Paul Revere & William Dawes

On April 18, 1775, lanterns hung in the North Church steeple signaled that the British were advancing to capture the military stores in Concord. Paul Revere, born in 1735, was a patriot, master craftsman, and good citizen who spread the alarm through the night; he was born on Hanover Street, lived in North Square, established his bell foundry on Foster Street, and died on Charter Street. Christ Church overlooking this ground is now known as the Old North. William Dawes, born in 1745, was charged by Joseph Warren to notify the countryside and to warn Samuel Adams and John Hancock at Lexington that the British were on the march. He rode on the night of April 18, 1775 by way of Roxbury and stands with Paul Revere as a daring messenger of the colonial challenge to British domination.

Cambridge, Massachusetts · United States