Barrett House
Benjamin Barrett built this home in 1705. Five years later his son James was born, and he would go on to inherit the house. He served as a captain in the French and Indian War. As the colonists prepared for a possible confrontation with British authorities in the 1770s, James Barrett was commissioned as a colonel in command of the local militia.In 1775, James Barrett was living in this house with his wife, two unmarried sons, and a daughter, as well as a fourteen-year-old enslaved boy, Phillip. Colonel Barrett used his home to store military supplies, including several small cannons that had been smuggled out of Boston. When the British troops marched into Concord on April 19, 1775, one detachment was sent specifically to search the Barrett home. Colonel Barrett was organizing the militia, leaving his wife Rebeckah to coldly receive the British soldiers, who found nothing in their search.James Barrett fought in the first battle of the war, but he died in April 1779. The house became part of Minute Man National Historical Park in 2012.
The Bloody Angle (Elm Brook Hill)
The British column had 16 miles to cover from Concord back to Boston. As it marched, it faced constant attack from colonial militia. These militia units were made up of men from the region, and they were able to use their familiarity with the roads and terrain to deadly effect.After crossing over Brooks Hill, the British troops had to cross a bridge, forcing them onto a narrow and vulnerable path. Militia fired at them from natural and manmade cover like trees and stone walls. As the British soldiers turned around bends in the road, they were met with a deadly fire from their left and right. Several soldiers were killed and more wounded while navigating this section of the road.
Bloody Bluff
In the 1770s, this bluff was owned by the Whittemore family. The Bay Road, the main road running from Boston into western Massachusetts, wrapped around the base of the rocky outcrop. The British column passed by this bluff on their march to Concord on the morning of April 19, 1775. Later that day, the British soldiers returned to this site as they retreated back towards Boston.The rear guard of the British column ascended this bluff to fire on the hundreds of colonial militia who were closing in to attack. After a short exchange of fire, the outnumbered British detachment withdrew from the bluff, under constant fire from the militia. It was around this area that a British officer was shot from his horse. Colonial militia took a pair of pistols from the riderless horse, believing they belonged to Major John Pitcairn, the commander of the British marines in Boston. However, according to recent research the pistols likely belonged to Captain William Crosbie, an officer in a company of grenadiers who was listed as wounded during the day’s fighting.The bluff’s appearance has changed significantly since the eighteenth century. Rocks were quarried from the site in the nineteenth century, and parts of the bluff were dynamited in the 1930s to create space for the widening of the road.
Brooks Hill
In 1775, this piece of land along the Bay Road, running from Boston into the interior of Massachusetts, was the site of a group of homes and a tannery owned by the Brooks family, which gave Brooks Hill its name.Responding to the news of the British march to Concord, militiamen from several nearby towns gathered on the high ground overlooking the road used by the redcoats on their return to Boston. Some of the militia, from the town of Woburn, had marched through Lexington earlier in the day and seen the bloody results of the morning action there.Already under attack by militia forces at Meriam’s Corner, the British now engaged the colonists gathering on Brooks Hill. As the British advanced, the colonial militia fell back, continuing to fire on the redcoats from behind whatever cover was available. The fighting here delayed the British long enough to allow other militia units to prepare a deadly ambush further down the road on Elm Brook Hill.
Buckman Tavern
This tavern was built in the early 1700s by Benjamin Muzzey. As the first public house in the village of Lexington, it became a center not only for eating and drinking, but also village gatherings, both official and unofficial. In 1775, the tavern was operated by John Buckman and his wife, who was a descendant of Benjamin Muzzey. The village green just outside the tavern became the training grounds for the Lexington militia.When word came from Boston on the night of April 18, 1775, that British troops were on their way, the Lexington militia assembled on the green. But their response was faster than the British march, and after several hours with no sign of the redcoats, the militia began to disperse. Many went to the tavern to wait and see what would happen.At 4:30 in the morning of April 19, a rider brought news that the British regulars were close. The men of the Lexington militia left the tavern and assembled once again on the village green. Around 5:00 in the morning, they came face-to-face with British troops.
