The series From Colony to Commonwealth will step back in time to the dank taverns, fledgling newsrooms and spy routes of colonial Massachusetts. As the United States commemorates its 250th anniversary, we’ll be tracing the commonwealth’s tumultuous path to self-governance.
The street outside is laid in cobblestone. An entry wall is adorned with American Revolution-era muskets.
At The Green Dragon Tavern, today located a stone’s throw away from Boston City Hall, a sign proclaims the watering hole to be the “Headquarters of the Revolution.”
This is where American patriots held meetings that led to them hearing rumors the British were plotting to kidnap John Hancock and Samuel Adams in Lexington, then confiscate munitions in Concord in early 1775.
That intelligence sent Paul Revere on his famous “Midnight Ride,” which would trigger the battles of Lexington and Concord and, ultimately, the start of the Revolutionary War. Now, as the country approaches its 250th anniversary, a spotlight is cast on the people and places behind those momentous events. Like taverns: a public space where mostly men — but sometimes women, too — could gather and share news, even if they got it wrong.
“The British only ever intended to steal munitions that day,” said Brooke Barbier, a public historian with a PhD in American history and founder of Ye Olde Tavern Tours . “But this was the information that was uncovered. And then that’s when Paul Revere sets off on his famous ‘Midnight Ride’ to warn primarily Hancock and Adams that they were in danger — which, technically, they weren’t — but the rebels believed that they were.”
An assembly spot for political dissenters
The Green Dragon’s building today is old — but it isn’t the original one established in the mid-17th century. That was nearby and was destroyed in the 1800s. The modern version opened in 1993.
In the run-up to the American Revolution, there may have not been a more important bar in the city.
Right above the tavern, on the second floor, was a Masonic lodge. That made the Green Dragon — named after a copper sculpture that had oxidized in the salty air — the perfect place for some of history’s most famous patriots to gather.
When Bostonians started to get a little too rowdy in their opposition to the Stamp Act, John Hancock hosted a party at the tavern to try to lower the temperature, according to Barbier. And she said that when the British sent in troops to occupy Boston in 1774, Revere and others met there to keep track of their movement in secret.
Although today’s bar may not be the one that some of America’s forefathers frequented, it still holds that spirit. Noelle Somers is COO of Somers Pubs, which owns the Green Dragon. Her family had an eye on history when they opened its latest iteration.
“If my dad hadn’t recreated [it], the Green Dragon wouldn’t have been a part of coming back to the history of the Freedom Trail,” she said. “And it was such an important part of the American Revolution: it’s where they all met, the Sons of Liberty met.”
Now, 250 years after the start of the Revolution, the Green Dragon is hoping to be at the heart of another American moment. The buzz around the anniversary couldn’t have come at a more crucial time for places like the Green Dragon and other businesses dotting the Freedom Trail; many are still trying to bounce back from the hit they took during the pandemic.
“The past few years — past five years, pretty much — it’s been difficult here,” Somers said. “And I really feel like this will bring a boom to our area and being on the Freedom Trail and being part of that history.”
A place ‘beyond the authority’
In colonial Massachusetts, political dissidents were not guaranteed the rights to peacefully assemble, speak freely or promote ideals in opposition to the crown — all themes that would later appear in the U.S. Constitution. But taverns, and how they were used, revealed the need for such rights.
“I think it really is necessary to have this place, as a later Boston tavern put it, where everyone knows your name,” said Robert Allison, a professor of history at Suffolk University. “A place where people come together. And it is beyond the authority of the church or of the town.”
