Old South Meeting House

About

The Old South Meeting House is a museum and historic church building at 310 Washington Street, on the corner with Milk Street, in the Downtown Crossing area of Boston, Massachusetts, United States. Built in 1729, the meeting house originally hosted the Congregational congregation of the Old South Church. It was the organizing point for the 1773 Boston Tea Party and later became a free speech symbol for its role as a pre–American Revolution meeting house. The building has served as a museum since 1877 and is operated by Revolutionary Spaces. One of the landmarks on Boston's Freedom Trail, the Old South Meeting House is designated a National Historic Landmark and a Boston Landmark. It is also part of the Boston National Historical Park.

The Old South Meeting House, designed by Robert Twelves and built by Joshua Blanchard, replaced the congregation's first building, the 1669 Cedar Meeting House. It hosted religious services alongside town meetings and speeches, functioning as an overflow space for town meetings too large for Faneuil Hall. In 1775, British troops occupied the interior and gutted it, turning the interior into a horse-riding facility. The interior was rebuilt in 1783, and the building was modified several times in the 19th century. The congregation used the Old South Meeting House until the Great Boston Fire of 1872 and moved to its Copley Square building in 1875.