Description: This was another case of having a really hard time finding a landmark. I wish I could tell you that I followed the red brick of the Freedom Trail to this house but we didn’t. I used a very detailed map of the north end and still we almost gave up without finding it. There are no signs that I could find pointing it out. It is one block east of Hanover St. Was it worth finding, yes and no?
The cost of entry was $3 and for an additional $1 I got two postcards and a visitor’s guide. No photography is allowed inside the house.
We began by looking at a bell that was produced by the Revere Foundry which is housed in the courtyard. There is another one of the Revere bells in the steeple of St Stephens Church around the corner.
This house was built in 1681 for a wealthy merchant Robert Howard. It was constructed in the Tutor style with the second floor overhanging the first and an irregular shape. By the time it was purchase by Paul Revere 90 years later it had undergone many changes. One very interesting fact that I learned here was that Paul was the son of a French Huguenot émigré named Appolos Rivere somehow I never knew that Paul was a first generation American.
There are four rooms that you visit inside the house. There was a docent on each floor as well as informational signs in each of the rooms.
The kitchen is the first room as you enter. This was not the location of the kitchen in the Howard House, it was in the basement. There is a large fireplace and in it are the implements that they would have used to cook meals. There is a fence that keeps you from getting to close to anything and since there is no crowd control if there are more than a few people in the room you are going to have a very hard time reading any of the signs. Considering that it was after 3pm in the afternoon on a November weekend and we were surrounded by visitors I can’t even begin to imagine what it might be like in the season. It really was a shame because the signs we did get to read were very interesting. I wish they would offer a headphone tour or at the very least a brochure that would give you the information, the folder that I bought does not give the information on the signs.
The front room is decorated as if they were celebrating an occasion. It was a real multi purpose room being used as a dining room and as a parlor.
The stairs are steep and narrow so you need to have a certain amount of mobility. There second floor holds the master bedroom and what was probably Paul’s mother Deborah’s room, the children would have slept on the third floor.
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