Cultural Attractions

The Grand Lodge of Massachusetts is the administrative headquarters of Massachusetts Freemasonry, as well as the home for more than 20 Masonic organizations meeting in Boston. It houses the Samuel Crocker Lawrence Library, one of the largest and most important Masonic collections in the world. The beautiful, historic building is open to the public for free tours on Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday between 10:30 and 2:00 (call to confirm on holidays).

Freemasonry is the world’s oldest and largest fraternity. It is comprised of adult men (18+) of good character from every country, religion, race, age, income, education, and opinion. Its body of knowledge and system of ethics is based on the belief that each man has a responsibility to improve himself while being devoted to his family, his faith, his country, and his fraternity.

The Original Center Of Boston’s Political Life Right In The Middle Of Downtown

Old City Hall is one of the first examples of adaptive reuse. In the 1960s the concept of recycling outdated public buildings was untried. The successful conversion (1969-1971) of Boston’s City Hall into a restaurant and first-class office building heralded the beginning of this new concept. It was widely publicized, and became a model of successful redevelopment for underutilized municipal property. Old City Hall became an example, stimulating the reuse of landmark buildings across the United States in the 1970s and 1980s, and this pioneer rehabilitation continues to win recognition. This site was the location of two Boston City Halls. Here in 1810, the Suffolk Country Courthouse was erected. In 1841, that courthouse was converted to Boston’s second city hall. In 1865 it was replaced by Boston third city hall, the building you see today on School Street. In 1969, Boston built its fourth city hall at Government Center and vacated this site.

Thirty-eight Boston mayors served their terms of office on School Street at this site over a period of one hundred and twenty-eight years. All twenty of the Democrat mayors adopted the donkey as their party’s symbol, while only five of the ten Republican mayors utilized the elephant. Boston’s Old City Hall was one of the first buildings in the French Second Empire Style to be built in the United States and is now one of the few that survive. The design originated in France during the Second Empire (the reign of Emperor Napoleon III from 1852 to 1870). In Paris, this style gained popularity with the building of the new Louvre. After the completion of Boston’s City Hall (1865), the French Second Empire Style was used extensively elsewhere in Boston and for many public buildings in the United States, such as the Executive Office Building in Washington, D.C., as well as other city halls in Providence, Baltimore and Philadelphia.

Historic Boston Incorporated was started in 1960 as a rescue mission. Downtown Boston’s oldest commercial building, the Old Corner Bookstore, was slated to become a parking garage.

The building, constructed in 1718 by Dr. Thomas Crease, was his home and apothecary shop. It later housed a number of booksellers and publishers, the most famous of which was Ticknor and Fields, publishers of many well-known American titles including Thoreau’s Walden, Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, Alcott’s Little Women, Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin, and the Atlantic Monthly. Many of the great writers of the American Renaissance — Nathaniel Hawthorne, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Oliver Wendell Holmes and many others — were first published here, and the first American editions of Charles Dickens works were issued from this building.

In 1960, a group of Bostonians, concerned about the impending loss of an important piece of the city’s architecture and heritage, formed Historic Boston Incorporated (HBI) as a non-profit organization and pooled their resources and connections to acquire and restore the building for continued use as retail shops and commercial offices.

HBI’s founders demonstrated that the preservation of historic buildings can be a driving force in economic revitalization. The Old Corner Bookstore became an official site on Boston’s Freedom Trail and today is beloved for its architecture and history, and for its prime retail location at the busy corner of Washington and School Streets.

The Old Corner Bookstore’s success inspired HBI to become a non-profit developer in 1979 when preservation leaders recognized direct action was needed for many historic buildings in Boston’s neighborhoods. HBI’s first projects included Charlestown’s Hurd House and Austin Block, East Boston’s Trinity House, and Roxbury’s Spooner Lambert House, Zackzewrska Medical Building, Alvah Kittredge Park Row Houses, and the Cedar Street Marble Row Houses. HBI also supported more than 52 active religious congregations with preservation of their historic houses of worship through its Steeples Project between 1993 and 2008.

Visit the famed, National Historic Landmark where liberty found its allies and the American Revolution gained its voice.

Within the walls of Old South Meeting House, meeting by meeting, vote by vote, a revolution began. Since 1729, when it was built as a Puritan meeting house, Old South Meeting House has played an important role in American history. In the years leading to the American Revolution, thousands of colonists gathered at Old South Meeting House to challenge British rule, most famously to protest the Boston Massacre and the tea tax. The largest building in colonial Boston, Old South Meeting House was the stage for an overflow meeting on December 16, 1773, which adjourned to Griffin’s Wharf for the infamous event that would become known as the Boston Tea Party. Almost a century later, Old South Meeting House was threatened with destruction.

In 1876, Bostonians fought to save the building from the wrecker’s ball in the first successful historic preservation effort in New England. Today Old South Meeting House is open daily as a museum and a haven for free speech in the heart of downtown Boston. Explore the rich history of the Meeting House through rare artifacts, such as a vial of tea from the Boston Tea Party and a 3-D historic model of colonial Boston.

Revolutionary Spaces stewards the Old State House and Old South Meeting House, telling the interwoven stories of these iconic Boston sites.

Colonial Boston’s Seat Of Government, Center Of Revolutionary Debate, Site Of The “Boston Massacre”: History Happened Here

Known today as the Old State House, this building was the center of Boston’s civic life in the 18th century and the scene of some of the most dramatic chapters in the lead-up to the American Revolution. Within these walls, Samuel Adams, James Otis, John Hancock, and John Adams debated the future of the British colonies. Just outside the building, five men were among the first casualties of the battle for independence, in what would later be known as the “Boston Massacre.” The Declaration of Independence was proclaimed from the balcony to the citizens of Boston in 1776. History happened here. After the American Revolution, the building served as the first state house for the newly-formed Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Then it was used for a variety of purposes in the 19th century, including shopping arcade, city hall, post office, merchants exchange, and offices. In 1881 The Bostonian Society restored the building, and has operated it as a museum ever since.

As you explore the Old State House Museum you will discover wonderful stories about the people and events that shaped the history of the city, colony, state, and nation. Two floors of exhibitions tell the story of the role the building–and Boston–played in the American Revolution. Other exhibitions highlight the collections of The Bostonian Society. See tea from the Boston Tea Party and John Hancock’s coat; listen to testimony from the Boston Massacre trial; view paintings of Boston harbor and other Boston treasures. Hands-on history galleries on the second floor provide interactive exhibitions for families with children.

Revolutionary Spaces stewards the Old State House and Old South Meeting House, telling the interwoven stories of these iconic Boston sites.