Overview & visitor information
Dwarfed by financial towers yet outlasting them all in meaning, the 1713 Old State House is Boston's oldest surviving public building: British governors ruled from it, the Declaration of Independence was first read to Bostonians from its balcony in July 1776 (re-enacted every July 4th), and the lion and unicorn still crown its gable. On the cobblestones below, a stone ring marks the Boston Massacre site, where British soldiers killed five colonists in 1770 and lit the revolutionary fuse. The museum inside interprets both stories with artifacts including tea from the Tea Party (admission charged; verify with Revolutionary Spaces). The juxtaposition photographs unforgettably - colonial brick against glass canyons. Fifteen minutes outside or forty-five within; the State Street T station exits literally beneath the building.
