Monthly Spotlight Series

This January, Revolutionary Spaces is celebrating Ben Franklin's 320th birthday!

Born on Milk Street in Boston in 1706, Benjamin Franklin’s story began just steps from today’s Old South Meeting House. From candle making and printing to his bold “Silence Dogood” essays that challenged authority and championed free expression, Franklin’s early years helped shape one of America’s most influential founders.

Celebrate Ben Franklin’s birthday all month long at the Old South Meeting House! Discover his Boston beginnings through primary sources, historic artwork, and hands-on activities, including making your own candle.

Share your experience by tagging us on social media @RevSpaces.

Based on original research conducted by Revolutionary Spaces staff, this month we are spotlighting the relationship between race, slavery, and Christianity at the Old South Meeting House. During the colonial period, the Old South Meeting House was one of the most popular churches for free and enslaved Black congregants in Boston, a place where they exercised a degree of control and experienced a form of equality in their spiritual lives that they were largely denied outside of the church. At the same time, many of the Old South Meeting House's white congregants were slave owners who practiced a moderate form of Biblically-sanctioned Christian slavery championed by some of its most influential and leading members.

We invite you to engage with this complex history and to learn about some of the figures whose thoughts on this topic have survived, including Judge Samuel Sewell and poet Phillis Wheatley. Afterwards we invite you to write a letter to one of these figures responding to their perspectives on the relationship between Christianity and slavery.

This month at Revolutionary Spaces we are celebrating the 250th anniversary of a very specific holiday that occurs every year on March 17th. No, it’s not St. Patrick's Day, which is also widely celebrated on this date. We’re talking about Evacuation Day, or the day when General George Washington forced thousands of British Troops out of Boston following an 11 month siege of the town.

Stop by the Old State House to learn all about the Siege of Boston, Henry Knox’s “Noble Train of Artillery,” and how George Washington used that artillery to force the British military and loyalists to evacuate Boston. Among the many objects taken from Boston during the evacuation was the original Coat of Arms of the United Kingdom which hung above the entrance of the Council Chamber of the Old State House. A replica now stands in its place, but we invite you to come and design your own coat of arms that represents what you value and cherish!

April 2026 - Birthday Month!

Happy Birthday! This month the Old State House turns 313 years old and the Old South Meeting House turns 296! These are incredible milestones that we at Revolutionary Spaces believe deserve to be celebrated all month long.

As the stewards of these iconic buildings, we honor the stories held within their walls of generations of Bostonians who stood up for what they believed in.

From Massacres to Tea Parties to everyday people speaking up and petitioning to better their lives, these buildings have stood the test of time thanks to the ongoing dedication of people who recognize the importance of preserving, remembering, and learning from our shared history.

Visit us throughout the month to discover what makes these places so special, and maybe even make your own party hat and celebrate with us! Plus, if you stop by April 26th or 27th around 11am, you might even get a bite of birthday cake!

May 2026 - James Otis Jr.

This month we honor an early patriot leader who helped shape both Boston and America in ways he would not live to see: James Otis Jr. Otis was a passionate speaker and a brilliant lawyer who fought for what he believed in. His most famous speech took place in 1761 at the Old State House, where he argued for over four hours against the writs of assistance. One of Otis’ allies, John Adams, later wrote of the speech, “Then and there the Child Independence was born.” Otis’ arguments also later informed the 4th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

In 1769, Otis’ life was forever changed when he was involved in a brawl with a British official during which he suffered a severe head wound. Afterward, his moods and mental stability became increasingly erratic and his influence in Boston’s political sphere waned. He was retired to the countryside, where he was struck by lightning and died on May 23, 1783, just three months before the end of the revolution.

Visit the Old State House and stand in the very room where James Otis Jr. once argued for colonial rights. Learn about his life and all he accomplished during his time in Boston, so that we might remember his legacy. We also invite you to share other figures from American history who you feel may have been forgotten and should be remembered.