Captain William Smith House
This home was built in the 1690s. In 1775 it was the home of Captain William Smith, the commander of the Lincoln minutemen. He was a newcomer to the town, having only arrived in 1774. He was the brother of Abigail Adams, and that family connection to the prominent Patriot may have been part of the reason he was given such an important position. In 1775, the Smith household included an enslaved black man named Cato.Captain Smith mustered his militia when word arrived of the approaching British troops on the morning of April 19, 1775. The Lincoln minutemen were among the colonial militia who confronted the British at the North Bridge outside Concord.As the British retreated back towards Boston, the running battle along the road passed by the Smith house around 1:30 in the afternoon. A British soldier who was mortally wounded may have been cared for by Captain Smith’s wife in the days after the battle.After the war, the house passed through a series of owners until it became part of the Minute Man National Historical Park in 1975. While alterations and additions were made, much of the original house remains intact, and the National Park Service has worked to restore the structure to its 1775 appearance.
Concord Museum
The Concord Museum began as the private collection of Cummings Davis, who moved to Concord in 1850. Initially, he displayed his collection of historic artifacts in rented rooms in the town’s courthouse. In 1886 the newly formed Concord Antiquarian Society acquired the collection and bought a house in 1887 to display it. The Society moved to a new building in 1930, and changed their name to the Concord Museum in 1984.Among the objects in its collection are one of the signal lanterns from the Old North Church used on the night of Paul Revere’s ride. The Museum also owns the largest collection of objects related to Henry David Thoreau, including the lock and key from the jail cell where Thoreau was confined after his refusal to pay a tax because of his antislavery principles, which inspired his famous essay on civil disobedience.
David Brown Farm Site
These four granite stones mark the footprint of the home of Captain David Brown, one of the leaders of the Concord militia. The Brown family settled in Concord in the 1640s, less than a decade after the town was founded. David Brown’s great-grandfather purchased fourteen acres of land, which was passed down through the generations. David Brown built a new house on the marked site sometime in the 1750s or 1760s. While not much is known about the house, surviving records show that it was two stories, with four rooms and a cellar.David Brown was chosen to serve as captain of one of Concord’s minuteman companies in early 1775. On April 19, 1775, Captain Brown and his men were mustered on the high ground owned by David Brown, overlooking the North Bridge. One of those men was his oldest son, Purchase Brown. According to family legend, British soldiers entered the Brown house and smashed a mirror, which is today part of the Concord Museum’s collection.David Brown died in 1802 at the age of 72. His youngest son Joseph inherited the house, but by the time he died the building was dilapidated. By the 1860s the Brown family had sold the property and the house had been torn down.
Ebenezer Fiske House Site
These stones outline the foundation of the home of Ebenezer Fiske. The Fiske family claimed this land in the mid-1600s. Ebenezer Fiske inherited the house from his father, David Fiske III, in 1729. The house was likely two stories tall, with a large central fireplace.While many civilians fled to safety, Ebenezer Fiske was confined to bed and could not evacuate. His son Benjamin and daughter-in-law Rebekah remained with him. They watched as the British marched past on their way to Concord, and then took shelter when they returned, now engaged in a running battle with colonial militia.Rebekah Fiske emerged after the combatants had moved on and discovered the house and gardens in ruins, and several dead and dying British soldiers in and around the home. There was also one mortally wounded American militiaman. Ebenezer Fiske’s cousin Doctor Joseph Fiske came to the house to treat the wounded the day after the battle, though most of them did not survive.Ebenezer Fiske died later in 1775. The farmstead was eventually sold and the house was torn down. After the National Park Service acquired the site in 1959, archeologists discovered the foundations of the building.
