Reading is a town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States, 16 miles (26 km) north of central Boston. The population was 25,518 at the 2020 census.
The Old South Meeting House is a historic Congregational church building located at the corner of Milk and Washington Streets in the Downtown Crossing area of Boston, Massachusetts, built in 1729. It gained fame as the organizing point for the Boston Tea Party on December 16, 1773. Five thousand or more colonists gathered at the Meeting House, the largest building in Boston at the time.
The Bunker Hill Monument is a monument erected at the site of the Battle of Bunker Hill in Boston, Massachusetts, which was among the first major battles between the Red Coats and Patriots in the American Revolutionary War. The 221-foot granite obelisk was erected between 1825 and 1843 in Charlestown, Massachusetts, with granite from nearby Quincy conveyed to the site via the purpose-built Granite Railway, followed by a trip by barge. There are 294 steps to the top.
The American Antiquarian Society (AAS), located in Worcester, Massachusetts, is both a learned society and a national research library of pre-twentieth-century American history and culture. Founded in 1812, it is the oldest historical society in the United States with a national focus. Its main building, known as Antiquarian Hall, is a U.S. National Historic Landmark in recognition of this legacy. The mission of the AAS is to collect, preserve and make available for study all printed records of what is now known as the United States of America. This includes materials from the first European settlement through the year 1876.
George Thatcher was an American lawyer, jurist, and statesman from the Maine district of Massachusetts. His name sometimes appears as George Thacher. He was a delegate for Massachusetts to the Continental Congress in 1787 and 1788. He was an associate justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court from 1801 to 1824.
The Hancock–Clarke House is a historic house in Lexington, Massachusetts, that is a National Historic Landmark. Built in 1738, the house is notable as the only surviving house associated with statesman John Hancock, who lived here for several years as a child. It played a prominent role in the Battle of Lexington and Concord as both Hancock and Samuel Adams, leaders of the colonials, were staying in the house before the battle. The House is operated as a museum by the Lexington Historical Society. It is open weekends starting in mid-April and daily from May 30–October 31. An admission fee is charged.
The General Israel Putnam House in Danvers, Massachusetts, United States, is a historic First Period house recorded in the National Register of Historic Places. The house is also sometimes known as the Thomas Putnam House after Lt. Thomas Putnam (1615–1686), who built the home circa 1648. His grandson, Israel Putnam, the famous general of the American Revolution, was born in the house. Lt. Thomas Putnam was the father of Sgt. Thomas Putnam Jr.,, a notorious figure in the Salem witch trials. The Putnam House is now owned by the Emerson Family, the same owners of Putnam Pantry.
The Massachusetts Historical Society is a major historical archive specializing in early American, Massachusetts, and New England history. The Massachusetts Historical Society was established in 1791 and is located at 1154 Boylston Street in Boston, Massachusetts, and is the oldest historical society in the United States.
The General Rufus Putnam House is a National Historic Landmark at 344 Main Street in Rutland, Worcester County, Massachusetts, US.
The Mariner's House is a historic hotel at 11 North Square in Boston, Massachusetts.
The Parker Tavern is a historic house museum in Reading, Massachusetts, United States. Built in 1694, it is the oldest extant structure in Reading. The saltbox was built by Abraham Bryant, a farmer and blacksmith, and Ephraim Parker operated a tavern on the premises in the 18th century. It has been a local history museum since 1923, and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1975.
The Drake Park Neighborhood Historic District is located adjacent to Drake Park near the historic downtown area in Bend, Oregon, United States. Because of the unique and varied architecture in the Drake Park neighborhood and its close association with the early development of the city of Bend, the area was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2005.
The Battell House is a historic house located at 293 Haverhill Street in Reading, Massachusetts. Built about 1806, it is a fine local example of transitional Georgian-Federal architecture. It is notable as the home of Charles Battell, a veteran of the American Civil War. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1984.
The Capt. Nathaniel Parker Red House is a historic house at 77–83 Ash Street in Reading, Massachusetts. It is a 2+1⁄2-story vernacular Georgian house, five bays wide, with entrances on its north and south facades. The southern entry is slightly more elegant, with flanking pilasters and a transom window. The house was built sometime before 1755, and was already a well-known landmark because it was painted, and served as a tavern on the coach road. The Tavern served as a meeting place for many revolutionaries and minute men, notably Marquis de Lafayette, and Alexander Hamilton. The house remained in the hands of militia captain Nathaniel Parker and his descendants into the late 19th century. The construction of the Andover Turnpike in 1806–07, bypassing its location, prompted a decline in the tavern's business.
The Jerry Nichols Tavern is an historic house in Reading, Massachusetts. It is a 2+1⁄2-storey wood-frame structure, five bays wide, with a side gable roof, central chimney, and clapboard siding. The main entrance is flanked by pilasters and topped by an entablature. The oldest portion of the house was built in 1785 by Jeremiah Nichols, a Revolutionary War veteran, farmer, and shoemaker. This property was where Reading's minute companies drilled prior to the American Revolutionary War, and where its powder magazine was kept. The building was expanded 1810–13, and had by 1830 been adapted as a tavern and stage coach stop. In 1824 it was bought by Rev. Peter Sanborn, in whose family it remained into the 1940s.
The Rev. Peter Sanborn House is a historic house at 55 Lowell Street in Reading, Massachusetts. The 2+1⁄2-story Federal style wood-frame house was built c. 1812 by Reverent Peter Sanborn, minister of the Third Parish Church and a significant community leader. It was purchased from Sanborn's estate in 1860 by Benjamin Boyce, a clockmaker and son-in-law of Daniel Pratt, a significant local businessman. It was modified by subsequent owners to add Victorian styling, but most of these changes were removed as part of restoration efforts in the late 20th century. The house has simple vernacular Federal styling.
Jonathan Leavitt was a bookbinder who later co-founded the New York City publishing firm of Leavitt & Trow, one of the nation's first publishing houses. Leavitt was also co-founder of another early New York publishing house with his brother-in-law Daniel Appleton. George Palmer Putnam, who went on to found a New York publishing dynasty, received his first job from Leavitt. Eventually Jonathan Leavitt went into business on his own, and after his death the firm was run by his son George Ayres Leavitt.
The Rufus Putnam House, also known as Campus Martius or Campus Martius Museum State Memorial, is a historic building in Marietta, Ohio. It was built as part of the Campus Martius fortification by General Rufus Putnam, during the early settlement of Ohio by the Ohio Company of Associates.
Edwin Tryon Billings (1824-1893) or E.T. Billings was a portrait painter in 19th-century United States. He lived in Montgomery, Alabama; Worcester, Massachusetts; and in Boston. Among his numerous portrait subjects were Daniel Webster, William Lloyd Garrison and Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.
