“We’ve got the old fox safe now…”

Old Fox Books and Coffeehouse is situated between the “Georges” (Prince and King George Streets) on Maryland Avenue in the heart of historic Annapolis.  But it is our own George Washington who walked this block and stood in our State House just up the way to make his indelible mark on the emerging nation.

He greets you at our door, he’s framed above the mantle in our main gathering room, and you'll find him in portraits and objects throughout our store. But not everyone knows that Charles Lord Cornwallis thought he had General George Washington and his troops cornered for good outside of Princeton, New Jersey. Rather than heeding the advice of one of his officers and going in for a final assault one cold winter night, Cornwallis trumpeted, “We’ve got the old fox safe now. We’ll go over and bag him in the morning.” Yet dawn of January 3rd, 1777 revealed that Washington had slipped away. Cornwallis was outfoxed again, and the Revolutionary War didn’t end then and there at the bridge over Assunpink Creek. We are happy to name our efforts after his Old Fox self…