Fiske Hill
Members of the Fiske family settled this area beginning in 1647. In 1775, this was the site of the home of Ebenezer Fiske, who inherited the property from his father David. Ebenezer Fiske lived on his farm with his son Benjamin and his daughter in law Rebekah. There were also two at least two enslaved African Americans, Pompee and Phillis, living on the property. When the fighting began on April 19, 1775, Ebenezer Fiske was confined to bed by illness and Benjamin Fiske was exempted from militia duty due to a leg injury. With the sounds of battle getting closer, the Fiske family fled to a neighbor’s house for shelter. British troops and colonial militia fought in and around the Fiske farmstead. When the Fiskes returned to their home later that day, they found a dead British soldier on their doorstep. Two more redcoats and an American colonist lay mortally wounded outside the house. The eighteenth century house of the Fiske family fell into disrepair in the twentieth century, and it was demolished in 1955.
The Foot of Rocks
Since the first shots at the North Bridge, the British troops had been harassed by colonial militia all along the route of their march back from Concord to Boston. The colonists grew in numbers until, by the time the British reached the Foot of the Rocks, they were being confronted by militia from thirty different towns.The combat from the Foot of the Rocks to Charlestown, where the British finally reached the safety of their fortifications and the support of the warships in the harbor, was the bloodiest part of the day’s fighting. About half of all the men killed on each side died along this section of the Battle Road. British soldiers, exhausted and frustrated, began to attack civilians and loot and burn homes along the route of their march. These outrages only fueled the colonists’ determination to exact revenge on the British.
Grave of British Soldier (Concord)
The “shot heard round the world” was fired at the North Bridge outside Concord, when British soldiers fired on approaching colonial militia. The American colonists returned fire, killing two British soldiers and mortally wounding another. When the British retreated back towards Concord, they left their dead on the field.It is hard to say for certain who was killed in these opening shots of the Revolutionary War, but examination of British records seems to indicate that Thomas Smith, Patrick Gray, and maybe James Hall were the soldiers killed at the North Bridge.According to sworn testimony collected after the battle, Zerchariah Brown and Thomas Davis buried the dead British soldiers. The graves were initially marked with two small stones. In 1870 Concord erected a more prominent stone slab, and in later years later the town added additional markers.
Grave of British Soldier (Folly Pond)
This stone supposedly marks the grave of a British grenadier who was mortally wounded during the fighting on April 19, 1775, and cared for in his final days by Catherine Smith, the wife of militia Captain William Smith. However, no evidence has been found to confirm the identity of the soldier buried here. Doctor Joseph Fiske of Lexington treated two wounded soldiers in the town of Lincoln after the fighting, and this may have been one of them, but details are scarce.
Grave of British Soldiers (Bloody Angle)
The curves in the road from Concord back through Lexington to Boston provided ample opportunities for the American colonists to launch devastating ambushes of the British column. Many of the British soldiers killed in the fighting were left behind and buried by the local residents.Different accounts state that either two or three British soldiers are buried here at the section of the road known as “the Bloody Angle.” Others killed at this site were taken to the cemetery in nearby Lincoln for burial.
Grave of British Soldiers (Bloody Bluff)
The gravestone and plaque at this site mark the supposed burial place of two British soldiers who were killed in the fighting around this bluff. The grave was noted by a 19th century historian, Frank Coburn. The British rear guard skirmished with colonial militia on and around this bluff as the main column continued on its retreat back towards Boston.
Grave of British Soldiers (Fiske Hill)
A minuteman from the town of Reading recounted that, as the British troops navigated this hill, “A number of Americans behind a pile of rails raised their guns and fired with deadly effect.” The Fiske family, who had been sheltering from the violence, emerged to discover several dead and wounded men inside their home.Doctor Joseph Fiske, Ebenezer Fiske’s cousin, came to the house to treat the wounded the day after the battle, but only one of the three wounded men survived. According to Rebecca Fiske, Ebenezer Fiske’s daughter-in-law, two of the dead British soldiers were buried beneath a pine tree on the property. However, the exact location of that tree and the graves beneath it is not known today.
