Old South Meeting House

This article is about the museum and historic site in Downtown Crossing. For the United Church of Christ church at Copley Square, see Old South Church.

Old South Meeting House
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
U.S. National Historic Landmark
The Old South Meeting House, 1968
Location	Boston, Massachusetts
Coordinates
Built	1729
Architect	Twelves,Robert
Architectural style	Georgian
NRHP Reference #	66000778
Significant dates
Added to NRHP	October 15, 1966
Designated NHL	October 9, 1960

The Old South Meeting House is a historic church building at the corner of Milk and Washington Streets in the Downtown Crossing area of Boston, Massachusetts. Built in 1729, it gained fame as the organizing point for the Boston Tea Party on December 16, 1773. 5,000 colonists gathered at the Meeting House, the largest building in Boston at the time.

History

Church (1729–1872)

The church, with its 56 m (183 ft) steeple, was completed in 1729. The congregation was gathered in 1669 when it broke off from First Church of Boston, a Congregationalist church founded by John Winthrop in 1630. The site was a gift of Mrs. Norton, widow of John Norton, pastor of the First Church in Boston. The church's first pastor was Rev. Thomas Thatcher, a native of Salisbury, England. Thatcher was also a physician and is known for publishing the first medical tract in Massachusetts.

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Interior of Old South, 2010

After the Boston Massacre in 1770, yearly anniversary meetings were held at the church until 1775 featuring speakers such as John Hancock and Dr. Joseph Warren. In 1773 5,000 people met in the Meeting House to debate British taxation, and after the meeting a group raided three tea ships anchored nearby in what became known as the Boston Tea Party.

In 1775 the British occupied the Meeting House due to its association with the Revolutionary cause. The British gutted the building, filled it with dirt and then used the interior to practice horse riding. They destroyed much of the interior and stole various items including William Bradford's Of Plymouth Plantation (1620), a unique Pilgrim manuscript, hidden in Old South's tower.

Old South Meeting House was almost destroyed in the Great Boston Fire of 1872, saved by the timely arrival of a fire engine from Portsmouth, New Hampshire, but the fire caused the city's residential districts to shift toward the Back Bay, away from the church. The congregation then built a new church building (the "New" Old South Church at Copley Square) which remains its home to this day. Once a year, on the Sunday before Thanksgiving, the Old South congregation returns to Old South Meeting House for services in its ancestral home.

File:USA-Old South Meeting House0.jpg

Old South Meeting House

File:USA-Old South Meeting House.jpg

Old South Meeting House

Ministers

• Thomas Thacher (1620–1678), minister 1670–1678
• Samuel Willard (1640–1707), minister 1678–1707
• Ebenezer Pemberton (1672–1717), minister 1700–1717
• Joseph Sewall (1688–1769), minister 1713–1769
• Thomas Prince (1687–1758), minister 1718–1758
• Alexander Cumming (1726–1763), minister 1761–1763
• Samuel Blair (1741–1818), minister ca.1766
• John Bacon (b.1737), minister 1772–1775
• Joseph Eckley (1750–1811), minister 1779–1811
• Joshua Huntington (1786–1819), minister 1808–1819
• Benjamin B. Wisner (1794–1835), minister 1821–1832
• Samuel H. Stearns (1801–1837), minister 1834–1836
• George W. Blagden (1802–1884), minister 1836–1872
• Jacob M. Manning (1824–1882), minister 1857–1872

Notable congregants

• Samuel Adams
• William Dawes
• Benjamin Franklin
• Samuel Sewall
• Phillis Wheatley

Museum (1877–present)

Old South Meeting House has been an important gathering place for nearly three centuries. Renowned for the protest meetings held here before the American Revolution when the building was termed a mouth-house, this National Historic Landmark has long served as a platform for the free expression of ideas. Today, the Old South Meeting House is open daily as a museum and continues to provide a place for people to meet, discuss and act on important issues of the day. The stories of the men and women who are part of Old South’s vital heritage reveal why the Old South Meeting House occupies an enduring place in the history of the United States.

The museum and historic site is located at the intersection of Washington and Milk Streets and can be visited for a nominal sum. It is located near the State Street, Downtown Crossing and Park Street MBTA (subway) stations.

The Old South Meeting House is claimed to be the second oldest establishment existent in the United States.

Images

• JosephSewall OldSouth Boston.png

  Joseph Sewall, minister ca.1713–1769

• ThomasPrince ca1750 byJosephBadger AmericanAntiquarianSociety.png

  Thomas Prince, minister ca.1718–1758; portrait by Joseph Badger (courtesy American Antiquarian Society)

• Old South Meeting House American Revolution interior in Boston MA.jpg

  Old South Meeting House when the British Army used it for horse riding

• 1808 CongressSt Boston 3 copy.png

  View of Old South from Congress Street in 1808 (conjectural illustration)

• 1835 OldSouth BostonBewickCo Boyton Boston map detail.png

  1835

• 

  Overview of Financial District, showing Old South steeple (center left), 1850

• 

  Jacob Manning, minister ca.1857–1872

• Boston, as the Eagle and the Wild Goose See It.jpg

  Aerial photo of Financial District, showing Old South (center left), 1860 (J.W. Black)

• Milk Street, from Robert N. Dennis collection of stereoscopic views.jpg

  After the fire (Old South at left), 1872

• Old South Church, by Kilburn Brothers.jpg

  After the fire, 1872

• Old South Meeting House 1877 in Boston MA.jpg

  Old South Meeting House, ca. 1877

• The Old South Meeting House.jpg

  ca.1898

• Detroit Photographic Company (0369).jpg

  Washington & Milk St., 1900

• 1920 WashingtonSt Boston byLeonAbdalian 2589548639.jpg

  Washington St. (Old South in distance), 1920

• Old South Meeting House in Boston MA.jpg

  Old South Meeting House in 2009

• 2010 OldSouth Boston 4602725063.jpg

  Interior, 2010

See also

• New Old South Church, Copley Square, Back Bay, Boston
• List of National Historic Landmarks in Boston
• National Register of Historic Places listings in northern Boston, Massachusetts

Further reading

• B. Wisner. History of the Old South Church in Boston: in four sermons. 1830.
• Hamilton Andrews Hill. History of the Old South Church (Third Church) Boston: 1669–1884. v.1 + v.2. Houghton, Mifflin and Co., 1889.

External links

• The Old South Meeting House
• Old South Church in Boston (the congregation formerly located at the Meeting House)
• Boston National Historical Park Official Website
• Historic American Buildings Survey (Library of Congress). Old South Meetinghouse, Washington & Milk Streets, Boston, Suffolk, MA

Preceded by Old Corner Bookstore

Locations along Boston's Freedom Trail Old South Meeting House

Succeeded by Old State House