Audio
IMAGE AND TEXT: Old South Meeting House
Transcript
IMAGE and TEXT: Old South Meeting House
DESCRIPTION: Old South Meeting House is shown in this photograph. The Meeting House is made of red brick. The main body of the Meeting House is shaped like a three story house, rectangular with a gently sloping roof. Attached to the front of this rectangle is a five story tower that is topped with a steeple. On the first story facing Washington Street, the main rectangle has two arched windows spaced evenly on either side of the tower, though you cannot see the windows on the right side being that they are obscured by the tower. The windows have multiple panes and are edged in white wood. There is a small historic plaque made of dark metal next to the window on the left corner. The second story has the same set up as the first story. There is a horizontal line of bricks that are protruding out of the wall between the second story and third story. This line travels around the building itself and the tower. The third story has one small circular window located next to the tower. The long side of the building is obscured slightly by trees and street lights in the foreground but has the same arched windows on the first and second stories. There are at least four windows on the first story and three on the second. The roof is grey shingles and has a rail along the edge of it that is used to prevent snow from building up on the roof. The first story of the tower of Old South Meeting House has doors on the three sides of the tower to gain entrance into the building. The double doors are brown in color and topped by an arch of window panes above them. There are signs on either side of the doors, but you cannot read the text from this distance. The second and third stories of the tower have a small circular window located on the side of the tower and a larger arched window on the side facing the viewer. The fourth story has a black clock face with gold numbers and hands on the side. On the side facing the viewer, there is another small circular window. The fifth story of the tower has a covered over arched window on each side. This is the point where the brick ends and the white wooden steeple begins. There is a white railing on the sixth level of the tower and there are thin columns topped with arches leading up to the seventh section. The eighth story extends above the photograph and into the text of Chapter four above it. This part of the steeple is two stories high and tapers into a tall, thin point of grey wood and metal. The top of the steeple has a weather vane on it, though you cannot see its shape because of the text of Chapter Four.
CREDIT: NPS/James Higgins
RELATED TEXT: Built in 1729 as a Puritan house of worship, the Old South Meeting House was the largest building in colonial Boston. In the days leading to the American Revolution, citizens gathered here to challenge British rule, protesting the Boston Massacre and the tea tax. Here, at an overflow meeting on December 16, 1773, patriot Samuel Adams launched the Boston Tea Party. Saved from destruction in 1876, in the first successful historic preservation effort in New England, the building is now an active meeting place, a haven for free speech, and a museum exhibit, “Voices of Protest.”
Description
Audio description of text and relevant image of Old South Meeting House.
Duration
3 minutes, 17 seconds
Credit
UniDescription/Gould and Pollock
Copyright and Usage Info