File:Old State House - DPLA - c5304467ad09bb344eaac33fc11ebe5a.jpg

Date supplied by cataloger based on corresponding negative.; Title from item or material accompanying item.; Abdalian identifier no. 8004; Corresponding negative number: 08_01_000782; By Leon H. Abdalian; Old State House stands on Washington St. at the head of State St. It was built in 1713 on the site of the first town house, burned in 1711. Although the interior of this building was burned out in 1747, the outer walls remained. It had served as town house, court house state house, and city hall. As Province Court House it played an important part in the stirring times just preceding the Revolution. The Declaration of Independence was read from the balcony overlooking State St. In this building John Hancock was inaugurated the first governor of the commonwealth. In the Old State House will be found a fine collection of photographs and old prints of Boston as well as many relics of the colonial and Revolutionary periods. These are under the charge of the Bostonian Society. The town has its beginning in the vicinity of the Old State House. The first houses were grouped around the head of the present State St, the first meetinghouse was on the site of the present Brazer Bldg. The market place, the stocks, the pillory were all to be found here during the first quarter century of the town. The second meetinghouse stood just across the Old State House on Washington Street.