PHILADELPHIA -- Recreating historical sites with the look and the feel of something old, established and important is a difficult task. Keeping existing historic places alive is even harder. But in pockets of central Philadelphia, there are havens that make it easy to forget that we are nation still at war, that our modern economy is in shambles and that technology rules every waking moment.

Such a place is McGillin's Olde Ale House in an unassuming one-block alley near Philadelphia City Hall and the site of the nation's first department store. It's so olde in fact, that the official name appears as "old" and "olde" with careless abandon. But who needs consistent branding when 149 years of consistency in great beer and service are in play? The tavern has been on Drury Street since 1860, is the oldest continuously run pub in Philadelphia and frequented by local politicians, sports figures and stars and literary figures such as W.C. Fields, Tennessee Williams, Vincent Price, Robin Williams and Will Ferrell.