The Following event notices are courtesy of the Paul Revere House, located at 19 North Square, Boston:

Join us on Saturday afternoons this fall (September 6 through October 18) during our “Saturday Happenings” to learn more about life in 18th century Boston. Every Saturday afternoon from 1:00-3:00 presenters will demonstrate crafts, play period music, or discuss surprising aspects of Paul Revere’s life and legacy in the Revere House courtyard (weather permitting.) Saturday Happenings are free with admission to the museum: adults $3.50 seniors and college students $3.00, children ages 5-17 $1. Members and North End residents are admitted free at all times. Through October 31 the Revere House is open daily 9:30-5:15. Beginning on November 1, the museum is open daily 9:30-4:15.

Paul Revere Memorial Association Lecture Series

Fall Lecture Series: Eighteenth-Century Massachusetts Furniture: Form, Function, and Fabrication

The Paul Revere House, in cooperation with Old South Meeting House, and the Four Centuries of Massachusetts Furniture consortium, presents a series of lectures examining aspects of furniture design and manufacture in Boston, Marblehead, and Concord, Massachusetts.

High-Style Craftsmanship and Patronage in Marblehead on the Eve of Independence

September 3 from 6:30 to 7:30 pm – Old South Meeting House: 310 Washington Street, at the corner of Milk Street, in downtown Boston.
Known more for its pivotal role in the American Revolution and its exceptional legacy of early American architecture, Marblehead also has a noteworthy but relatively unfamiliar heritage of furniture craftsmanship. Judy Anderson, Principal, Marblehead Architectural Heritage, will show how, in contrast to the clamor and boisterousness of the working harbor front, Marblehead cabinetmakers and clockmakers produced high-style furniture for a clientele that comprised more than thirty merchants in Massachusetts’ celebrated Atlantic codfish trade.

Seat of Empire: Refurnishing Boston’s Historic Council Chamber

September 10 from 6:30 to 7:30 pm – Old South Meeting House: 310 Washington Street, at the corner of Milk Street, in downtown Boston.
The Council Chamber in Boston’s Town House (now the Old State House), where the Royal Governor of Massachusetts met with members of his Council, was once an important administrative center for the British Empire in North America. This historic room has recently been returned to its appearance during the 1760s, when the fate of the British Empire turned on the decisions made within its walls. Dr. Nathaniel Sheidley, Historian and Director of Public History at the Bostonian Society, will describe how, thanks to an unprecedented collaboration between the Bostonian Society and North Bennet Street School, visitors can now sit in the Governor’s chair and thumb through reproduction documents at the Council table.

Restrained Elegance: Boston Furniture in the Rococo Style

September 17 from 6:30 to 7:30 pm – Old South Meeting House: 310 Washington Street, at the corner of Milk Street, in downtown Boston.
Bostonians in the mid-eighteenth century only cautiously embraced the lively international “modern” style that collectors have come to call “Chippendale” and art historians the “rococo.” Nevertheless, some Boston cabinetmakers and carvers, such as George Bright, John Cogswell, and John Welch, created masterworks in this ornamental, curvilinear mode that owes its name to the Englishman Thomas Chippendale and his influential book of designs. Using objects from important public and private collections, Gerald W. R. Ward, Senior Consulting Curator, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, will examine Boston rococo furniture in the context of its heyday in Boston in the 1760s and 1770s.

The Best Workman in the Shop: Cabinetmaker William Monroe of Concord, Massachusetts

September 24 from 6:30 to 7:30 – Old South Meeting House: 310 Washington Street, at the corner of Milk Street, in downtown Boston.
In June, 1800, 21 year-old cabinetmaker William Munroe arrived in Concord with a set of tools and $3.40 in cash. Forty years later he proudly recorded having more than $20,000 in assets, a remarkable achievement for a craftsman. Concord Museum Curator David F. Wood will describe how, influenced by fashion and international politics and motivated by self-esteem and good food, William Munroe steered a path through the treacherous economic landscape of Federal New England and along the way helped make some of the most beautiful clocks the new nation ever produced.

All Lectures Take Place at Old South Meeting House and are free and Open to the Public.
Sign Language interpretation is available upon request (with advance notice)
Wheelchair accessible. Assisted listening devices are available
310 Washington Street at the corner of Milk Street in downtown Boston.
Accessible by MBTA. Use State or Downtown Crossing Stops.
For directions to Old South Meeting House, please call (617) 482-6439 or visit www.osmh.org
For more information about the Paul Revere Memorial Association Lecture Series please contact Patrick M. Leehey, Paul Revere House, at (617) 523-2338.

This series is made possible by a grant from the Lowell Institute.

THE REVERE HOUSE AT A GLANCE:  On the Freedom Trail in Boston’s historic North End, the Revere House was home to patriot and silversmith Paul Revere from 1770 to 1800. Built around 1680, the Revere House is the oldest building in downtown Boston. For more information about the Revere House, visit www.paulreverehouse.org.