Old State House Audio Guide

Old State House: what does the audio guide cover?

1. 01

   Welcome to Old State House

   This section of the Mappu audio guide to the Old State House highlights Welcome to Old State House and points out what to notice during your visit.

   Welcome to the Old State House, right in the heart of downtown Boston. Look at it for a moment. A brick building from 1713 stands among much taller modern neighbors, and it still holds its ground. That contrast is part of its charm. A magazine writer in 1999 noted that it can look almost anachronistic beside the buildings around it, yet it has kept both its architectural and historical significance. This is the oldest surviving public building in Boston. It was built on the site of the first Town House, and for generations it was the center of royal government in the Massachusetts Bay colony. Courts, colonial officials, and later city and state government all met here. One writer in 2011 called it the center of civic life in eighteenth century Massachusetts. Today the building is owned by the City of Boston and operated by Revolutionary Spaces. It is a National Historic Landmark, a Boston Landmark, and a stop on the Freedom Trail within Boston National Historical Park. Over the next few minutes we will look at the political drama it witnessed, the lion and unicorn above you, and the surprising way it was almost lost.

2. 02

   Where a Colony Did Its Business

   This section of the Mappu audio guide to the Old State House highlights Where a Colony Did Its Business and points out what to notice during your visit.

   Imagine this building in the 1700s, when it was far more than a government office. Upstairs were the offices of colonial government. The ground floor held a merchant's exchange, where economic and local news changed hands along with goods. Politics and commerce shared one roof, which made the place a busy hub for news and influence. Even the basement had a famous customer. John Hancock once rented storage space down there. It is a nice reminder that the people we remember as revolutionaries were also merchants and neighbors, using the same building as everyone else. The building's first great moment came in 1761. Patriot James Otis stood here and argued against the British writs of assistance. John Adams later said of that moment, in words that are often quoted, that then and there the child independence was born. Notice how Adams phrases it. For him, the story of independence began in an argument inside a building like this one, long before any shots were fired.

3. 03

   From Massacre to Declaration

   This section of the Mappu audio guide to the Old State House highlights From Massacre to Declaration and points out what to notice during your visit.

   Nine years after Otis spoke, the Old State House bore witness to the Boston Massacre in 1770. If you look near the building, you may spot the Boston Massacre Memorial Medallion, which was installed to mark that event. Then comes a day in the summer of 1776. On July 18, 1776, Bostonians heard the Declaration of Independence read aloud for the first time in their city, from the balcony of this building. Picture a crowd packed into the street below, looking up at that balcony and hearing words that turned a long-running dispute into a declared break. The story did not end there. The building became the first capitol of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and served that role until 1798, when the current Massachusetts State House was completed. In a few decades, the building had gone from the seat of royal government to the seat of a new state's government. Few buildings in America have watched such a complete change of authority from the same spot.

4. 04

   A Close Call, a Lion and a Subway

   This section of the Mappu audio guide to the Old State House highlights A Close Call, a Lion and a Subway and points out what to notice during your visit.

   After 1798, the Old State House had to find a new purpose. It housed commercial space and offices, and at one point it served as Boston City Hall. By the 1860s and 1870s its condition was slipping. A group of three tenants signed a ten-year lease in 1866, and afterward the exterior declined, with peeling paint and missing architectural details. By 1870 the building had 50 simultaneous occupants. A mansard roof was added during that decade, and windows were replaced. Then came two threats. In the mid-1870s the government of Chicago proposed moving the building to the Lake Michigan shoreline, possibly for a world's fair. After the lease expired in 1876, a Boston committee proposed demolishing it to widen the street. Determined citizens formed the Boston Antiquarian Club to preserve the building. It later reorganized as the Bostonian Society and created a museum of Boston history inside. Look up and you will see the copper lion and unicorn, made by coppersmith Moses H. Gulesian. Two newspapers read them quite differently. One saw a sign of much-improved relations between Britain and the United States, while the other saw lasting British influence in Boston. And underneath your feet, the State Street Station was built beneath the building. A librarian of the Bostonian Society once called it the subway with the oldest historic entrance in the United States.

5. 05

   Before You Head Off

   This section of the Mappu audio guide to the Old State House highlights Before You Head Off and points out what to notice during your visit.

   One writer in 1998 observed that the Old State House and the Old South Meeting House survived mainly because of their histories, calling them monuments rather than landmarks. It is a good thought to carry with you. These buildings are still standing because people decided their stories mattered. If you step inside, the museum offers plenty to explore. The Revolutionary Characters exhibit follows several individual Bostonians through the changes of the 1770s, with artifacts connected to Lydia Hutchinson and Paul Revere. Another exhibit traces three centuries of efforts to preserve the building, and a hands-on exhibit lets you look behind hidden walls and meet Otis, the State House mouse. And the story continues two blocks away at the Old South Meeting House, the other site run by Revolutionary Spaces. There, on December 16, 1773, thousands gathered to protest the Tea Act before heading to the harbor. Walk between the two and see how the street connects them. What do you notice about this small brick building as the towers rise above it?