Paul Revere House
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The Paul Revere House (1680) is the colonial home of American patriot Paul Revere during the time of the American Revolution. It is located at 19 North Square, Boston, Massachusetts, and now operated as a nonprofit museum by the Paul Revere Memorial Association; an admission fee is charged.
The original three-story house was built circa 1680. It occupied the former site of the Second Church of Boston's parsonage, home to Increase Mather and Cotton Mather, which was destroyed in the Great Fire of 1676. Its first owner was Robert Howard, a wealthy merchant. His L-shaped townhouse contained spacious rooms and would have been enhanced by exterior features such as a second-floor overhang and casement windows. As is typical of early Massachusetts Bay timber construction, the main block of the three-story dwelling consisted of four structural bays demarcated by heavy framing posts and overhead beams. The larger ground-floor room in this main block was dominated by its chimney bay and adjoining lobby entrance. Although some contemporary Boston houses had separate kitchen buildings, the two-story extension behind the Revere House was typical. As the Revere House was set quite close to neighbors, its double casement windows were installed in the rear elevation rather than the more common placement in a gable.
Around the middle of the eighteenth century, the Paul Revere House went through two major renovations: 1). the roofline facing the street was raised substantially to bring the house in line with the Georgian architectural style that had become prevalent at that time (the roofline was returned to its original pitch, although without a gable, by the resotorers in 1907-1908, leading to a commonly-held misconception that the attic had been removed); and 2). a two-story leanto was added in the ell between the two 17th-century portions of the house (this leanto was removed by the restoration in 1907-1908). Paul Revere owned this house from 1770-1800, although he and his family may lived elsewhere for periods in the 1780s and 1790s. It is believed to be during the Revere occupancy that the rear chimney was added (c. 1790) including the kitchen that visitors see in the first room they enter.
After Revere sold the house, it became a tenement with its ground floor remodeled for use as shops, including at various times a candy store, cigar factory, bank and vegetable and fruit business. In 1902, Revere's great-grandson, John P. Reynolds Jr. purchased the building to prevent demolition, and in April 1908, the Paul Revere House opened its doors to the public as one of the earliest historic house museums in the United States.
Today's building has been heavily restored to match its hypothesized appearance around 1700. However, ninety percent of the structure, two doors, three window frames, and portions of the flooring, foundation, inner wall material and raftering, are original. (None of the window glass is original.) Its heavy beams, large fireplaces, and absence of interior hallways are typical of colonial living arrangements. The two chambers upstairs contain several pieces of furniture believed to have belonged to the Revere Family.
Immediately adjacent is the brick Pierce-Hichborn House, built about 1711 as an early Georgian house, and also operated as a nonprofit museum by the Paul Revere Memorial Association.
