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Old State House
Rating Details »
Categories: Landmarks & Historical Buildings, Museums [Edit]
Neighborhood: Dorchester206 Washington St
(between Court St & State St)
Boston, MA 02108
(617) 720-1713
- Good for Kids:
- Yes
6 reviews for Old State House
Very great place to visit if you're interested in learning about the beginning of the Revolutionary War. $7 admission fee gets you in to two and a half floors of exhibits (I say two and a half because the bottom level is just a couple of pictures and not really anything big).
The building is beautiful and has been nicely preserved since its mid-19th century renovation by the Boston Historical Society. The building originally was the seat of the Governor of Britain (the guy who essentially ran the Colonies for King George). The building fell out of use until the 19th century and it was renovated to add a staircase in the middle (very grand and beautiful, I might add).
This was the site of the Boston Massacre (occurred in the square just outside the State House) and the reading of the Declaration of Independence to the people of Boston. Many meetings between Revolutionaries occurred here and many important decisions regarding the independence of this nation were made in this building.
The exhibits are nicely put together and there's a good mix of actual artifacts from revolutionaries and written information about the time period and the central figures. The third floor includes a great children's exhibit which features a lot of kid-accessible history and information. The bottom level is a small photography exhibit feature Boston and its people. It was pretty small and uninteresting, but worth checking out anyway if that's your thing.
Great stop on the Freedom Trail - go in, pay your fee and experience the historic building. It's an important part of Boston's history and the history of this nation.
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In an area full of modern upscale skyscrapers, this is easily one of the coolest buildings here.
American History at it's best.
I finally went over here the other day to check out their exhibits and was not highly impressed. Everything felt like it was from the early 90s on the first floor and there was a bit of repetition in that first area. The second floor is better, they have some displays on Boston in the 1770s and you can also look out the window behind where the Declaration of Independence was first read in Boston on July 18th, 1776.
The other exhibit on the second floor is comprised of favorite objects of the staff of the Old State House from the museum's collection. It is an interesting mash up of different items including the shackles used on Anthony Burns and also the cane that was used on Charles Sumner's head.
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True story: After serving as a focus point during the colonial era and war of independence, the old State House housed various shops until the second half of the 19th century, when it became so decrepit that it was in danger of collapsing. The city thought it would be too expensive to renovate and was getting ready to tear the building down when the city of Chicago offered to buy it, ship it to Illinois and rebuild it as a tourist attraction. Bostonians, ever susceptible, took this as a grave insult and changed their mind, instead renovating it to its former glory. So I guess we can thank Chicago for still having the State House around.
It now houses a small museum dedicated to the history of the building and the Boston "massacre", including how patriots such as Revere grossly exaggerated the story to rally the citizenry to their cause.
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Small, and cramped, but I guess that's what it used to be like, so I cant really blame the structure since it was made years back by ancestors.
Lots of history and it's part of the freedom trail which is good. All my government friends from out of town always seem interested in this building.
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Not bad for a museum, but I prefer the new state house, which is mysteriously absent from the Yelp world.