Paul Revere House
Paul Revere House
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Paul Revere House

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Paul Revere House

The Paul Revere House is a historic house museum at 19 North Square in the North End of Boston, Massachusetts, United States. It was once the residence of Paul Revere, an American Patriot and Founding Father, during the American Revolution and late 18th century. The house is operated as a museum by the Paul Revere Memorial Association (PRMA), which owns the property. The Revere House is part of Boston National Historical Park and is designated as a National Historic Landmark.

The house occupies the former site of the Second Church of Boston's parsonage, destroyed by fire in 1676. The Revere House was built no later than 1680; its first owner was Robert Howard, a wealthy slave merchant. His L-shaped house contained exterior features such as a second-floor overhang and casement windows. Revere owned the house between 1770 and 1800. After Revere sold the house, it became a tenement, with its ground floor remodeled for use as shops, and was sold repeatedly in the 19th century. The Revere House was sold in 1902 to one of Revere's descendants, who resold it to the PRMA in 1907. Following a renovation, the house opened in 1908. A visitor center was opened within a nearby pair of houses in 2016.

The main block of the three-story dwelling consists of four structural bays. The second floor of the house protrudes above the street, while the roof contains a gable. The Revere House has a rear extension, typical of houses of the era; this extension also has a second-floor overhang. A third floor was added in the 18th century before being removed in the 1900s renovation. There are two rooms on each floor, which include plasterwork and woodwork decorations, along with architectural details such as fireplaces. The rooms contain several pieces of furniture that belonged to the Revere family.

The Paul Revere House is located at 19 North Square in the North End neighborhood of Boston in Massachusetts, United States. Situated on Shawmut Peninsula, the Revere House occupies a landmass that existed prior to the peninsula's expansion via land reclamation. The site was originally about 150 feet (46 m) from the waterfront, but land reclamation has since pushed the shoreline to about 800 feet (240 m) from the house. The Revere House is on the northwest side of North Square. The land lot includes the Revere House, a courtyard just south of the building (originally the John Barnard House), and the Pierce–Hichborn House. The lot is significantly reduced from its original extent, covering about 1,475 square feet (137.0 m2). Mariners House (11 North Square) is further south on the same block. The Paul Revere House site is a stop on the Freedom Trail, a path connecting historic sites in Boston, and is the trail's only house. Sequentially, it is between Faneuil Hall and Old North Church.

The house's courtyard is paved in brick with some small plots of greenery. It has a 900-pound (410 kg) bronze bell manufactured by American Patriot and silversmith Paul Revere, who once lived in the house. When Revere lived there in the late 18th century, the yard had a well, and a path in the rear led to Hanover Street. By the 1980s, period plantings from between the late 17th and late 18th centuries had also been placed in the yard. These included lungwort, pear trees, and johnny jump ups.

The Pierce–Hichborn House is a brick edifice built c. 1711; it is one of the earliest brick houses in the city. Built by Moses Pierce, it was the onetime residence of Revere's cousin Nathaniel Hichborn and is part of the Paul Revere House museum complex. The Sumner Tunnel runs directly under the lot, passing under the Pierce–Hichborn House. A third house once existed between the Revere and Pierce–Hichborn houses, but was later replaced by a tenement, which itself was demolished. There is also a 3,500-square-foot (330 m2) visitor and education center connected to the house by an elevated walkway; this facility occupies two row houses. These rowhouses, dating from c. 1835 and rising two stories high, carry the address 5–6 Lathrop Place and are alternatively known as the Perkins-Robinson Double Rowhouse. In the late 18th century, the site of these rowhouses had a barn, which sat partially on the lot line.

Shawmut Peninsula was first settled soon after the town of Boston was established by colonists in 1630. The first recorded owner of the Revere House's site was Bartholomew Bernard, a carpenter. The merchant Anthony Chickly acquired part of the front portion of Bernard's lot in 1663 and constructed a new house there, and Chickly subsequently acquired an adjacent lot in the rear. Chickly sold his property in 1670 to the Second Church in Boston, whose minister Increase Mather lived in the Chickly House until at least 1674. Other family members, including Mather's son Cotton Mather, also lived there. When the Chickly House burned down in the Boston fire on November 27, 1676, Mather moved to a house owned by Captain Thomas Bredon.

The house that is now known as the Paul Revere House was built on the site of Mather's house at some point between 1676 and 1681. The house is sometimes described as being built shortly after the 1676 fire, and several sources give a specific date of 1680. The merchant Robert Howard is the earliest known owner of the house. On November 2, 1681, Howard purchased the property and an existing dwelling from brickmaker Thomas Walker and anchor manufacturer Daniel Turell. Researcher Stephen J. Roper wrote that Walker and Turell became involved in the sale because they were members of the Second Church. As originally configured, the house had an irregular layout because, like many buildings in Boston's North End at the time, the lot line ran at an oblique angle to the street. The second story overhung the sidewalk, and the building had a steep pitched roof and a chimney. The building was relatively large for its time.

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