction of the bridge was complete, rapid commercial and residential development ensued on the Philadelphia side with the area quickly growing to become contiguous with the city center. And with the new bridge, Philadelphians now had a faster, easier, and more convenient route to the New Jersey coastline, or in Philly vernacular "The Shore". And being located directly on PA Route 73 (Robbins Avenue), which terminated at the bridge, The Shore Road Tavern was born.

 

Situated in a solid 'blue collar' working class neighborhood, The Shore Road Tavern grew to become an integral and indispensible part of the social fabric of the neighborhood. However, upon entering the 21st century, with the area experiencing significant losses in construction and manufacturing jobs, business closings, changing demographics, and other economic uncertainties, The Shore Road Tavern was itself facing extinction.

 

In Fall of 2010, the ownership and management of The Shore Road  was assumed by Northeast Philadelphia natives Kathleen Woelfel-Fiedler and Michael Fiedler with the hopes of saving the business that belonged to her family. After a year of rebuilding, Kathleen sensed that she had 'hit a wall' in effectively turning the business around so she turned to her husband Michael, the son of a musician with a vast network of musician friends, about the feasibility of having live music. His answer was simple, "you can do live music anywhere".

Mike invited some of his childhood friends to come in and test the space that December and they quickly realized that, not only was it possible to have live music there, but the acoustics of the room welcomed it. In early 2012, a few more local bands were brought in and, by the end of February, Mike and Kathy had the confidence to book their first nationally touring band, Hellbound Glory.

 

They never looked back.

 

From the onset, as the son of a professional musician with a firm understanding of the difficulties and challenges that touring presents, Michael had one basic rule, "always take good care of the musicians". Following that basic edict, Kathleen and Michael now enjoy a reputation of excellent hospitality by providing onsite housing for the bands and seem to have cultivated an environment which has become an anticipated, desirable, and welcome stop on the road. When asked, they'll tell you that the highest compliment they receive is when a musician says "it feels like home".