Minute Man National Historical Park

Concord
MA

North Bridge in Concord

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QUICK FACTS
  • Commemorates the 19 April 1775 Battle of Lexington / Concord, which started the Revolutionary War.
  • 88 militia were killed or wounded that day; 247 British Redcoats were killed or wounded.
  • There are reenactments of the battle on Patriot’s Day, which is an annual state holiday in Massachusetts.
  • Throughout the park are witness houses, whose occupants would have seen the British soldiers first-hand.
  • Not part of the park, but certainly a witness house, is the wonderfully preserved Old Manse near Concord Bridge.
  • It was colonial Major John Buttrick who first ordered his militia to fire on the British Regulars; the mansion that is now the North Bridge Visitor Center was built by descendants of the Buttrick family.
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With over 900 acres, the Minute Man Historical Park traces the route originally taken by the British Regulars from Lexington to Concord. Starting at the Minute Man Visitor Center, a multimedia theater program provides an excellent introduction to the battle which began the American Revolution. Park Rangers are available for questions.

Battle Road Trail

The five-mile trail connects historic sites from Meriam’s Corner in Concord to the eastern boundary of the park in Lexington. It can be hiked or biked; or for the main sites, parking is available.

Hartwell Tavern

A significant community landmark in its day, Hartwell Tavern was also a prosperous farm and home to Ephraim and Elizabeth Hartwell and their children. The authentic structure is open for a self-guided tour.

North Bridge Visitor Center

Located in a brick mansion built in 1911, the North Bridge Visitor Center features a short video about the North Bridge fight, a bookstore, and exhibits. Includes a brass cannon, smuggled out of Boston in 1775, that was one of the four cannons hidden in Concord. The rebuilt North Bridge is a five-minute walk away.

[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)