The Old State House

        Walking along the Freedom Trail in Boston was really a pleasure for me, for I just needed to follow a line of red bricks embedded in the ground and enjoy the scenes surrounding me. When I turned around a corner, an old, red house caught my attention.

Built (up) of red bricks with white windows, it was obviously a house with a long history. Surrounded by modern, high buildings, it was really outstanding in this tiny square. The golden eagle that stood on the top of the house showed its extraordinary status. I walked closer. The board hanging on the wall read that the house was “The Old State House”.

No longer serving as the state house, the building is now an excellent museum. I anxiously walked inside. The museum had two floors. The first floor introduced the history of the house and exhibited some antiquities related. I walked through the corridor slowly while reading the words and admiring the pictures on the wall, as if I was crossing back in time to the very creation of this state, and went through the history of Boston, of Massachusetts, as if I experienced those exciting historical moments all by myself.
The Old Statehouse witnessed the fundamental change in Massachusetts government resulting from the Revolution-the transition from Colony to Commonwealth. In 1760, while the King of England ruled the colony, the building served both as the colonial capital and as the commercial center of the thriving port of Boston. In the 1760’s, a conflict arose between England and her American colonies, the initial controversy centered on Parliament’s right to tax the colonies, the Boston Tea-Party was very famous, for generations, songs and poems praised the patriots’ inspirational actions.

The most exciting part was from 1772 to 1776, named as “From Resistance to Revolution”, after eighteen months of occupation, tensions between the troops and town reached the breaking point. On March 5, 1770, insults and disorder escalated into gunfire outside the Old State House.

“The die is cast…Heaven only knows what is next to take place, but it seems to me the Sword is now our only, yet dreadful alternative…”, was written from Abigail Adams to Mercy Otis Warren on February 3, 1775.

And I saw swords and bombs which they used at that time on exhibition. Caressing the showcase window and gazing at them, I could imagine how brave and heroic the town citizens were in the Boston Massacre. Looking back on the history, I was touched by their determination to fight for freedom and equal rights, for the government of their own city and state, for the sovereignty of their country.

         After climbing the spiral staircase to the second floor, I was surprised to find that the rooms are restored perfectly as The Council Chamber and Representatives hall in 1764. The long table, the chairs, the stoves and the old clock, were sitting there quietly, but I could hear the long stories they were telling to every visitor from day to day. “A long time ago, Boston was a busy seaport, and then an empire of goods……”

There were some other rooms designed especially for children, where they could use the toy to build up the Old State House and read historical cartoons. The well-educated Bostonians would not stop passing their unique stories and spirits to the next generation; the history and culture of this city is absolutely a mental treasure for them.

Looking from the window of the building, I got a view of this modern city, the clean asphalt roads, the shining street lights and busy traffic. This is true. Boston is a city with a perfect combination of modern and classic. Though the city is a center of education, medicine and finance nowadays, it hasn’t forgotten its history and it continues learning from it. This building was the site of the first reading of the “Declaration of Independence” in Boston, which would later be considered an almost  spiritual symbol. The citizens’ spirit of fighting for independence and freedom will never fade.

Stepping out of the house, I smiled and realized why the Freedom Trail took me to this house.