The Old South Meeting House is a historic

Congregational Congregational churches (also Congregationalist churches or Congregationalism) are Protestant churches in the Calvinist tradition practising congregationalist church governance, in which each congregation independently and autonomously runs its ...

church building located at the corner of

Milk Milk is a white liquid food produced by the mammary glands of mammals. It is the primary source of nutrition for young mammals (including breastfed human infants) before they are able to digest solid food. Immune factors and immune-modula ...

and Washington Streets in the

Downtown Crossing Downtown Crossing is a shopping district within downtown Boston, Massachusetts, located east of Boston Common, west of the Financial District, south of Government Center, and north of Chinatown and the old Combat Zone. It features la ...

area of Boston, Massachusetts, built in 1729. It gained fame as the organizing point for the

Boston Tea Party The Boston Tea Party was an American political and mercantile protest by the Sons of Liberty in Boston, Massachusetts, on December 16, 1773. The target was the Tea Act of May 10, 1773, which allowed the British East India Company to sell t ...

on December 16, 1773. Five thousand or more colonists gathered at the Meeting House, the largest building in Boston at the time.

History

Church (1729–1872)

The meeting house or church was completed in 1729, with its 56 m (183 ft) steeple. The congregation was gathered in 1669 when it broke off from First Church of Boston, a

church founded by

John Winthrop John Winthrop (January 12, 1587/88 – March 26, 1649) was an English Puritan lawyer and one of the leading figures in founding the Massachusetts Bay Colony, the second major settlement in New England following Plymouth Colony. Winthrop led t ...

in 1630. The site was a gift of Mrs. Norton, widow of John Norton, pastor of the

First Church in Boston First Church in Boston is a Unitarian Universalist Church (originally Congregationalist) founded in 1630 by John Winthrop's original Puritan settlement in Boston, Massachusetts. The current building, located on 66 Marlborough Street in the Back ...

. The church's first pastor was Rev. Thomas Thacher, a native of

Salisbury Salisbury ( ) is a cathedral city in Wiltshire, England with a population of 41,820, at the confluence of the rivers Avon, Nadder and Bourne. The city is approximately from Southampton and from Bath. Salisbury is in the southeast of ...

, England. Thacher was also a physician and is known for publishing the first medical tract in Massachusetts. Interior - Old South Meeting House - Boston, MA - DSC05822

Interior - Old South Meeting House - Boston, MA - DSC05822

After the

Boston Massacre The Boston Massacre (known in Great Britain as the Incident on King Street) was a confrontation in Boston on March 5, 1770, in which a group of nine British soldiers shot five people out of a crowd of three or four hundred who were harassing t ...

in 1770, yearly anniversary meetings were held at the church until 1775, featuring speakers such as

John Hancock John Hancock ( – October 8, 1793) was an American Founding Father, merchant, statesman, and prominent Patriot of the American Revolution. He served as president of the Second Continental Congress and was the first and third Governor of t ...

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

Old South Meeting House American Revolution interior in Boston MA

In October 1775, led by Lt Col Samuel Birch of the 17th Dragoons, the British occupied the Meeting House due to its association with the Revolutionary cause. They 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. After the British evacuated Boston, the plan for rebuilding the interior of the church was drawn by Thomas Dawes. Old South Meeting House was almost destroyed in the

Great Boston Fire of 1872 The Great Boston Fire of 1872 was Boston's largest fire, and still ranks as one of the most costly fire-related property losses in American history. The conflagration began at 7:20 p.m. on Saturday, November 9, 1872, in the basement of a com ...

, 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 Copley Square , named for painter John Singleton Copley, is a public square in Boston's Back Bay neighborhood, bounded by Boylston Street, Clarendon Street, St. James Avenue, and Dartmouth Street. Prior to 1883 it was known as Art Square due to it ...

) which remains its home to this day. The Old South congregation returns to Old South Meeting House for services in its ancestral home once a year, on the Sunday before

Thanksgiving Thanksgiving is a national holiday celebrated on various dates in the United States, Canada, Grenada, Saint Lucia, Liberia, and unofficially in countries like Brazil and Philippines. It is also observed in the Netherlander town of Leiden ...

