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Listen my children and you shall hear
Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere,
On the eighteenth of April, in Seventy-five;
Hardly a man is now alive
Who remembers that famous day and year.
He said to his friend, "If the British march
By land or sea from the town to-night,
Hang a lantern aloft in the belfry arch
Of the North Church tower as a signal light,--
One if by land, and two if by sea;
And I on the opposite shore will be,
Ready to ride and spread the alarm
Through every Middlesex village and farm,
For the country folk to be up and to arm."...
Meanwhile, impatient to mount and ride,
Booted and spurred, with a heavy stride
On the opposite shore walked Paul Revere.
Now he patted his horse's side,
Now he gazed at the landscape far and near,
Then, impetuous, stamped the earth,
And turned and tightened his saddle girth;
But mostly he watched with eager search
The belfry tower of the Old North Church,
As it rose above the graves on the hill,
Lonely and spectral and sombre and still.
And lo! as he looks, on the belfry's height
A glimmer, and then a gleam of light!
He springs to the saddle, the bridle he turns,
But lingers and gazes, till full on his sight
A second lamp in the belfry burns.-- excerpts of "Paul Revere's Ride" by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
As you know, we take all things Paul Revere pretty seriously at The (Real) Big Red House.
This morning, Adam at Universal Hub had a link to this local blogger and Revolutionary War scholar weighing in on whether or not the now-famous Old North Church in Boston's North End is really the church where the lanterns were hung alerting Revere to begin his ride through the towns west of Boston to alert the "Minutemen" to prepare for the British troops on their way to Concord.
Well, I knew the fellow was on the right track as soon as I started reading his post, because it turns out he had been discussing this subject with a good friend of mine -- a woman named Donna LaRue who gives in-character guided tours of many of Boston's historical sites (among her many, many activities). Donna had tugged my ear with this particular story for a couple of years, so I knew immediately what the blogger was going to reveal: that the Old North Church is actually the successor to an earlier church in the North End that was also called Christ Church, but which had a taller steeple and sat higher up on the hill.
The illustration above gives credence to this. It is dated 1768 and was drawn by Paul Revere himself. The larger of the two buildings is identified as Christ Church, but is located on Salem Street, a few blocks from where the present-day Old North Church stands. The present-day building is on the site of an earlier Congregationalist meeting-house that the British Army demolished at the time of the Revolution and is the smaller, lower steeple in that drawing.
Donna tells me that this is really not uncommon knowledge among local Revolutionary War experts, it's just hushed up by the tourism people who have a lot invested in keeping people coming to the current building and spending money. If you've ever taken a stroll through the North End on a summer Saturday and witnessed the non-stop line of touristas from Paul Revere's House over to the Old North Chuch, you'll understand why she says that.
So, I've had a brief exchange of comments/e-mails with John Bell, the blogger mentioned here. He pointed out that he was DISAGREEING with Donna, which I have to say I totally did not get from reading his post. As I said to him, perhaps my interpretation was clouded because she's a friend, but I think his post is a bit vague about the argument. He's said he'll make his post a bit clearer to indicate that his opinion is that the Old North Church IS the church Revere meant.
I didn't mean to mis-represent his position, so my apologies to him.
Posted by Brian [URL] at 06/ 8/07
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