The Old South Meeting House is a historic church building and museum located in Boston, Massachusetts. Built in 1729 to replace an earlier 1669 cedar structure, the Georgian-style brick building originally served the Congregational congregation of the Old South Church. Designed by Robert Twelves and constructed by Joshua Blanchard, the building functioned as both a house of worship and a massive civic gathering space, frequently hosting overflow town meetings that were too large to fit inside Faneuil Hall.\n\nThe meeting house played a pivotal role in the prelude to the American Revolution, most famously serving as the organizing point for the Boston Tea Party in 1773. During the Revolutionary War, British troops occupied the building, gutting its interior to use the space as a horse-riding facility. The interior was reconstructed in 1783, and the congregation continued to use the building until the Great Boston Fire of 1872, after which they relocated to Copley Square.\n\nFollowing its sale for scrap in 1876, a dedicated group of citizens organized to save the structure, marking one of the earliest successful historic preservation campaigns in New England. The Old South Association took over the building, opening it as a museum in 1877. Today, the building is designated a National Historic Landmark, forms part of the Boston National Historical Park, and is operated by Revolutionary Spaces as a key stop along Boston's Freedom Trail.
