The Old State House on Washington Street in Boston

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See the Historic Sites web page for an interactive location map.

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LOCATION

206 Washington Street

MANAGEMENT

The Old State House, part of Boston National Historical Park, is owned and operated by Revolutionary Spaces, the same organization that runs the Old South Meeting House.

OPERATING HOURS AND FEES

The Old State House is typically open every day from 10 AM to 5 PM, except when closed on Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve and Day, and New Year’s Day.

The Old State House requires a paid ticket to enter ($15 /adult at the time of this writing). Admission includes a self-guided exploration of the Council Chamber and Representatives Hall on the second floor, the Old State House Museum, and various rotating exhibits. The ticket price also gets you into the Old South Meeting House.

See the Revolutionary Spaces website for the latest fees and current operating hours.

OLD STATE HOUSE HISTORY

Back of the Old State House in Boston

The Old State House differs a little from most of the stops on the Freedom Trail® in that it was a stronghold of the British government up until the Revolution. Most other sites are connected to the anti-government Patriots. The building opened in 1713, housing the Royal Governor’s office and the meeting places for the Council and House of Representatives, the colony’s legislative branches of government. Of course it was not called the Old State House at the time, since it was the only state house. This name came about after 1798 when its replacement, the current Massachusetts State House, was completed.

Council Chamber in Boston’s Old State House. part of Boston National Historical Park

The Old State House was the scene of many protests, some that turned violent. The most famous pre-Revolution event was the Boston Massacre, which took place just outside the front door on March 5, 1770. It was also the scene of the first public reading in Boston of the Declaration of Independence on July 18, 1776 (by this time the British had vacated Boston). The document was read from the balcony, and afterwards the crowd began tearing down symbols of British authority, including the lion and unicorn figures at the top of the building. Those on the building today are replicas, for the originals were burned in a bonfire that same day.

Lion and Unicorn statues once again adorn Boston’s Old State House

Shortly after the reading of the Declaration of Independence, the building was declared the state of Massachusetts’s first State House, though technically there was no state of Massachusetts. It wasn’t until 1780 when the former colony ratified its own constitution—the oldest written constitution in the world that is still in use by an active government—that the building officially became the Massachusetts State House. The state’s first elected governor, John Hancock, was inaugurated in the building.

After the state government moved out in 1798, the building was used as a commercial space until it became Boston’s City Hall in 1830. Two years later a fire gutted the building, and in the ensuing renovation the interior was redesigned in the Greek Revival style; it is this layout that largely survives today. Only the exterior bricks remain from the original building.

The Old State House remained a city hall until 1841, at which time the city government moved to the former Suffolk County Courthouse on School Street. That building is now called Old City Hall, and it sits near the site of the First Public School, a stop on the Freedom Trail.

The building once again became a commercial space and gradually fell into decline. By the late 1870s it was set to be demolished to make way for a new commercial development but was saved when a group of Boston citizens convinced the city not to destroy it. The government even allocated $35,000 to restore the building to its pre-Revolution appearance.

The project was managed by the newly formed Bostonian Society, and work was done between 1881 and 1882 under the supervision of George Clough. The building had been drastically changed over the years and now had a mansard roof—all the rage in the mid-1800s—and a front portico that was installed during the 1832 renovation. The Clough restoration removed these features and even installed replicas of the lion and unicorn figures from the days of the Royal government. When finished, it was reopened as a Boston history museum and still operates as one today. This is the longest the building has ever been used for one purpose.

More changes were to come. From 1903 to 1904 the city of Boston built a subway line directly underneath the building. Today the basement is actually part of the subway station. In 1908, a second restoration was done to correct some of the historically inaccurate work done by Clough. In 1943, the Council Chamber was restored to what was then thought to be the correct 18^th century appearance. The latest renovation was done in 1991, though this was more of a maintenance and repair project than a historical renovation. It was during this time that air conditioning was added.

In January 2020, the Bostonian Society and The Old South Association, the group that owned the Old South Meeting House, merged to form Revolutionary Spaces. This organization now oversees both properties.

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