June 2026 - Thomas Hutchinson

This month, Revolutionary Spaces is spotlighting Massachusetts' first and only home-grown royal governor: Thomas Hutchinson. A descendent of famous religious dissident Anne Hutchinson and member of a prominent merchant family, Hutchinson quickly rose through the ranks of power in colonial Massachusetts, serving simultaneously as Lieutenant Governor and Chief Justice in the 1760s before officially becoming Royal Governor in 1771.

Given the positions of power he occupied in Massachusetts’ colonial government, Hutchinson often found himself in the midst of many political controversies as revolutionary sentiment took root in Boston. His home was destroyed during the Stamp Act Riots in 1765, and he oversaw the official government response to the Boston Massacre and Boston Tea Party. While he responded well to the Massacre in 1770, his handling of the Tea Party in 1773 led to him being recalled to London to answer for his actions. The outbreak of war in 1775 prevented him from ever returning home to Massachusetts again.

Learn more about Hutchinson’s life, read his account of key Revolutionary-era events, and participate in a dramatic re-enactment of a confrontation between him and Samuel Adams in the Council Chamber of the Old State House this month!

July 2026 - Declaration of Independence

It’s the 250th anniversary of the United States and the document that started it all: the Declaration of Independence! While the Second Continental Congress made early efforts to salvage America’s relationship with Britain following the outbreak of war, King George III’s response caused many delegates to question if the relationship was worth saving at all.

Delegates like John Adams pushed for independence and eventually made progress. On June 7, 1776, a resolution was introduced calling for independence and days later five men (including Adams) were chosen to draft a document declaring and justifying independence. On July 2, the resolution was officially adopted, and two days later, the Declaration of Independence was approved. It was then printed and sent off to every colony. When it arrived in Boston, it was read from the balcony of the Old State House on July 18, where it was met by cheering crowds who caused quite a ruckus throughout the town.

Learn more about the lead up to the Declaration, read firsthand accounts of its first reading in Boston, and dress up and read an excerpt yourself in the very room where it was first proclaimed, all at the Old State House, all month long!

First attracting the attention of his fellow Americans decades after his role in the American Revolution had ended, George Robert Twelves Hewes was much more than the wizened figure depicted in The Centenarian. Present for nearly every major event in Boston during the Revolution, and a veteran of the Revolutionary War, Hewes is an example of the deeply important role working-class people played in achieving American independence.

Born in Boston in 1742 to a large, poor family, Hewes tried to improve his position in life by enlisting in the British military, but he was too short to serve. A shoemaker by trade, Hewes channeled his energies into the growing political tensions between Boston and Parliament. He was in the crowd outside of the Old State House the night of the Boston Massacre and was one of the men who dumped the tea into Boston Harbor on December 16, 1773.

Hewes served as a privateer and militiaman during the Revolutionary War. After the war, he moved to upstate New York and lived a largely uneventful life until two writers tracked him down and wrote biographies of him in the 1830s. These biographies turned Hewes into a regional celebrity, reigniting the public’s interest in the Tea Party and the founding generation. Learn all about this working-class hero at the Old State House this month and draw what you think you might look like as a centenarian!

September + October 2026 - Colonial Education

It's back to school season and this month Revolutionary Spaces is spotlighting education in colonial Massachusetts! Come learn about the development of the colony's early education system, including the laws which established literacy requirements for children and America's first publicly supported schools.

Discover the characteristics of and differences between dame, writing, and Latin grammar schools. Read replica copies of the New England Primer, America's first reading textbook which printed upwards of eight million copies between the 17th and 19th centuries. The Primer combined reading lessons with Puritan morality. For instance, it taught children both the alphabet and proper behavior through rhymes and illustrations featuring biblical stories and figures.

We invite you to create your own rhyming illustrated alphabet lesson using the values and examples which matter to you today. Come to the Old State House this month to experience all this and more, no homework required!