Boston Tea Party starts at today Old South Meeting House – photo

Old South Meeting House © Steve Dunwwell

Old South Meeting House © Steve Dunwwell

241 years ago. December 16, 1773 – A great crowd gathered at the Old South Meeting House to hear speeches protesting new taxes on imports, including tea. Shouting “Boston harbor a tea party tonight,” they went down to the nearby docks. Thinly disguised as “Mohawks”, fifty men boarded three East India ships – Dartmouth, Beaver and Eleanor. Breaking open 342 chests of imported tea, they dumped the lot into the harbor. The “Intolerable Acts” soon followed as punishment.

Old State House photo Freedom Trail

Old State House, Boston, MA Freedom Trail site of Boston Massacre

Boston’s oldest public building, erected in 1713 overlooking Long Wharf, replaced an old wooden Town House dating from 1658. After the Great fire of 1711, the town financed a brick building with a room for the Elder’s meeting, a library, an arsenal, and an arcaded farmers’ market “for the country people that come with theire provisions…to sitt dry and warme both in colde raine and durty weather.” It became the hub of the colony’s trade.

Preserved and operated by The Bostonian Society.

 

 

new State House by Bulfinch – painting

the Massachusetts State House, as shown on a Banjo clock ca 1860

State House, Boston, MA

Designed by Charles Bulfinch. Cornerstone laid on July 4, 1795, with Paul Revere and Gov. Sam Adams presiding. This view is from a banjo clock, ca. 1870. Painted on glass, it shows the view from the Boston Common. The original dome was copper, from Revere’s workshop.

USS Constitution Freedom Trail photo

Constitution, with sails, Boston

Constitution, with sails, Boston

USS Constitution, with sails up, during the commemoration of the battle with Guerriere, August, 1812. Constitution will go into drydock this winter, for two years of restoration work.

Battle of Bunker Hill, Charlestown, MA

Battle of Bunker Hill

Battle of Bunker Hill

June 16, 1775. The Battle of Bunker Hill. British troops attacked the fortified hill top, with disastrous results. The colonial militia was finally pushed back, but the British suffered 800 injured and 226 killed. This painting, by John Trumbull, is in the Yale Art Museum.

Bunker Hill monument aerial photo

Aerial photograph looking over the Bunker Hill Monument, Charlestown, towards Boston, MA. The USS Constitution is at left. The famous battle took place June 17, 1775, on Breed’s Hill, on the right side of this photo.

Copps Hill Burying Ground photo

Copps Hill tombstoneTombstone of William Hough, 1714. Copp’s Hill, the Town’s second burying ground, was established in 1659 on a hill named for shoemaker William Copp. The site soon rivaled the Common as a public venue, hosting such spectacles as the 1704 execution of seven pirates. Cannons mounted near here shelled Charlestown during the Battle of Bunker Hill, 1775.

Mass. State House painting, Freedom Trail

Designed by Charles Bulfinch. Cornerstone laid on July 4, 1795, with Paul Revere and Gov. Sam Adams presiding. This view is from a banjo clock, ca. 1870. Painted on glass, it shows the view from the Boston Common.  The original dome was copper, from Revere’s workshop.

Copps Hill burying ground photo

Copps Hill tombstoneTombstone of William Hough, 1714. Copp’s Hill, the Town’s second burying ground, was established in 1659 on a hill named for shoemaker William Copp. The site soon rivaled the Common as a public venue, hosting such spectacles as the 1704 execution of seven pirates.

Bunker Hill monument aerial photo

Photograph looking over the Bunker Hill Monument, Charlestown, towards Boston, MA. The USS Constitution is at left.