Grave of British Soldiers (Meriam’s Corner)
After the British began their retreat from Concord back towards Boston, they were forced to cross a small bridge, which made them vulnerable to attack. A short exchange of musket fire between colonial militia and the British light infantry guarding the rear of the column marked the beginning of eight hours of constant fighting along Battle Road.One American militiaman recalled that two British soldiers were killed, while another recounted nine British casualties. One militiaman recalled that “a great many lay dead and the road was bloody.” While the exact number of British soldiers killed at this site is not known for certain, it is believed that two British soldiers are buried at the site marked by the gravestone.
Grave of British Soldiers (Nelson House)
The gravestone here marks the resting places of two British soldiers killed on April 19, 1775. Supposedly, the two soldiers were killed by William Throning, a young man serving in the colonial militia. However, this story did not appear until the 19th century. In 1850, a resident of the area pointed out the grave locations to a local historian. Another account says that a third British soldier was mortally wounded in this area, and was buried nearby when he died.
Hancock-Clarke House
This home was built for John Hancock’s grandfather, who served as the pastor for the town of Lexington for fifty-five years. His successor was the Reverend Jonas Clarke, whose wife was a cousin of John Hancock. As a young boy, John Hancock lived in this home with his grandfather for several years before going to live with his uncle in Boston.In the early morning of April 19, 1775, Paul Revere arrived at Clarke’s home, where John Hancock and Samuel Adams were staying, to warn them of an approaching British force marching from Boston. The two revolutionary leaders left to avoid capture.The home was acquired by the Lexington Historical Society, who had the building moved to a different location to avoid demolition. In 1974, after acquiring the land where the house originally sat, the building was relocated back to its historical location.
Harrington House
In 1775, this was the home of Jonathan Harrington, a member of the Lexington militia, his wife Ruth, and their son Jonathan. The senior Jonathan Harrington was one of the militiamen assembled on the Lexington Green on the morning of April 19. In the ensuing confrontation with the British troops, he was mortally wounded. According to local tradition, Jonathan Harrington crawled back to the doorstep of his home, where he died in the arms of his wife.In the 1820s, this was the home of John Augustus, a shoemaker who later became well-known for his efforts to reform Boston’s criminal justice system and establishing the system of probation as an alternative to imprisonment.The structure of the house was significantly altered in the 20th century, and is privately owned today.
Hartwell Tavern
The Hartwell Tavern was also the home of the Hartwell family. Ephraim and Elizabeth Hartwell received thirty acres of land and the house from Ephraim’s father after the couple married. They ran a tavern out of their home for more than thirty years, beginning in 1756. By the end of the 1700s they were among the wealthiest families in the town of Lincoln.The Hartwell Tavern was located along the Bay Road, the main road running from Boston into the interior of Massachusetts and on to New York. On April 19, 1775, a column of British soldiers marched past the tavern on their way to Concord. It was near the Hartwell Tavern that Paul Revere was captured while spreading news of the British expedition. One of Revere’s companions managed to escape and alerted the Hartwell family, who spread the word to their neighbors.Three of Ephraim and Elizabeth’s sons took part in the fighting as members of the Lincoln minute men, while the rest of the family traveled to a more distant location for safety. When they returned, there were dead and wounded men laying along the road and on their property. The Hartwell family helped to collect five dead British soldiers who were buried in the town’s cemetery.The building continued to serve as a private residence until 1967, when it was acquired by the National Park Service. Much of the original eighteenth century structure has been preserved.
Jason Russell House
Based on analysis of the timbers that make up the structure of the building, the current Jason Russell House was likely built in the 1740s, recycling timbers from an earlier house built on the property in the 1680s.