Ministers

* Thomas Thacher (1620–1678), minister 1670–1678 * Samuel Willard (1640–1707), minister 1678–1707 * Ebenezer Pemberton (1671–1717), 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 1766-1769 * 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

John Alden John Alden (c. 1598 - September 12, 1687) was a crew member on the historic 1620 voyage of the ''Mayflower'' which brought the English settlers commonly known as Pilgrims to Plymouth Colony in present-day Massachusetts, US. He was hired in Sou ...

* John Alden Jr. * Judith Quincy Hull * Hannah Quincy Hull (Sewall) * John Hull * Daniel Quincy *

Samuel Adams Samuel Adams ( – October 2, 1803) was an American statesman, political philosopher, and a Founding Father of the United States. He was a politician in colonial Massachusetts, a leader of the movement that became the American Revolution, an ...

William Dawes William Dawes Jr. (April 6, 1745 – February 25, 1799) was one of several men who in April 1775 alerted colonial minutemen in Massachusetts of the approach of British army troops prior to the Battles of Lexington and Concord at the outset ...

Benjamin Franklin Benjamin Franklin ( April 17, 1790) was an American polymath who was active as a writer, scientist, inventor, statesman, diplomat, printer, publisher, and political philosopher. Encyclopædia Britannica, Wood, 2021 Among the leading inte ...

Samuel Sewall Samuel Sewall (; March 28, 1652 – January 1, 1730) was a judge, businessman, and printer in the Province of Massachusetts Bay, best known for his involvement in the Salem witch trials, for which he later apologized, and his essay ''The Selling ...

Phillis Wheatley Phillis Wheatley Peters, also spelled Phyllis and Wheatly ( – December 5, 1784) was an American author who is considered the first African-American author of a published book of poetry. Gates, Henry Louis, ''Trials of Phillis Wheatley: Ameri ...

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 A National Historic Landmark (NHL) is a building, district, object, site, or structure that is officially recognized by the United States government for its outstanding historical significance. Only some 2,500 (~3%) of over 90,000 places listed ...

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 Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...

and Milk Streets and can be visited for a nominal sum. It is located near the State Street,

and Park Street MBTA (subway) stations. The Old South Meeting House is claimed to be the second oldest establishment existent in the United States. It is currently under consideration for local landmark status by the

Boston Landmarks Commission The Boston Landmarks Commission (BLC) is the historic preservation agency for the City of Boston. The commission was created by state legislation i1975 History Urban renewal in the United States started with the Housing Act of 1949, part of Presid ...

. In 2020 the former caretaker of Old South Meeting House (the Old South Association in Boston) merged with the Bostonian Society, forming Revolutionary Spaces, which now manages both Old South Meeting House and the Old State House.

Gallery

Image:JosephSewall OldSouth Boston.png, Joseph Sewall, minister ca.1713–1769 Image:ThomasPrince ca1750 byJosephBadger AmericanAntiquarianSociety.png, Thomas Prince, minister ca.1718–1758; portrait by Joseph Badger (courtesy

American Antiquarian Society The American Antiquarian Society (AAS), located in Worcester, Massachusetts, is both a learned society and a national research library of pre-twentieth-century American history and culture. Founded in 1812, it is the oldest historical society i ...

) Image:1808 CongressSt Boston 3 copy.png, View of Old South from Congress Street in 1808 (conjectural illustration) Image:1835 OldSouth BostonBewickCo Boyton Boston map detail.png, 1835 Image:JacobManning OldSouth Boston.png, Jacob Manning, minister ca.1857–1872 Image:Milk Street, from Robert N. Dennis collection of stereoscopic views.jpg, After the fire (Old South at left), 1872 Image:Old South Church, by Kilburn Brothers.jpg, After the fire, 1872 File:Old South Meeting House 1877 in Boston MA.jpg, Old South Meeting House, ca. 1877 Image:The Old South Meeting House.jpg, ca.1898 Image:Detroit Photographic Company (0369).jpg, Washington & Milk St., 1900

References

Notes 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)

Historic American Buildings Survey
(Library of Congress). Old South Meetinghouse, Washington & Milk Streets, Boston, Suffolk, MA
''The Diaries of John Hull, Mint-master and Treasurer of the Colony of Massachusetts Bay''
{{Authority control Landmarks in Financial District, Boston Museums in Boston National Historic Landmarks in Boston Churches on the National Register of Historic Places in Massachusetts Towers in Massachusetts Churches in Boston Churches completed in 1729 History museums in Massachusetts Boston National Historical Park 18th-century churches in the United States 1729 establishments in Massachusetts National Register of Historic Places in Boston