Faneuil Hall, sometimes known as "the Cradle of Liberty", is a well known stop along the Freedom Trail.
The original Hall was built by artist John Smibert in 1740–1742 in the style of an English country market, with an open ground floor and an assembly room above. Funded by a wealthy Boston merchant, Peter Faneuil, its creation was not without controversy. Bostonians had long rejected the idea of a centralized market. A previous attempt was destroyed by an angry mob. By a vote of 367 to 360, the Boston Town Meeting accepted Faneuil's offer. Fanueil died shortly after the building in 1748, shortly after the building was completed and the new hall's first public gathering was on the occasion of his eulogy on March 14, 1748.
The 38-pound, 52-inch gilded grasshopper weathervane on top of the building was created by silversmith Shem Drowne in 1742 and was modeled on the grasshopper weathervane on the London Royal Exchange.
Almost destroyed by fire on January 18, 1761, Faneuil Hall was rebuilt, with funds raised by state lottery, and re-opened in 1763 with James Otis Jr's dedication address in the cause of liberty. The hall was the scene of many of the pre-Revolutionary period's great public meetings and speeches. On March 6, 1770 following the Boston Massacre, the first public meeting was held as witnesses described the events and Samuel Adams gave an impassioned speech. In 1772, the first Committee of Correspondence was established here by a motion by Samuel Adams, which Loyalists pointed to as the origin of the Revolution. On November 29, 1773, the first meeting in protest of the imposed tea tax took place. Because of limited space for the crowds, meetings were often moved to the Old South Meeting House. During the occupation of Boston in 1774, the hall was used as a theatre for British officers.
By 1806, Smibert's Faneuil Hall was no longer large enough to serve the city. Charles Bulfinch, who had already completed the new State House, was chosen to expand the building. He doubled the height and width, but managed to keep intact the walls from the earlier building. Four new bays were added, to make seven in all; a third floor was added; the open arcades were enclosed; and the cupola was centered and moved to the east end of the building. Bulfinch applied Doric brick pilasters to the lower two floors, with Ionic pilasters on the third floor. This renovation added galleries around the assembly hall and increased its height. The building was entirely rebuilt in 1898–1899, of noncombustible materials. The building underwent a major internal renovation during the 1970's.
Fanueil Hall is now part of the larger Faneuil Hall Marketplace, which includes three long granite buildings called North Market, Quincy Market, and South Market. Its success in the late 1970s led to the emergence of similar marketplaces in other U.S. cities. Inside the Hall are dozens of paintings of famous Americans, including the mural of Webster's Reply to Hayne and Gilbert Stuart's portrait of Washington at Dorchester Heights. The first floor operates as a market, while the second floor is taken up by the Great Hall, where Boston's town meetings were once held. The third floor houses the museum and armory of the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company of Massachusetts. Founded in 1638, this is the oldest military company in the US, and considered the third oldest in the world.
In recent history, Faneuil Hall was the home to President John F. Kennedy's last campaign speech and Senator John Kerry's concession speech in the 2004 presidential election.
The Marketplace fronted by Miss Anne Whitney's Samuel Adams statue on Congress Street.
In 2007, Faneuil Hall Marketplace was ranked #64 on the AIA 150 America's Favorite Architecture list.
National Historic Register #66000368
Tags: Freedom Trail Faneuil Hall Marketplace Massachusetts colonial landmark AIA150 Boston Faneuil Hall Quincy Market john smibert georgian charles bulfinch cradle of liberty revolutionary National Register of Historic Places NRHP U.S. National Register of Historic Places National Historic Landmark NHL U.S. National Historic Landmark
The Old South Meeting House was built to the Georgian-style design of Robert Twelves in 1729 as a Puritan church, but it quickly became a gathering place for some of the most significant debates leading up to the American Revolution. It is perhaps best known as a congregation point of more than five thousand angry colonists leading to the Boston Tea Party on December 16, 1773. With its prominent 183-foot steeple and generous seating capacity, it was the biggest building of its time in Boston.
National Register #66000778
Tags: Freedom Trail colonial Revolutionary War American Revolution Massachusetts landmark Boston old south meeting house National Register of Historic Places NRHP U.S. National Register of Historic Places National Historic Landmark NHL U.S. National Historic Landmark
Boston's Freedom Trail is a red (mostly brick) path through downtown Boston which leads to sixteen significant historical sites. It is a 2.5 mile walk from the Boston Common to the Bunker Hill Monument in Charlestown and is popular with tourists. Part of the Freedom Trail overlaps with the much longer Boston Harbor Walk. The Freedom Trail is a unit of Boston National Historical Park.
