Perhaps more important to history than these private salons was the front porch, a simple shelter spanning the building's face. Here, Williamsburg's objection to England's Stamp Tax manifested as a vicious mob. The story goes that George Mercer, a stamp agent just sent from England, was chased down Duke of Gloucester Street by an angry crowd which protested the tax. It was on the porch of R. Charlton's Coffeehouse where Mercer took refuge, protected by no less a person than Governor Fauquier.