This cool computer animation from Boston.com shows the results of a recent sub-surface scan of the ground on the property of the Paul Revere house in the North End of Boston. The site has recently acquired some property next door that belonged to Revere originally and there are a number of renovations and additions going on at the site to accommodate the huge number of people who visit each year. I can hardly wait until the work is finished so we can go back with Charlotte and see what’s been done.
Meanwhile, out in Lexington, where Paul Revere was caught by a British patrol on the night of his famous ride, workers doing renovations on the historic Hancock-Clarke House discovered some 18th-Century shoes inside a wall. Local historian J.L. Bell explains that shoes and garments were sometimes hidden inside walls as houses were built in those days to ward off bad spirits. He opines that the shoes were probably put there during later additions to the house, not during original construction. The house is historical because it is where John Hancock and Samuel Adams were staying, hiding out from British authorities, at the time of the Battles of Lexington and Concord.