Lexington Minutemen Memorial
This memorial to the Lexington militia was erected in 1948. It was designed by Bashka Paeff, a Russian-born sculptor who came to the United States with her family in 1894. While studying sculpture in Boston, she supported herself by working as a subway toll collector, earning her the nickname “the subway sculptor.”At the base the memorial is an inscription that reads, “These men gave everything in life, yea, and life itself, in support of the common cause.” On the back side of the memorial is a list of all the members of the Lexington militia who mustered on the Green on the morning of April 19, 1775. No official list of the Lexington militia’s members from 1775 has been found. The names listed on the memorial were compiled by historian Frank Warren Coburn in 1912.
Major John Buttrick House
The Buttrick family were among the founders of the town of Concord in 1635. William Buttrick was listed as the owner of 215 acres of land in the first records of the town. Jonathan Buttrick built this house sometime in the 1710s. The two-story home he built has been altered many times since its original construction.By 1775, the property was in the hands of Jonathan’s son, John Buttrick, who was a respected member of the community. He served on the various committees that organized and coordinated revolutionary activity in and around Concord, including the raising of troops. In the summer of 1775, after the battles of Lexington and Concord, John Buttrick served as an officer in the army of colonial militiamen laying siege to Boston. He went on to serve in the Saratoga Campaign and the failed attack on the British garrison in Newport, Rhode Island. After the war ended, John Buttrick continued to live in Concord for the rest of his life.
Meriam’s Corner
Meriam’s Corner got its name from the Meriam family, who lived in the nearby house. After deciding to withdraw from Concord and return to Boston, the column of British troops marched past this location on the afternoon of April 19, 1775.The British column was protected by flankers, parties of soldiers moving further out on the sides of the main body to keep any would-be ambushers from getting close to the column. However, at Meriam’s Corner these flank parties had to rejoin the column in order to cross a bridge over Elm Brook. This left the British vulnerable to attack.
Minute Man Visitor Center
The Minute Man Visitor Center, located near the eastern entrance of Minute Man National Historical Park, is easily accessible just off I-95 on Route 2A. This center has many exhibits to aid in understanding the events of April 19, 1775, and their lasting impact on the American Revolution. Visitors can explore a range of exhibits that bring this pivotal day in history to life. One of the center's highlights is a stunning forty-foot mural, which vividly portrays the dramatic clash between Colonists and British Regulars, capturing the intensity and significance of the battle.Additionally, the Visitor Center showcases artifacts discovered through the Parker's Revenge Archaeological investigation, offering a closer look at the personal items and weapons left behind during the conflict. These relics provide tangible connections to the men and women who fought for their ideals that fateful day.
Minuteman Statue
This statute was unveiled on April 19, 1900, the 125th anniversary of the battles at Lexington and Concord. It was created by Henry H. Kitson, a sculptor from Boston. The statute was intended to be a figure that would represent all the members of the town militia, but it has come to represent their leader, Captain John Parker, since there are no known portraits or images of Parker from his lifetime. The planter at the foot of the stone base was originally a watering trough for horses.
Munroe Tavern
The Munroe Tavern was originally built in 1735 by David Comee. William Munroe acquired the building in the 1770s, and in October 1774 he received permission to operate a tavern.When word of the engagement between the British troops and colonial militia reached Boston, Lord Percy led a relief force of one thousand British soldiers out of the city to reinforce the column retreating from Concord. Percy and his officers occupied the Munroe Tavern and used it as a headquarters, and a field hospital for the British troops who had been wounded in the day’s fighting. After more than an hour, the British withdrew back towards Boston.In 1789, newly elected President George Washington visited the Munroe Tavern while on a trip to see the Lexington battlefield.Today, the Lexington Historical Society uses the Munroe Tavern to tell the story of the battles of Lexington and Concord from the perspective of the British troops who participated. It also displays objects used by President Washington during his visit.
