Boston’s oldest church is finally done with renovations and allowing people inside of its historic crypt.
“It was necessary restoration work. The doors, also some of the masonry, had to be repointed. And most exciting is accessibility work,” said Katherine Matthews, director of education at Old North Church.
Eight restored wooden tomb doors were reinstalled on Wednesday, wrapping up a 10-month restoration project of the city’s oldest surviving church.
A researcher has been digging through centuries-old documents to learn more about who was part of the Old North Church’s history, discovering the names of Black and Indigenous people. More on this story on Thursday at 7 p.m. on NBC10 Boston.
“The crypt is an important historical site — not only because it helps us to understand a little bit about the people of this congregation buried their dead and cared for them, but also it is still a place of final rest,” said Matthews.
Archeologists got a glimpse inside each tomb and documented the findings.
The crypt was built in 1732 and used for burials up until 1872.
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More than a thousand people rest inside the space, including notable local figures: Timothy Cutler, Old North’s first and longest-serving minister, Capt. Samuel Nicholson, the first commander of the USS Constitution, and Maj. John Pitcairn, a British major general who died at the Battle of Bunker Hill.
The public can now go inside the historic crypt with guided tours.
“To be in a historic space and to be able to actually stand where the people of the past stood, look at what they looked at, enables us to kind of look at with empathy into their lives and to touch history in a way that is very real and concrete,” explained Matthews.
2023-10-19 12:31:14
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