Old North Church

This church, located in the historic North End neighborhood, was built in 1723 and is Boston’s oldest surviving church. William Price and church layman Anthony Blount are credited as the architects, the building being largely influenced by the work of British architect Sir Christopher Wren. On the evening of April 18, 1775, Paul Revere sent two men to the top of the steeple to signal that British troops were approaching Lexington and Concord, thus beginning the American Revolution. The last major restoration, performed by R. Clipston Sturgis and his associate Henry Ross, took place in 1912 and embraced a Colonial Revival aesthetic popular at the time.

The church is also home to several gardens and one of Boston’s oldest surviving brick residences, the Clough House (1713). On the north side of the church is the Washington Memorial Garden (1920s), and the Third Lantern Garden, created to honor the “Third Lantern,” lit by President Gerald Ford to celebrate the nation’s bicentennial. Behind the church is the Memorial Garden (2007), which honors the lives lost during the Afghanistan, Iraq, and ISIS conflicts. Behind the church's gift shop is the St. Francis of Assisi Garden (circa 1970s), a paved courtyard that commemorates the ties between the church and the St. Francis of Assisi Chapel, originally built for Italian immigrants in 1918. Between this garden and the Clough House is the 18^th Century Garden, which contains authentic period flowers and shrubs. The equestrian statue of Paul Revere by Cyrus Dallin sits directly behind the site in the Paul Revere Mall (the Prado), which was designed by Boston landscape architect Arthur Shurcliff and opened in 1933. Old North Church is one of eight sites within Boston National Historical Park and one of seventeen stops along the Freedom Trail. It was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1961 and listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1966.