The Muster Field
In 1775, this was a cow pasture on the farmland of militia Captain David Brown. It was here that hundreds of militiamen from Concord and other nearby towns gathered to observe the movements of the British regulars who were searching for weapons and military supplies stockpiled by the colonists.While the militia leaders debated what to do, smoke began to rise from Concord. The British troops were burning several wooden carriages intended for the mounting of cannons, but the militia on the Mustering Field believed that the British were burning the town itself. Several militia leaders volunteered to lead their units to the defense of Concord. Orders were given for the men to load their weapons, and then they began to march towards the North Bridge, where the “shot heard ‘round the world” would be fired.The location of the Mustering Field was determined in part by the archeological discovery in the 1930s of two rows of discarded flints, left behind as the militiamen inserted fresh new flints into their muskets in anticipation of combat.
North Bridge
The bridge that stands here today is a reconstruction of a bridge built in 1956, the fifth bridge to stand in this location. The bridge that stood here in April 1775 was torn down in 1788.British troops under Captain Walter Laurie were assigned to guard this bridge, while another detachment of regulars went to search the farmstead of James Barrett, where they suspected a cache of weapons and military supplies had been hidden. The 115 British soldiers at the bridge watched as hundreds of militiamen from Concord and neighboring towns gathered in a nearby field.
North Bridge Visitor Center
The building that today houses the North Bridge Visitor Center was originally built in 1911 by members of the Buttrick family, descendants of Major John Buttrick who commanded the colonial militia who fired on British troops at the North Bridge.
Old Belfry Tower
In 1761, Isaac Stone donated a bell to the town of Lexington. It weighed over four hundred pounds, and a town meeting agreed to hang it in a belfry, which was built the following year. In 1768, the belfry was relocated to the town common. The bell would toll to summon people to worship, warn them of danger, or in observance of deaths. Early in the morning on April 19, 1775, Captain John Parker used the tolling of the bell to summon the Lexington militia to the Green, after Paul Revere brought word that British troops were approaching the town.In 1909, a storm destroyed the belfry structure. It was rebuilt in 1910, and then in 1913 the belfry was moved to its current location, back on the original hill where it was first built in the 1760s. The bell rings at 5:30am on Patriots’ Day, the state holiday marking the battles at Lexington and Concord.
Old Burying Ground
A gift of land by Lexington resident John Munroe provided the space for the establishment of this cemetery in the late seventeenth century. Two of the oldest tombstones still standing date to the year 1690.Among those buried here are John and Ruth Buckman, the owners and operators of Buckman Tavern where the Lexington militia gathered on the morning of April 19, 1775, and Captain John Parker, leader of the Lexington militia. Parker died of tuberculosis just five months after the American Revolutionary War began in his hometown. Eight of the men who were killed that morning on the Lexington Green were originally buried in this cemetery, but they were reinterred underneath the 1799 Revolutionary War memorial in 1835. The site of their previous resting places in the Old Burying Ground is marked. There is also a grave marker for a British soldier, mortally wounded in the later fighting along Battle Road, who died in Lexington.
Old Hill Burying Ground
This cemetery officially dates back to the 1670s, but it is possible that there are unmarked graves dating further back to the first years after the founding of the town of Concord. Among the Revolutionary War veterans are buried here are James Barrett, David Brown, and John Buttrick.
Parker Boulder/Line of the Minutemen Marker
This memorial marks one end of the position taken by the Lexington militia on the morning of April 19, 1775, as British troops entered the town. The other end of the line is marked by the Revolutionary War Memorial.Captain John Parker, a veteran of the French and Indian War, gathered the Lexington militia when Paul Revere and other alarm riders brought word that a British force was coming from Boston, aiming to seize a cache of weapons and supplies at Concord. Parker knew that these materials had already been hidden, so all he planned to do was demonstrate the town’s readiness. He drew his men up in parade ground formation, intending to watch the British march by.On the memorial is a quote often attributed to Parker:“Stand your ground. Don't fire unless fired upon. But if they mean to have a war, let it begin here.”An advance party of British troops moved to confront the militia. Captain Parker ordered his men to disperse and return home, which they began to do, when a shot rang out from an unknown source. The British troops opened fire and the militia fired back. When the smoke cleared, eight Lexington colonists were dead and ten were wounded.
