Old South Meeting House

Old South Meeting House stands at 310 Washington Street in downtown Boston, Massachusetts, at the corner of Milk Street. Completed in 1729 as a Congregational church, the red-brick building is the second-oldest surviving house of worship in Boston and one of the best preserved examples of colonial meeting house architecture in the United States. Its tall white steeple and plain, light-filled interior reflect the Puritan preference for simplicity over ornament. The building's fame rests on its role as a public forum. Because it was among the largest enclosed spaces in colonial Boston, townspeople used it for gatherings far too big for Faneuil Hall. Annual commemorations of the Boston Massacre were held here after 1770. On 16 December 1773, thousands of colonists crowded inside to debate the tea tax and the arrival of tea ships in the harbor. When the royal governor refused to send the ships home, the meeting adjourned and participants marched to Griffin's Wharf, where the Boston Tea Party took place. During the siege of Boston in 1775 British troops desecrated the sanctuary, stabling horses and using the pews as fuel. After the Great Fire of 1872 the congregation moved to Back Bay, and the building was slated for demolition. A pioneering preservation campaign, one of the earliest in the country, saved it in 1876, and it has operated as a museum and public forum since. The permanent exhibits are interpretive and immersive rather than object-heavy. They include audio and text displays on the Tea Party meeting, a reproduction of the box-pew interior elements, and a scale model of 18th-century Boston. The sanctuary retains its tall arched windows, balconies and the sounding board over the pulpit. Restoration work has repeatedly addressed the steeple, roof and plaster, and the building remains in sound condition. It continues to host lectures, concerts and civic debates that echo its original purpose. Visitors typically need 45 to 60 minutes, and the site is a stop along the Freedom Trail.