Old State House Boston National Historical Park U S. National Park Service

Table Of Content

• Period of commercial use 1841–1881
• History Hit Reveals Winners of Historic Photographer of the Year 2023
• The Massachusetts State House: seat of state government 1776–1798
• The World’s 10 Best Dinosaur Museums
• Important Maritime Museums to Visit Around the World
• Historical Trips - Book your next historical adventure
• Recent preservation and restoration and future plans

After the government left, the building was used for offices and stores until 1881. In response, the Bostonian Society was formed to save the building and convert it to a museum. They restored the building to its pre-Revolutionary War appearance, including replicas of the lion and unicorn that were destroyed in 1776. Throughout its history, the courts and city, state, and colonial government met at the Old State House.

Period of commercial use 1841–1881

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There are several parking sites in the vicinity of the Old State House, including the Post Office Square Garage, Pi Alley Garage, 75 State Street Garage. Today the Old State House is a museum of Boston’s history managed by the Bostonian Society as well as being part of Boston National Historical Park. Guided tours of the Freedom Trail – of which the State House forms a part – are available, but you can also walk it independently. Explore at your own pace and enjoy tours and performances led by fun, interactive guides or fully-costumed Revolutionary Characters. Discover historic period rooms filled with multi-sensory exhibits, beautiful art and important artifacts. Visit the ​site of the infamous Boston Massacre, one of the pivotal moments on America’s road to Revolution.

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In July of 1776, the Declaration of Independence was reading to the city from the second story balcony. A lion and unicorn (symbols of Royal authority) that graced the edifice of the building were torn down and burned by the patriots. Operated by Revolutionary Spaces, Old State House served as the seat of colonial and state governments of Massachusetts. Visitors can learn more about early colonial and revolutionary history and enter rooms where history happened.

The Massachusetts State House: seat of state government 1776–1798

The Bostonian Society was formed in 1881 to preserve and steward the Old State House, in response to plans for the possible demolition of the building due to real estate potential. The entrance to the Old State House is located on the south side of the building, facing the pedestrian walkway, just a few steps off the red brick line of The Freedom Trail. ​Journey through this Freedom Trail museum filled with a vivid collection of Revolution-era artifacts and other one-of-a-kind objects from the past, each one contributing to the amazing story of Revolutionary Boston. Highlights include John Hancock's lavish red velvet coat, arms and ammunition from Revolutionary War battles, and tea salvaged from the Boston Tea Party.

On July 18, 1776, Bostonians gathered under the balcony of Old State to hear for the first time the Declaration of Independence. It is one of the landmarks on Boston's Freedom Trail and is the oldest surviving public building in Boston. It now serves as a history museum that was operated by the Bostonian Society through 2019. After the American army gained control of Boston from the British in March of 1776, the Old State House became the seat of government for the new state of Massachusetts.

The incident began with local boys taunting a British sentry on a cold March night. Mobs of laborers, sailors, and others of "the lower sort" joined into the confrontation. A detachment of seven soldiers under command of a Captain eventually emerged on the scene to rescue the beleaguered sentry. When they crossed the square to reach him, the crowd formed around them and the captain had the men draw into a small perimeter, muskets loaded. The Old State House is today a popular tourist destination and still operated as a museum by a group called Revolutionary Spaces.

Experience Revolutionary Boston at the Old State House Museum and Boston Massacre Historic Site. Historically, the Old State House was the political, economic, and geographic center of the Massachusetts Bay colony since it was built in 1713, though a structure devoted to government has stood on its site since the mid 17th century. Because of the very ideals of self-government first expressed within the building, The Old State House has played host to the most influential minds that helped shaped the world as we know it today. On a cold March night in 1770, a beleaguered squadron of British soldiers opened fire in the square in front of this royal building, killing five individuals and wounding many others. By the next morning, leaders called the event a "bloody massacre." Six years later, shots were heard again in the square.

