Freedom Trail 2

King's Chapel is the oldest church in Boston. King James II ordered an Anglican church to be built in Boston but, since none of the colonists would sell any of their land for a non-Puritan church, the king ordered Gov. Andros to seize a corner of the burying ground. It was originally a wood structure built in 1688. In 1749 construction began on this stone building designed by Peter Harrison & was actually built around the original wooden building. When it was completed the wood building inside was disassembled & the wood was passed through the windows. That wood was sent to Lunenburg, Nova Scotia & reassembled as St. John's Anglican Church. That church burned to the ground on Halloween night 2001. The burial ground is the oldest in Boston & one of the people buried there is Mary Chilton, the first woman to step off the Mayflower.

Founded by Puritans in 1635, Boston Latin is America's oldest public school. Four signers of the Declaration of Independence attended the school: John Hancock, Samuel Adams, Ben Franklin & Robert Treat Paine. Of the four, only three graduated. Ben Franklin dropped out. But he still got the statue.

The building that originally stood here was the home of Ann Hutchinson who held seances & believed that each individual was responsible for his own destiny. In 1683 she was declared a heretic & banished from Massachusetts. Her house was torn down & in 1712 this building was erected. It was originally the home & apothecary shop of Thomas Crease. In 1828 it was acquired by Carter & Hendee & became the Old Corner Bookstore. During its history, many literary giants have spent time here including Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Henry David Thoreau, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Oliver Wendell Holmes & Charles Dickens. The double sloped design of the roof is called a gambrel roof & can be seen on many barns. It affords the convenience of a sloped roof with extra head room. The word "gambrel" comes from the Latin "gamba" which means horse's hock or leg.

Built in 1729, the Old South Meeting House was the meeting place of some of the most important meetings of the day. In 1770 after the Boston Massacre, a group of citizens gathered here while Samuel Adams went back & forth to the Old State House until Gov. Hutchinson relented to their request & move the British troops to Castle William. Several meetings were held here in 1773 in response to the tea tax imposed on the colonists. A final meeting was held on December 16th when colonists disguised as Native Americans departed from here & headed to the ships at Griffin's Wharf & threw their cargo of tea into the harbor in protest of the tax.