The Sixteen Official Freedom Trail sites:
- Boston Common
- Massachusetts State House
- Park Street Church
- Granary Burying Ground
- King's Chapel
- King's Chapel Burying Ground
- Benjamin Franklin statue and site of the first public school
- Old Corner Bookstore
- Old South Meeting House
- Old State House
- Site of the Boston Massacre
- Faneuil Hall and Quincy Market
- Paul Revere House
- Old North Church
- USS Constitution
- Battle of Bunker Hill Monument
The Freedom Trail Foundation has added two further sites since its inception. The Black Heritage Trail crosses the Freedom Trail between Massachusetts State House and Park Street Church. Copp's Hill burying ground comes immediately after Old North Church.
Tags: Freedom Trail brick Walking tour Revolutionary War colonial National Historic Park American Revolution Massachusetts Boston
The Old State House, built in 1713, is the oldest surviving public building in Boston. . Alternatively called the Town House, the court of the provisional governor, City Hall, and in time the statehouse of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, the State House is now operated by the Bostonian Society, Boston's historical society and one of many landmarks along the Freedom Trail.
The original Boston Town House was the bequest of Robert Keayne in 1657. The bottom of the medieval looking wooden structure was a trading market and gathering place for conducting business. Though lost in the great fire of 1711, the current brick building was rebuilt. A 1947 fire destroyed part of the the interior, and was rebuilt again. The building's High Georgian style and formal ornamentation suggests that the 1747 State House was designed by a trained British architect, and not an American.
The red brick building is perfectly symmetrical and ornamented. Its gambrel roof is obscured by pedimented end facades. Its primary feature is a tall multi-part steeple with elaborate clear glass windows. Beneath the restored lion and unicorn are bull's eyes windows, and a ceremonial balcony, ornamented with a segmented pediment over Corinthian pilasters.
The original building housed a Merchant's Exchange on the first floor and warehouses in the basement. On the second floor, the east side contained the Council Chamber of the Royal Governor. This room was the setting for many stirring speeches and debates by dedicated patriots against the British crown. In 1761, the "first scene of the first act of opposition", was James Otis' speech against the Writs of Assistance in the Royal Council Chamber. Though losing the case, Otis's speech was one of the incendiary events which fueled the American Revolution.
The central area of the second floor was the meeting place for the Massachusetts Assembly, the most radical of all colonial legislatures freely elected by the people. The Assembly was the first legislative body in the colonies to call for sectional unity, and the formation of a Stamp Act Congress. In 1766, during the debate on the Stamp Act, which led to the stamp Act Congress, the representatives installed a gallery so the public could sit in on their sessions. This was the first known example of providing public accountability for elected officials.
The west end of the second floor contained chambers for the Courts of Suffolk County and the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court. The Supreme Judicial Court is the longest seated court in the nation (over 300 years old) and was responsible for the ruling decisions in many of the early landmark trials. The Court was also involved in the drafting of the Massachusetts Constitution, upon which the United States Constitution is based.
Official proclamations were read from the east side balcony. The area beneath the balcony was the site of the Boston Massacre on March 5, 1770, when a handful of British soldiers fired into a taunting crowd, killing five men. On July 18, 1776, the Declaration of Independence was first proclaimed from here to jubilant crowds. Later that day, the lion and the unicorn, along with other symbols of royal authority were taken down and burned in a bonfire in Dock Square.
After the American Revolution, the building served as the seat of the Massachusetts state government before its move to the present Massachusetts State House in 1798. John Hancock, chosen as the first Commonwealth Governor, was inaugurated in the Council Chamber in 1780. In 1788, sessions were held here that led to Massachusetts becoming the sixth state to ratify the Constitution.
From 1830 to 1841, the building was Boston's city hall following a rennovation by Isiah Rogers and William Washburn. From 1840-1880, it served as a commerical building. In 1881, after threats of the building's being dismantled and moved to Chicago, Illinois, the Old State House was restored to its original exterior appearance by the Bostonian Society. In 1882 the Lion and unicorn were returned to the east facade under a restoration by George Clough.
Today, the Old State House sits atop the State Street stop on the MBTA's Blue and Orange subway lines (opened in 1905) and houses a museum and is the home of The Bostonian Society.
National Register #66000779 (1966)
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The Cathedral Church of St. Paul, Boston is the cathedral church of the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts in the United States.
At the time of its founding in 1819, there were two other Episcopal parishes in Boston, Christ Church (better known as Old North Church), and Trinity Church--both had been founded before the American Revolution as part of the Church of England. The founders of St. Paul's wanted a totally American parish in Boston.
Unusual for a church building, St. Paul's was built in Greek Revival style. The exterior has changed little since its construction. A carving of St. Paul preaching before King Agrippa II was intended to be placed in the pediment over the entrance, but was not completed.
In 1912, after its Downtown neighbourhood had become mainly non-residential, the diocese named St. Paul's as its cathedral.
National Historic Register #70000730
Tags: boston massachusetts church cathedral st. paul's cathedral cathedral of st. paul greek revival alexander parris st. paul's Cathedral Church of St. Paul St. paul st. paul's church cathderal of st. paul landmark National Register of Historic Places NRHP U.S. National Register of Historic Places National Historic Landmark NHL U.S. National Historic Landmark