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The Paul Revere House
Rating Details »
Neighborhood: North End
19 North Sq
Boston, MA 02113
(617) 523-1676
19 North Sq
Boston, MA 02113
(617) 523-1676
- Nearest Transit:
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Haymarket (Orange)
Aquarium (Blue)
North Station (Orange, Green)
- Good for Kids:
- Yes
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17 reviews for The Paul Revere House
Interesting. Tiny little house with nifty tidbits about life back in the day on the inside. Clearly was not built to have dozens of people upstairs all at once. $3.50 per adult was a fair asking price. The silversmith demonstration in the courtyard was worth every penny.
Advice: don't go expecting to learn every little bit about Paul Revere, though you will pick up unexpected facts. Do go to get a little better idea of life before/during the Revolution era. Check out the windows.
I'm pretty torn about this review. On the one hand, the Paul Revere house is a great historic site because - duh - Paul Revere lived here. However, on the other hand, it's a pretty dinky place to visit. I mean, I don't know how picky I can be considering it was a famous patriot's house, but it literally only takes about 10 minutes to walk through even if you stop to read every single plaque with information on it. There isn't much to see inside and it's super small. I know it's not Paul Revere's fault (nor the Historical Society's) but I just can't get past the fact that I paid $3 to basically see nothing.
I feel like a bad person, though, for talking poorly about a historical site. It's not really the site's fault there isn't more to see but it's pretty irritating. Also, why can't I take pictures inside? It turns out most of the items in the house are reproductions of furniture that was known to have been in Revere's house. It's not like it's old, delicate and fragile - the photo flash probably won't ruin anything. So I paid money to go in a house that I couldn't even take a picture of... sigh. My recommendation: skip it if you're not really that interested in Revere. There isn't much history about his life in the house, anyway (meaning they don't give info about his birth, family, role in the Revolution, etc.). Well, there isn't really much in the house, period.
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So then I walked further down the Freedom Trail. My plan was to turn back once I saw the Paul Revere House. Pity I never got the chance to get all the way down to Bunker Hill to see the Paul Revere statue. If you blink, though, you'll miss the Paul Revere House because it's built into the architectural block and is seemingly anonymous among the modern buildings. The map I had made it seem like the House was on Hanover St. when it was actually a block east. I went into the gift shop and got some cheap souvenir shirts, one for me and one for Hiep. Then I walked back to try and find what I thought was the Haymarket subway stop so I could get to Fenway.
I was excited to see what the house used to look like back in the ole days. Turkish rugs were considered a luxury back then. Hmmm...
I think there were only 3 rooms that we were able to see. I was left disappointed because there wasn't much to see. It was lame.
3.50 to see the house.
I guess it is worth the 5 minutes you will spend here.
bigger than it looks.
There was a time line talking about the Revere-Lincoln connection that actually had dates and names like a family tree, but didn't mention or actually show how the two families were connected.
wtf is that all about?
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Why can't I find a funny joke about Paul Revere? I had no clever ideas for a review on the Paul Revere house and I figured finding a funny joke or story would make it passably interesting. People have already done Mad Libs, and Choose Your Adventure, and making a review out of a song, so what else is there? Since I was unsuccessfully in thinking of some genius way to make this interesting, you will get the boring version.
Between my husband and I we have lived in Boston for 19 years, but for some reason finding this house was a huge task. We walked around like tourists, looking like lost baby lambs, and embarrassingly we had to ask 3 locals how to find the goddamn place. We had our camera on us which added to the whole "stupid tourist" situation. FAIL.
Once we found this hidden box of a house we paid our $3 (which I figured was a small enough fee) and went on in. There is a small courtyard area with some historical items and then there is the house itself. That is all.
I am not impressed. I love history, I love historical houses. This one just didn't have much meat to it. First off, it is explained that Paul Revere only lived here for a small amount of time (even when he owned it, he wasn't there a lot) and that perhaps 100 other people have lived here. WTF. I mean, it is still historical, and still a very old place, but don't tout this as the Paul Revere house when in fact he didn't live here that often or that long.
The rooms are simple and I appreciate that they tried to set it up just like it would look like back in the day. There are 4 rooms and each have several historical facts that you can read. None of the stuff in the rooms were all the impressive and I have seen small historical homes like this set up better. Go to the Adams house in Quincy. It is small too, but much better.
Yawn. We were in and out within 5 minutes. It was a bore. You can save your $3 and just walk around the North End which is much more interesting.
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Overheard Conversation in Paul Revere's House this Weekend:
Boy Tourist: So. This is pretty historical, here.
Girl Tourist: Full of history.
Volunteer: ...and Paul Revere had sixteen children between both of his wives.
(Tourists gasp in shock. Whether this is because of the number or the smallish size of the house is best left up to the reader to decide.)
Boy Tourist: Well, I guess she was doing her patriotic duty?
Girl Tourist: Oh, she was lying back and thinking of America.
Boy Tourist: Unless she was a Loyalist. Then she would've been thinking of England.