Revolutionary Spaces brings people together to explore the American struggle to create and sustain a free society, singularly evoked by Boston’s Old South Meeting House and Old State House. We steward these buildings as gathering spaces for the open exchange of ideas and the continuing practice of democracy, inspiring all who believe in the power of people to govern themselves. The copper lion and unicorn statues rendered by coppersmith, Moses H. Gulesian are installed. A confrontation between British soldiers and Bostonians takes place in the square in front of the Town House, leaving five people dead and many more wounded. This deadly event came to be known as the “Boston Massacre.” It was some of the first bloodshed in the years before the Revolution and marked a dramatic escalation in the disputes between the British and colonists. James Otis argues against the Writs of Assistance before the Superior Court, marking the first major protest against British laws.

As important as what occurred inside the State House was what happened just outside its doors. It was in front of the Old State House where the Boston Massacre occurred on March 5, 1770. Today a small ring of stones sits close to the location where eight British soldiers opened fire into a mob of colonists, killing five and wounding six. The event was important in garnering public support against British soldiers stationed in Boston. Following the event, patriot Paul Revere made an engraving a famous engraving of the event and situated prominently in the background of the image was the Old State House.

The Boston Antiquarian Club reorganizes as the Bostonian Society and creates a museum of Boston’s history inside the Old State House. Recreations of the former lion and unicorn statues are reinstalled on the building. The Old State House was also part of the Boston Massacre of 1770, as attested to by a plaque beneath its balcony which indicates that this was the location where British soldiers fired into a group of Bostonians. This balcony was the scene of happier times on 18 July 1776, when Colonel Thomas Crafts read out the Declaration of Independence to the public for the first time. A cobblestone circle beneath the Old State House balcony marks the site of the 1770 Boston Massacre.

It remains an important symbol of Boston’s colonial history and is a stop on the Freedom Trail, a 2.5 mile trail which connects multiple Revolutionary War sites in Boston together. While the building was saved, the area around the State House was quickly built up. Today the Old State House, once the most prominent building in the area, is dwarfed by numerous skyscrapers and modern buildings and surrounded by busy streets. In 1904, a subway station was placed in the basement of the building, and it continues to be used by the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (popularly known as “the T”) to this very day. During this time, the spiral staircase is removed and the interior remodeled several times, while the exterior becomes covered in advertisements and signs.

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The writs permit customs officials to search for contraband goods without probable cause. Otis makes a four-hour speech in the Council Chamber of the Town House, defending the rights of citizens. The interior of the Town House is rebuilt and the iconic lion and unicorn statues are installed. In 1761, in part of what is known as Paxton’s Case, the Old State House was the scene of James Otis Junior’s famous speech against Writs of Assistance, British warrants which conferred wide search powers on their beneficiaries. Otis’s speech failed to extinguish these writs, but did add to the increasing dissatisfaction which eventually led to the American Revolution.

Through Massacre, Revolution, and fire, the Old State House stands as the oldest surviving public building in Boston. Built in 1713, the building served as the center of civic, political, and business life. But perhaps they would also have been pleased to know that eventually we came together again as free peoples and friends to defend together the very ideals for which the American Revolution was fought. The iconic lion and unicorn statues atop the east parapets of the Old State House are repaired. The Declaration of Independence is read by Colonel Thomas Crafts for the first time in Boston from the balcony of the Old State House. The brick Town House is built in 1713, replacing the previous wooden Town House, which had burned in a fire in 1711.

The second floor housed the Royal Governor’s Council Chamber, Representatives’ Hall, and the Supreme Judicial Court. The assembly that met in Representatives’ Hall was one of the most democratic bodies in the colonial world, and featured the first public gallery in the Western world, where citizens could observe the government in action. Constructed in 1713, the Old State House (known as the “Town House” until the Revolution) was the center of royal government in Massachusetts Bay Colony and the focal point for many of the Revolution’s most dramatic events. The Boston Massacre unfolded in its shadow on March 5, 1770, and eyewitness accounts were collected inside in the subsequent days. The Declaration of Independence was read for the first time in Boston from the balcony of the Old State House on July 18, 1776.