Parker’s Revenge
Around 5:30 in the morning of April 19, 1775, the first shots of the American Revolutionary War were fired on the village green of Lexington. Eight members of the town’s militia were killed by British troops, who then marched on towards Concord. After this shocking moment, Captain John Parker, leader of the Lexington militia, gathered some of the surviving members of his company and marched out to confront the British column, which was by then retreating from Concord back towards Boston.Thanks to recent archeology, we now know exactly where this confrontation took place: a piece of rocky high ground overlooking the main road, on the border between the towns of Lexington and Lincoln. Archeological artifacts discovered here tell the story: the Lexington militia deployed on the high ground and fired on the British as they approached. When the British troops returned fire and advanced, the militia withdrew.
Paul Revere Capture Site
The midnight ride of Paul Revere ended here, when he was captured by a British patrol sent out with the intention of intercepting riders carrying word of the British expedition to Concord. Revere was traveling at the time with William Dawes and Dr. Samuel Prescott. Dawes was able to escape, while Revere and Prescott were detained for several hours before being released.While Paul Revere’s name is most famously associated with the raising of the alarm, in reality he was only one of many messengers who carried news of the British march across the Massachusetts countryside. Thus, his capture did not stop the warning from getting out to towns and villages around Boston.
Prince Estabrook Memorial
Prince Estabrook was an African-American, born around 1740, who was enslaved by Benjamin Estabrook, who operated a grist mill near Lexington. Massachusetts law, at the time, forbade Black men from training with the militia, but free African-Americans were still expected to muster in times of war or emergency. Despite his status as an enslaved man, Prince was among the militiamen who mustered on Lexington Green when news of the approaching British troops arrived. Also on the Green was Joseph Estabrook, the son of Prince’s enslaver.When the shooting began, Prince was struck by a musket ball in his left shoulder. He recovered from his wound, and over the next eight years served in the Massachusetts militia and the Continental Army. At some point, he earned his freedom, and after the war continued to live with the Estabrook family in Massachusetts.This memorial was dedicated in 2008. It’s final sentence reads, “This monument is dedicated to the memory of Prince Estabrook and the thousands of other courageous black patriots long denied the recognition they deserve.”
Revolutionary War Monument
This granite obelisk is the first Revolutionary War memorial in the United States. It was erected on July 4, 1799, at one end of the line occupied by the town’s militia on the morning of April 19, 1775.
Whittemore Marker
This marker commemorates the heroism of Samuel Whittemore, who was 78 years old when he confronted British troops retreating from Concord.Whittemore was born in 1696. He moved to the town of Menotomy, which is modern Arlington, Massachusetts. When he was in his mid-forties, he joined a regiment of provincial soldiers and took part in the siege of Louisbourg in 1745. He may have also served in the French and Indian War. In his seventies, Samuel Whittemore was chosen to serve on various committees organizing opposition to British policies.When the British troops retreated through Menotomy on their way back to Boston, Samuel Whittemore took up arms once again. He attacked British troops with a musket, pistols, and a sword he had taken as a trophy during his service in Canada. He killed three British soldiers before he was shot, bayoneted, and clubbed. Amazingly, he survived his wounds and lived into his nineties.Samuel Whittemore’s stand occurred somewhere in the vicinity of this marker, but it has been moved several times since it was first erected.
Wright Tavern
This tavern was built in 1747. It had several different owners, but it is known as the Wright Tavern because in 1775 its owner was Amos Wright. The tavern was a center of political and social activity in Concord. The selectmen of the town did not receive a salary, but the town paid for their food and drinks when they met in the tavern.
