Paul Revere House
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Paul Revere House
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Paul Revere House, street view.
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| Location | 19 North Square, Boston, MA |
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| Coordinates | 42°21′49.40″N 71°3′13.24″W / 42.3637222°N 71.0536778°WCoordinates: 42°21′49.40″N 71°3′13.24″W / 42.3637222°N 71.0536778°W |
| Built | ca. 1680 |
| Architect | Jeffs, John |
| NRHP Reference # | 66000785 |
| Significant dates | |
| Added to NRHP | October 15, 1966 |
| Designated NHL | January 20, 1961 |
The Paul Revere House (1680) was the colonial home of American patriot Paul Revere during the time of the American Revolution. A National Historic Landmark, it is located at 19 North Square, Boston, Massachusetts, in the city's North End, and is now operated as a nonprofit museum by the Paul Revere Memorial Association. A small admission fee is charged.
The original three-story house was built about 1680, making it the oldest house in downtown Boston. 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. First, 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, albeit without a gable, by the restorers in 1907-1908, which gave rise to a commonly held misconception that the attic had been removed). Second, a two-story lean-to was added in the ell between the two 17th-century portions of the house (this lean-to was removed by the restoration in 1907-1908).
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