Paul Revere – Historic Buildings of Massachusetts

Hancock-Clarke House (1698)

by Dan/July 20, 2009September 17, 2016/Colonial, Houses, Lexington

The Hancock-Clarke House in Lexington began as a small parsonage, built by the Reverend John Hancock in 1698. It was enlarged by his son Thomas, a wealthy Boston merchant, in 1738. The minister’s grandson was the John Hancock who signed the Declaration of Independence. The Reverend Jonas Clarke, Rev. Hancock’s son-in-law, occupied the house when he succeeded Hancock as minister in Lexington. Rev. Clarke was an inspiring figure for the Patriots during the period leading up to the Revolutionary War. On the evening of April 18, 1775, John Hancock and Samuel Adams were staying in the house when William Dawes and Paul Revere arrived separately to warn them that British troops were approaching. This historic home faced demolition in 1896, when it was acquired by the Lexington Historical Society and moved across the street from its original location. It is now a museum open to the public. In 2008, the house underwent a large scale structural restoration.

King’s Chapel, Boston (1749)

by Dan/January 24, 2009March 24, 2009/Boston, Churches, Colonial

King’s Chapel, originally founded to serve British officers, was the first Anglican church in Puritan Boston. The Chapel‘s first building was a wood structure, built in 1686 on land that had been part of the town’s oldest burying ground. The current Chapel, built of Quincy granite, was constructed around the old one in 1749-1754 (the dismantled remains of the old church were then removed through the windows). The architect was Peter Harrison, of Newport, RI, considered to be America’s “first architect,” who modeled the Georgian-style building on those designed by James Gibbs in England, like St. Martin in the Fields in London, except the steeple of King’s Chapel was never built due to a lack of funds. When the British evacuated Boston during the Revolutionary War, there were few Anglican families remaining in town. James Freeman, a lay reader, became minister in 1783 and led Stone Chapel (as King’s Chapel had come to be called) to become America’s first Unitarian church in 1789 (although the congregation continued to follow a liturgy based on the Book of Common Prayer). That same year, George Washington attended an oratorio at the Chapel intended to raise funds for the construction of a portico of wood Ionic columns, painted to resemble stone. When the Chapel’s bell cracked in 1814, it was recast by Paul Revere. Both the Chapel and the adjacent King’s Chapel Burying Ground are on the Boston Freedom Trail.

Massachusetts State House (1798)

by Dan/December 19, 2008October 20, 2009/Boston, Federal, Public Buildings

The Massachusetts State Capitol building in Boston, designed by Charles Bulfinch, was completed in 1798. The government of Massachusetts had previously used the Old State House, so the current building is sometimes called the New State House. It was built on Beacon Hill, on land once owned by John Hancock. The site on Beacon Hill was lowered 50 feet for the construction, with the excavated dirt being used as landfill. Bulfinch modeled his design on William Chambers‘s Somerset House and James Wyatt‘s Pantheon, both in London. The capitol building‘s dome was originally made of wood, which soon leaked. In 1802, it was covered with copper by Paul Revere’s company. Originally painted gray, to resemble stone, it was later painted yellow and, in 1874, gilded with gold. It was most recently regilded in 1997. The building was expanded with the addition of a yellow brick annex in 1895 and the two massive marble wings, on each side, in 1914 and 1917. The State House underwent a restoration in 2000. Today, this important structure, which Oliver Wendell Holmes once called, “the hub of the solar system,” is open to the public for tours.