On Monday, December 11 at 6:30 p.m., the Old North Church Foundation will be hosting a public hearing inside the church (at 193 Salem Street) regarding the upcoming redesign of the Washington Garden and Courtyard. This will be the last public hearing to take place regarding the upcoming changes to the Washington Garden and Courtyard. North End residents and the public are invited to come and make their voices and opinions heard as the redesign plans are finalized, so that the space will be enjoyable for visitors and community members.
Attendees of the public hearing will have a firsthand look of the latest plans for the redesign. Attendees will also have a chance to meet with members of both Fluidity Design Consultants and Copley Wolff Design Groups, the design team responsible for the upcoming renovations of the Washington Garden and Courtyard. The space is set to become transformed into an outdoor educational space dedicated to the interpretation of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s much beloved poem, “Paul Revere’s Ride.”
One of the new elements to be added to this outdoor interpretational space will be an architectural feature with water and the full text of the Longfellow poem. When the redesign is implemented, both North End residents and the thousands of world-wide visitors the Old North Church receives yearly will have the chance to read the text of “Paul Revere’s Ride” while in the shadow of where the events of that very poem took place, and where history was made almost 250 years ago.
Why dedicate it to a poem and not actually history? I hope the people of the North End ask for a more substantial theme.
Shelly: The poem is historical. The poem was written by Longfellow and reflects Paul Revere’s ride to warn townspeople of British advancement. The lantern in the church belfry gave the signal to Paul Revere if the British were coming by land or by sea.