Paul
Revere’s House lies in Boston’s North End. It was built in 1680 for a wealthy
merchant named Robert Howard, and it is the only remaining example of
seventeenth century architecture in Boston. Paul Revere did not buy the house until 1770,
and he lived there for thirty years. Soon after Revere sold the building, it
became a tenement with shops on the first floor. In 1902, Paul Revere’s
great-grandson, John P. Reynolds Jr., purchased the building to prevent it from
being demolished. The Paul Revere Memorial Association was created, which
raised money for the restoration of the building, and in 1908, the Paul Revere House
was open to the public.
The
association charges a modest entrance fee, and requests that no pictures be
taken inside the building. As I walked in, a small, replicated kitchen area
greeted me. As with most replications of dwellings from hundreds of years ago,
a plaque reminded me about the 21st century luxuries of my own life that were
absent for many people for so long. In many ways, life is only a fraction as difficult
as it was just a short time ago. Despite all of these humbling reminders from
the plaque, it didn’t mention that air-conditioning has been added to the
building to make visitors more comfortable during the sweltering Boston summers,
which I greatly appreciated when I was there.
By
today’s standards, the house isn’t much. There are only two rooms on each floor
in which Revere and his wife, his 11 surviving children, and his mother all
lived. It was difficult for me to imagine living in such cramped conditions.
The most remarkable thing to me was that in Revere’s time, the home was considered
spacious, even for such a large family.
On
the second floor, impeccable examples of Paul Revere’s silver are displayed,
along with various other informative plaques. One of them in the back bedroom
informed me that Revere’s mother lived with him until her death at 83 years
old. This impressed me immensely, because living until 83 in the 18th century
was by no means an easy thing to do. After about fifteen minutes in the house,
there wasn’t much else to see, so I left and walked back to my car.
I battled
my way through the Boston streets to the current Capitol, which overlooks
Boston Commons. It was the middle of the afternoon, and I had to park five
blocks away. I trudged up a steep hill and arrived in front of the famous
edifice breathing heavily, perspiring fiercely, and already worn out. The
building itself, designed by Charles Bulfinch, is incredibly famous and served
as the model for many other Capitols in the country. The columns, numerous
steps, and tall gate were impressive, and I could understand why so many other
states would want their Capitol to emulate this example.
The building was large, ornate, and lavishly decorated. As
I explored on my own, the significance of the building became more and more
clear. Boston is one of the most historical cities in the U.S., and the Capitol
is the representation of that. Although it is far more ornate than the Capitols
in Montpelier, Augusta, or Concord, it is not without taste.
Both
of the legislative chambers are on the third floor. The House of
Representatives has the honor of being home to the Sacred Cod. My favorite part
of the whole building due to its whimsy, the Sacred Cod is a model of a codfish
that hangs from the gallery in the House chambers. Its sanctity comes from the
fact that cod fishing was the first industry practiced by Europeans in
Massachusetts. In 1933, the Sacred Cod was ‘cod-napped’ by members of the Harvard Lampoon as a prank. Students of the University of
Massachusetts Boston took it again briefly in 1968. The Sacred Cod has hung for
three centuries, and has had three incarnations, all before 1800. The current
Cod was installed in 1784 in the Old State House, which was in use from 1776 to
1798. In 1798 it was moved the current State house, originally over the
Speaker’s desk, but in the 1850s, they moved it to its current position in the
rear of the room.
After
seeing the legislative chambers and many of the other rooms in the building,
the frenzy of the day was beginning to catch up with me. In addition to it
being over 90 degrees outside, I did not have time to eat lunch and still make
it to all of my destinations. After meandering slowly back to my car, I began
my next crusade to the final stop on my journey, the old State House. Once I
arrived, I discovered with a small measure of dismay that the entrance fee was
the steepest of any I had paid in my entire journey thus far. Even more
frustrating was the fact that the exhibits were not terribly interesting, and I
was so exhausted at this point in the day that I found that I did not have the
patience to hear about many of the historical events that were covered
repeatedly by guides or literature provided in the previous two buildings.
Walking
away from the Old State House, I came to the conclusion that Boston’s culture
is very difficult to digest in a mere day. The city has so much significance,
culture, heritage, attitude, and spunk that it is almost impossible to
encapsulate all of it. Unlike many of the other capitals that I have visited,
Boston is a big city with all of the diversity, density, and complexity that
comes along with that. It has more variety and more quantity than all of the
other capital cities I have been to so far. Even with the small sliver of
Boston that I was able to experience, I felt a strong anchor to the origins of
our country throughout the city. Despite being worn out, at the end of the day I
felt that I could appreciate Boston as the big, historical capital that it is.
When
I arrived back to my car, the sun was setting behind the skyscrapers, beaming
segmented, golden rays onto the streets. The familiar seat felt so relieving
when I first climbed in that I just sat for a moment before I started the
ignition. It had been a long day, but nonetheless a rewarding and worthwhile
one. Next stop, Providence.
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