Volunteer: ...and next to the master bedroom was the bedroom of Paul Revere's mother. Notice how there are no hallways in this house, by the way. That's right: when she had to leave the room, she had to leave through Paul Revere's bedroom.
---
Conveniently on the freedom trail, full of history, and worth the 3 dollars admission to wonder how on earth his mother didn't kill the mood.
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Although it is cool that this place still exists, it is lame. The lameness stems from many directions, from the fact that it costs money to get in to the fact that it seems exclusively focused on decor. To be honest, I don't know what else it should focus on, but still, there has to be something more interesting than how a certain turkish rug came into the house.
On a bright note, it did give me a chance to lie about American history to my friend's foreign bride (coincidentally enough also from Turkey, though she wasn't terribly interested in the rug either). My information was mostly cribbed from the Beastie Boys and National Treasure. Whatever - I thought it was funny.
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Not sure why the two star reviews on Paul Revere's House, and it definitely is not hard to find at all if you just follow the red brick trail through the North End. Immaculately preserved house, restored to its 18th century construction, mostly original furnishings, with awesomely informed tour guides on the inside to answer anything you would ever want to know about Paul Revere, the American Revolution, the house and Revolution-era construction, and life in the 1700s. The inside of the house is a bit of a tight squeeze, as it IS a house and not built for long lines of tourists, but that was just another bit of authenticity that impressed me.
Besides the actual historical aspect of the house, there is also quite a bit of information on Paul Revere's life before and after the revolution, details on his ride, and an exhibit on Longfellow's poem, that which made Revere's name known throughout the world. (Sorry, William Dawes!)
And $3 for admission? You can't complain about that. Kids' admission is $1, but I hesitate to say this is a good place to bring kids, because it is so cramped and there isn't room for kids to move around, as well as because everything in there is so old and fragile, and some kids might not like having to stand and look.
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My in-laws are nerds so we had to walk the entire Freedom Trail when they came to visit, and it's really long. And we stopped at the Paul Revere House along the way, and here's the thing with the Paul Revere House: back in the dark ages or whenever that was, people didn't really have much to do. And they were short. So you're kinda stooping over in this old creaky house, and you go into the bedroom and there's...a bed, and then in the dining room there's a table, and that's about it. It's not like touring a castle or something, where there might be kickass dungeons or crazy gold tea sets. Paul Revere must've been bored all the time, unless he was riding around on a horse yelling. Which honestly, if they hadn't invented TV, I'd probably do that a lot too. I guess I'd need a horse.
On the plus side, it's only three bucks. On the minus side, so is a PBR at the Tam.
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Maybe all you East Coast Yelpers will ridicule me for being a backwoodsy Westerner, but I don't care. I absolutely insist this house museum deserves so much more than 2 stars!!
Built about 1680, it outdates Denver's oldest standing building by some 180 years. It only costs $3.00 to go inside.
You'll learn about life in the late 1700s and some fascinating tidbits about Paul Revere and his family. All this for a mere $3.00.
I also toured the adjacent Pierce/Hichborn House, which was particularly interesting in its juxtaposition with the Revere house: brick Georgian vs. wood Tudor. Learn about early American architecture for just $3.00!
Did I mention it's only $3.00? See, here in the West that's not a lot of money. You can't buy a freaking gallon of gasoline, or a pack of cigarettes, or a lousy Starbucks for $3.00, but you can see actual real amazing American history.
I expect written apologies from all of you; please send copies to The Paul Revere Memorial Association.
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Well walking the famous Freedom Trail here in Boston, people get excited about Paul Revere's House being one of the final stops in the far off, cramped North End. the house sits amongest apartment buildings and Italian restaurants and looks out of place being a dark brown salt box. It is nice on the outside. You go in the court yard and pay $5 a person and you go inside to a tight quartered plain interior, kitchen, a dining room, and two bedrooms and thats it!! There is hardly anything inside, barely any furniture and not many artifacts. The outside courtyard is the biggest part of this place and there is nothing there either. Save your money and save your time, skip this place. It is not worth it!
Unfortunately it was closed the day I went to check it out and I appreciate how Boston proper has decided to keep it intact. I could see how different and odd it looked compared to the rest of the neighborhood.
I almost missed it if not for my trusty handheld GPS guide telling me where it was located exactly. Bring a guidebook and a good map. Otherwise, be prepared to search for it.
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If you're into spending three dollars to take a ten minute self-guided tour of reproductions you can't touch or get close to - THIS IS YOUR PLACE.
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i came. i saw. i'm over it.
it's something to say you did, but not really all that spectacular. you're ushered like cattle through the house and you can't touch anything, for obvious reasons. before you know it, you're back to where you started. oh and you can't even take any pictures in the house. how you say... le lame!
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Small. There are some placards to read various historical tidbits. I was too tired from the Freedom Trial to care much. I don't understand why this is 3 dollars. Where is all of this money going to? Maintaining? Bullshit. Like I said..... SMALLLL. History nerds I'm sure will blow a load over it, but I was bored.
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For only $3 you get to see where Paul Revere lived and how houses resembled during the late seventeenth century. Won't take a long time to go through it, so if you are already walking through the Freedom Trail you might as well stop in.
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