Old North Church

Old North Church — officially Christ Church in the City of Boston — stands at 193 Salem Street in Boston's North End neighborhood and is both the oldest surviving church building in Boston and one of the most significant Revolutionary War sites in Massachusetts. The brick Anglican church was completed in 1723 to a design by William Price, inspired by the work of Sir Christopher Wren, and its 191-foot wooden steeple remains a prominent landmark above the low rooflines of the North End neighborhood. The church entered American historical memory on the night of April 18, 1775, when sexton Robert Newman climbed the steeple and hung two lanterns to signal to Paul Revere and the colonial militia across the Charles River that British troops were departing Boston by water — not by land across Boston Neck — to march on the patriot arms stores at Concord. The signal, captured in Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's 1861 poem as 'one if by land, two if by sea,' launched the midnight rides of Revere and William Dawes that alerted the Minutemen in Lexington and Concord. Inside the church, visitors explore the original 1724 Box Pews — individually owned family pews enclosed by wooden walls, which retained heat from hand-held warming boxes during cold New England services — the gallery level above, and an exhibit in the undercroft presenting the church's eighteenth-century history. The brick-vaulted crypt beneath the nave contains the remains of approximately 1,100 individuals and is accessible on Behind the Scenes tours. The steeple houses an active set of eight change-ringing bells, the first peal of bells in British North America, cast in Gloucester, England, in 1744 and still rung by the Old North Church Ringers. The church remains an active Episcopal parish and holds services on Sundays. The rear garden contains a statue of Paul Revere and provides a quiet gathering point along the Freedom Trail. The surrounding North End neighborhood is Boston's historic Italian district, with restaurants, bakeries, and the Paul Revere House within short walking distance.