Category Archives: New England
Munroe Tavern
c. 1695, Lexington, Wessex County, Massachusetts
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This venerable old structure was for a period of an hour or so, a refuge from the first battle in the War of Independence. Actually its role in that battle, the battles of Lexington and Concord began the evening before. Solomon Brown of Lexington had been to Boston earlier in the day, and on his return had passed a patrol of British soldiers, which he reported to the proprietor of the tavern, William Monroe, a British exile and member of Captain John Parker’s minutemen.
Before the sun had risen the next day, the British soldiers were massed on the village green at Lexington, and the war for Independence began in earnest. Following the brief skirmish there, the British marched on to Concord, whereupon they again engaged the minutemen. The trip back to Lexington was a horror show for the British, who found themselves under fire the whole way and took heavy casualties. Upon reaching Lexington, Colonel Hugh Earl Percy and his thousand reinforcements turned the tavern into a field hospital, and also drank and ate their fill. A bullet hole in the ceiling of the taproom is a startling reminder of the haphazard conduct by the British during their short stay there.
Later, George Washington dined here, and the table that he sat at is on display upstairs.
Today Munroe Tavern is preserved as a museum by the Lexington Historic Society, open weekends beginning April 16 and daily May 30-October 30.
The Lexington Minuteman: Would he have come to the tea party?
Representing Captain John Parker, Henry Hudson Kitson, Sculptor, 1900
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To stand on Battle Green in Lexington is to literally stand in the place where this country was born. It was here where a group of the King’s subjects decided that they would rather fight than bow. Though it’s unlikely that on that day in 1775, April 19 to be precise, they believed they were taking the first steps towards independence, they certainly felt they had reached a breaking point. And standing there today, you can still imagine what it must have been like to hear gunshots break out, and realize that it this well-trained, well-equipped army which vastly outnumbered you, was here to kill you.
It’s ironic in some ways, that 235 years later, a new group of citizens, the tea party movement, chooses these patriots as their symbols. Whilst there is some resemblance to the originals, certainly a chasm of belief versus reality comes to mind, the resemblance is purely superficial. For instance, the citizens of New England felt themselves ill-used and over taxed, and yet they paid amongst the lowest taxes in the British empire, and received most of the same benefit of anyone else in the kingdom.
In the same vein, there’s a dichotomy to the teabaggers beliefs. They were against the bailout for banks and corporations, and yet now they support politicians who fight against making those same institutions pay it back. They see insurance companies as one of the causes of runaway health care, and yet they refuse to support any measures that hold those same companies accountable.
Most troubling, they insist that God be left in the pledge of allegiance, though that’s a recent addition, and that the pledge be recited in school. And yet I wonder if they listen to the pledge? You also pledge allegiance to the republic, and in a republic, we choose our leaders by voting. Sometimes your party wins, sometimes it loses. But it’s not to the leaders that you pledge your allegiance, or to the land that this country consists of. But to the people in this country, because after all, they make up the republic. I see no desire to amongst these modern day, self proclaimed patriots to make this republic work, only to make sure their argument wins the day.
And in that they are less like the men who stood in the village common in Lexington, and it’s worth pointing out that there was a black man there as well, and more like that other great upheaval which the country was to go through less than a century later. Once again this seem to be a house divided, and in this atmosphere, civil discourse takes a back seat, and the government doesn’t work. When speaking of the age of empires, kingdoms and dynasties, 235 years is a blip in time. A Russian friend of mine once told me that “America is a cultural adolescent.” Perhaps it’s too soon to say whether that the great experiment was a success, or will some day fall back on itself, as has all other empires of the past.
Spencer-Peirce-Little Farm
Newbury, Essex County, Massachusetts
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From Wikipedia: The Spencer-Peirce-Little Farm (circa 1690) is a Colonial American farm located at 5 Little’s Lane, Newbury, Massachusetts, USA, in the midst of 231 acres (0.9 km2) of open land bordering the Merrimack River and Plum Island Sound. It is now a nonprofit museum operated by Historic New England and open to the public several days a week during the warmer months; an admission fee is charged.
In 1635, John Spencer was original grantee of the land. Daniel Pierce, Sr., a blacksmith from Ipswich in Essex County, England, purchased the property in 1651 for 500 pounds. By his death in 1677, the property had risen in value to 1200 pounds and was described in the inventory of the estate as, “A Farme about two hundred and thirty acres of upland and meadow with housing, barns and orchard.” This jump in value may indicate that the stone house was built during his lifetime. In 1861, Edward H. Little, local farmer, purchased the farm. His descendants made few changes to the house, and gave the property to the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities (now Historic New England) in 1986.
The farmhouse is built of local stone in random rubble, with a porch and gable ends of brick, and exterior walls in lime mortar. It is the only stone house of the 17th century in New England to survive with exterior walls intact. Floors and roof are timber framed, with major framing beams and joists set in pockets of the exterior walls. Molded bricks in a variety of shapes and fabrications embellish the entrance niche and arched openings. The original arched windows were replaced with smaller, Georgian windows at some point.
Salem’s Gallows Hill at Sunset
Salem, Essex County, Massachusetts
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One would assume with a name like Gallows Hill in the town like Salem, that hiking up to the top would mean finding yourself in the spot where 19 hapless victims were hung in 1692 on the charge of witchcraft. But like so much in Salem, you would probably be assuming wrong. We know from the accounts that the condemned were taken to the brow of a hill in carts, and pulling a cart to the top of this particular hill would be daunting to say the least. Now it’s possible that those about to die could have walked the rest of the way, but several were quite aged and in very poor health, so that’s unlikely. But there has to be a spot traditionally associated with so gruesome an event, and so that piece of infamy goes to Gallows Hill. It’s an appropriate setting for it, I’ll give it that. With views over the surrounding countryside, wind swept with gnarled trees, you can almost feel the horror clinging to the place. But that’s just the imagination, a trait which easily comes to life in Salem.
