Old South Meeting House Visitor Information

Where the Tea Party Began!

No tax on tea! This was the decision on December 16, 1773, when 5000 angry colonists gathered at Old South Meeting House to protest a tax … and started a revolution with the Boston Tea Party. The largest building in colonial Boston, Old South Meeting House is where colonists gathered to challenge British rule in the years leading to the American Revolution – including the protests of the Boston Massacre and the historic meeting that led to the Boston Tea Party!

Here, in this beautifully-restored 1729 meeting house, you will see: tea leaves from the Boston Tea Party, John Hancock’s portable writing desk, a first-edition 1773 book by slave and poet Phillis Wheatley, and many more revolutionary artifacts and historical documents! Learn about this building’s role as a Puritan church, a revolutionary gathering place, a sanctuary for free speech. Slated for demolition in 1876, Old South Meeting House narrowly escaped the wrecking ball in one of the nation’s first successful preservation efforts. This remarkable landmark was saved for people like you! Visit the place that changed American history today!

Is this really the same building where the colonists gathered on December 16, 1773?
Yes! The spacious, brick meeting house that stands today at Washington and Milk Streets is the actual building where colonists met in November and December of 1773 to protest the tea tax. When you visit Old South Meeting House, you will stand in the same hall where Josiah Quincy cautioned the colonists that their protests might stir up a hornet’s nest; where Dr. Thomas Young warned against the ill effects of tea; where Samuel Adams give his secret signal, sending “Mohawks” to the harbor; and, where John Hancock cried, “Let every man do what is right in his own eyes!”

Additional Information

Visit the website here: www.osmh.org