Having just left the shady bricks of Paul Revere Mall (the Prado), a crowd of tourists emptied onto a tight corner split by a sign saying, "For church, enter here." Feeling adventurous (and how could I not, given the many adventures I had been taking that day), I scooted to the side of the sign that would gain me access to the church. I was anxious to get inside the church, as I had no clue where I was. Upon entering, I could tell the church was old. It had pew boxes and was constructed of wood. Almost immediately, a man at the front of the church spoke to all of us, "In about 3 minutes I'll be giving you a presentation about the history of the Old North Church. Come on in and have a seat." A couple volunteers of the church then started opening the pew boxes and inviting people to sit down. Quickly I sat down in the nearest box, getting my bearings.
The pew box had benches in almost every direction and a closing door, as well as a very short kneeler and a shelf holding books. As I looked to my right, a golden plaque shone in the sunlight.
What? I exclaimed silently. Nearly 100 years ago Teddy Roosevelt sat in this pew, and now I'm sitting here! How cool am I? I began to flip through my guide book to find information on the Old North Church. As soon as I found the page, the volunteer at the front of the church began to explain the history.
Not only did I find myself in the pew box once sat in by Theodore Roosevelt, but I was in the church in which the lanterns were lit to signal that the British were on the move. This church is terribly significant and I had no idea!
Old North Church is Boston's oldest church, dating back to 1723 (almost 200 years before Teddy Roosevelt ever sat it in, and 289 years before I sat in it!). The clock, organ case, and Belgian cherub statues (pictured at right) also date back to the opening of the church. The actual organ, though, only dates back to 1759, and is still in use every Sunday. How many churches have you been to that use a 253-year-old organ? Fun fact about the statues: they were on a ship headed toward Nova Scotia in Canada, a gift to a French church, but were intercepted by a British pirate who confiscated them and later donated them to the Old North Church upon its opening! Those cherubs are legit pirate booty! The pew boxes maintain the original character of the church; the boxes were meant to keep parishioners warm during the winters. Each pew box would have a brazier (box) of coal to keep in their pew box. The folks at the Old North Church have even preserved a pew box as to what it would have looked like in the 18th Century -- quite fancy compared to the stark wooden pews dotting the rest of the church.
(You can see the lavish cushions and tapestry lining the preserved pew box, including the little coal brazier on the floor between the kneeling cushions. Compare that to the white pew box with Teddy plaque where I had been sitting.)
Continuing on with the historical significance of the church, beyond its duration as a functioning church, Old North Church is, as I had said before, the church from which the lanterns were hung to signal that the British were coming. To elaborate, on April 18, 1775, British troops were secretly moving through the night to Lexington and Concord, hoping to confiscate weapons from these cities and return to Boston. Alerted to the plan, the Sons of Liberty sent Paul Revere to ride to the countryside to warn the townspeople. This seemed risky, so Revere asked Robert Newman, caretaker at the church, to send a signal across the river to Charlestown, in case he was captured before alerting everyone. As Old North Church was the tallest building in Boston at the time, Revere was sure it would be seen across the water. Robert Newman agreed to the plan, and in complete darkness, he went upstairs to the balcony and entered a door now covered by the organ (see photo of organ). From there he climbed the 14-story steeple, again in complete darkness, and lit and hung two lanterns in the steeple window. They did not remain there all night -- likely less than a minute --, as this would alert the British to something fishy. And it did. Before Newman could get downstairs, the British were at the front door of the church, demanding to know what was going on. Instead of confronting the British, Newman fled to the back of the church and through a window just right of the altar. This window is commemorated and now designated as the Newman Window. The church has hung a replica lantern in the window, which President Gerald Ford lit on the country's bicentennial, 200th birthday, in 1976.
Why two lanterns, you may ask? Well, as the famous poem, "Paul Revere's Ride", by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow tells us, "One if by land, two if by sea." This means that one lantern should be hung if the British were moving across the land toward Lexington and Concord, and two lanterns should be hung if they move through the water, a much quicker route.
Click here for a map showing the routes!
Now I must mention that, according to the information in the Old North Church, it has never been confirmed whether it was Robert Newman who hung the lanterns that night. It is presumed that he and one or two other men did it because Newman had keys to the church as caretaker, but it has never been confirmed. The church has also preserved the pew box where his family sat.
Finally, one more piece of historical excitement from the Old North Church: just above and to the right of the Newman family pew box rests a bust of George Washington. According to my guide book, this bust was the first public memorial to George Washington, and was said by the Marquis de Lafayette, a French general who fought with Washington during the Revolutionary War, to be "more like him than any other portrait."Now, I know I only covered one site in this entire post, but can you now see why it was such an historically exciting site? How lucky I am that I decided to wander into this church. Had I passed it by and later read about it in my guide book, I should have been so upset.
Stay tuned for the next installment of my journey (and yes, this was still all in the same day!) that will take me to Copp's Hill Burying Ground and across the Charles River into Charlestown!
Click here for full text of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's poem "Paul Revere's Ride".
Click here for The Freedom Trail Part Six!
Click here to read about the book I used for my tours and information.
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