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Survey of
Historic Sites and Buildings

	OLD SOUTH MEETING HOUSE (part of Boston National Historical Park) Massachusetts
Location: Milk and Washington Streets, Boston. Boston National Historical Park Old South Meeting House

Ownership and Administration (1961). Old South Association, Boston.

Significance. Old South Meeting House—the "Sanctuary of Freedom"—belongs to two distinct triumvirates of historic buildings in Boston. The first group is made up of outstanding religious edifices from the colonial period, and includes Christ Church and King's Chapel. The second group is made up of structures that gained a lasting place in the American heritage as scenes of public assembly and deliberation in the stirring period of the Revolutionary movement. In the latter group Old South, because of its large seating capacity, shared distinction with the Second Boston Town House and Faneuil Hall. In many instances the last two could not accommodate certain mass gatherings that were the prelude to the final break with England. The mass protest meetings that gave Old South lasting fame took place during the tumultuous interval between the passage of the Townshend Acts in 1767 and the outbreak of war in 1775.

The first in the series of significant assemblies in Old South was held on June 14 and 15, 1768, when public feeling ran high immediately after the liberty riots and the ill-advised attempt by a captain of the British Navy to impress Yankee sailors in Boston Harbor. In this instance, the Colonials were somewhat mollified by the intercession of the Governor and the assurance that the Navy would be more cautious in seeking men for service. Not quite 2 years later the Boston Massacre (March 5, 1770) brought an inflamed throng of citizens to the Old South Meeting House. A committee headed by Samuel Adams, fresh from a conference with British officials concerning the removal of the redcoats from Boston, reported to the people on the afternoon after the "massacre" in King Street. Master James Lovell of Boston Latin School delivered the first anniversary oration commemorating the Boston Massacre in Old South.

The most significant of the gatherings were the anti-tea meetings which led to the Boston Tea Party on the night of December 16, 1773. The 1775 anniversary observance of the Boston Massacre was the last and most eventful such assemblage in Old South. Dr. Joseph Warren is supposed to have entered through the window behind the pulpit to avoid the British officers who had crowded the aisles and seated themselves on the pulpit steps, presumably hoping to break up the meeting.

During the siege of Boston, the Old South congregation dispersed, many of the members seeking refuge outside town. The church parsonage nearby was torn down by British troops and its material used as firewood. Old South's brick construction probably saved it from a similar fate, although most of its interior furnishings were used for fuel and the building turned into a riding school for British cavalry. This unhappy period ended with the evacuation of the British Army in March 1776. The congregation slowly reassembled and, in 1783, restored the interior much as it had been half a century earlier.

Old South Meeting House. (National Park Service)

Old South, a large structure for its day, was built in 1729-30 for Third Church, the third body of Congregationalists to be organized in Boston. This group had gathered in 1669 to protest the narrower views of the congregation of North Church. In 1717 a new body of Congregationalists had taken the name "New South Church." To keep its identity clear, Third Church was called "Old South," the name it bears today. The new meetinghouse of brick, replacing an earlier wooden church, was designed by Robert Twelves and laid up in Flemish bond by Joshua Blanchard, a master mason who was later to win even higher recognition as the builder of the Thomas Hancock House on Beacon Hill and the original Faneuil Hall. The exterior of the new meetinghouse showed a marked reflection of the new Georgian style. It had two tiers of arched windows and a projecting tower in front, with a spire rising from an octagonal base. The interior plan is typical of a 17th-century New England meetinghouse, consisting of a side entrance with a central aisle leading across the auditorium to a high pulpit at the middle of the opposite long side. Galleries extended around the other three sides, with a second gallery added over the first at the east end.

When the interior of the meetinghouse was restored after the Revolution, the original design was generally followed, although subsequent repairs and improvements reflected the styles and taste of the early Republic. A number of changes occurred during the 19th century until, in the great fire of 1872, a considerable area around the meetinghouse was burned, with some damage to the building itself. Because of the removal of many of its members to the developing Back Bay area, the congregation decided in 1874 to move to a new building at the corner of Boyleston and Dartmouth Streets. Having no further use for the old house, the congregation decided to tear down the building and sell the valuable land on which it stood. When demolition started, however, public sentiment was aroused to save the structure. The outcome was the purchase of the meetinghouse for $400,000 by a committee of citizens. In the next few years the growth of the Old South preservation fund assured the success of this early undertaking in the cause of historical preservation.

After necessary repairs had been made, Old South became a historical museum. Of particular note was its role as headquarters for the Old South work in history and the program of publication of the extensive series of Old South leaflets covering a broad range of American history.

Present Appearance (1961). Old South Meeting House has been maintained in a satisfactory state of repair and some efforts at restoration have been undertaken with the limited financial resources of the Old South Association. Box pews, for instance, have been installed again on the floor of the auditorium. [28]