For its success at restoring and preserving the historic Lathrop Place at North Square, The Paul Revere House Education & Visitor Center has received a 2018 Massachusetts Historical Commission Preservation Award.
The Paul Revere property is more than just the iconic Paul Revere House that brings many tourists along the Freedom Trail to the North End. It also includes the Pierce / Hichborn House and, behind these houses, Lathrop Place, which is used as the Education and Visitor Center.
The double house at 5 & 6 Lathrop Place was built around 1835 and sits on Paul Revere’s original backyard. The building was used as a two-family house by several Italian-American families until it was acquired by the Paul Revere Memorial Association in 2007.
The restoration of Lathrop Place to serve as the Education & Visitor Center preserved and replicated historical features, while adding modern amenities. Visitors today will find offices, a store, a library, meeting spaces and bathrooms intertwined with historic windows, stairways, clapboards and cooking fireplaces.
Chair of the Massachusetts Historical Commission William F. Galvin presented the award to the Paul Revere House Education & Visitor Center saying, “The rehabilitation and adaptive reuse of the historic double house at the rear of the Paul Revere property into much-needed museum facilities is a great success story for Boston’s North End.”
In addition to the historical features, the building is one of only a few remaining in the North End that shows the modest wood houses that existed before they were converted into tenements. In this way, the Paul Revere House Education & Visitor Center adds immigration and neighborhood development to the historic stories of the Paul Revere House.
Congratulations, Craig!