Signal Lanterns of Paul Revere - Boston, MA
Posted by: 
neoc1
N 42° 21.982 W 071° 03.278
19T E 330816 N 4692499
A plaque identifying the steeple where signal lanterns were hung on Old North Church to enable Paul Revere to spread the alarm of an impending British attack. Old North Church is located at 193 Salem Street in Boston, MA
Waymark Code: WM16ZW5
Location: Massachusetts, United States
Date Posted: 11/09/2022
Views: 1
A plaque on the face of the steeple of Old North Church identifies the site where signal lanterns were hung and observed by Paul Revere enabling him to warn of the British attack that led to the Battles of Lexington and Concord, the first two battles of the Revolutionary War.
THE SIGNAL LANTERNS OF
PAUL REVERE
DISPLAYED IN THE STEEPLE OF THIS CHURCH
APRIL 18, 1775
WARNED THE COUNTRY OF THE MARCH
OF THE BRITISH TROOPS TO
LEXINGTON AND CONCORD.
This event is made famous in the poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow:
"LISTEN, my children, and you shall hear
Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere,
On the eighteenth of April, in Seventy-five;
Hardly a man is now alive
Who remembers that famous day and year.
He said to his friend, “If the British march
By land or sea from the town to-night,
Hang a lantern aloft in the belfry arch
Of the North Church tower as a signal light, —
One, if by land, and two, if by sea;
And I on the opposite shore will be,
Ready to ride and spread the alarm
Through every Middlesex village and farm,
For the country folk to be up and to arm.”