Old North Church

Boston

Portrait by Artist to Come

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Called Christ Church in the 18th century; also known today as Christ Church in the City of Boston.

On if by land, two if by sea. On 18 April 1775 the church sexton, Robert Newman, using a code pre-arranged by Paul Revere, climbed the steeple and held two lanterns that signaled to colonists in Charleston that British Regulars were headed by sea to Concord to secure gunpowder and munitions that were stored there.

Used later by British General Thomas Gage during the Battle of Bunker Hill. Major John Pitcairn and other British soldiers are buried in vaults under the church.

Part of the Freedom Trail™.

Associated People

Gage, Thomas

Newman, Robert

Revere, Paul

[George] Mason’s obvious legacy is in his contribution to America’s founding documents: the Declaration of Independence through the Virginia Declaration of Rights, the Constitution through his role at the Philadelphia Convention, and the Bill of Rights through his dogged opposition to a Constitution without one. Mason may have taken a circumscribed view of the rights he advocated — limiting the right of representation to white men or restricting freedom of the press to a ban on prior restraint — but he put words on paper that could be given more expansive meanings by later generations.

— Jeff Broadwater

George Mason: Forgotten Founder (2006)