Old North Church

Immortalized in Longfellow's poem "Paul Revere's Ride", the Old North is the oldest church building in Boston and the city's most visited historic site. On the evening of April 18, 1775, the Old North sexton, Robert Newman, climbed the steeple and held high two lanterns as a signal from Paul Revere that the British were marching to Lexington and Concord to arrest Samuel Adams and John Hancock and to seize the Colonial store of ammunition. This fateful event ignited the American Revolution. It was interesting in these old churches that families rented the pews and the pew stayed in the same family for generations.