1775

The first steeple was the one Paul Revere knew as a boy and bellringer and later incorporated into his lantern signal plan. Because of the spire's height, light shining from the topmost windows would be visible to Revere's fellow riders watching from the far side of the Charles River. The plan worked perfectly. On April 18, 1775, two lanterns shone from the steeple and lit the way to revolution. The lantern story also carries striking contradictions: Old North was an Anglican church, the King's church, yet it was used to subvert the King's power and rule, and the signal turned its steeple into a symbol of freedom even though it was funded in part by the proceeds of enslaved labor, including logwood donated by the Gentlemen of the Bay of Honduras. The steeple, like the nation itself, has a complex history.

Cambridge, Massachusetts · United States