Lexington Battle Green
| Lexington Green | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| National Register of Historic Places | |||
| National Historic Landmark | |||
 An obelisk memorial in the green area, 2007 |
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| location | Lexington , Massachusetts , United States | ||
| Coordinates | 42 ° 26 '58 " N , 71 ° 13' 53" W | ||
| surface | 2.54 Acres (1 ha ) | ||
| Built | 1711 | ||
| NRHP number | 66000767 | ||
| Data | |||
| The NRHP added | October 15, 1966 | ||
| Declared as an NHL | January 20, 1961 | ||
As Lexington Battle Green (also Lexington and Lexington Common ) an approximately 1 ha large area designated where in 1775 the opening of the Battles of Lexington and Concord took place. The property is located in Lexington in the state of Massachusetts of the United States and was a National Historic Landmark in the National Register of Historic Places added. It is now a public park .
description
The triangular green space is northwest of the city center and is bordered by Massachusetts Avenue, Harrington Road, and Bedford Street. The land was acquired in two sections by the city in 1711 and 1722, respectively, in order to use it as a common land and as a training area for the local militia . Today it marks the site of the brief skirmish between militia and British troops on April 19, 1775, which marked the beginning of the American Revolutionary War .
There are four commemorative monuments on the green area:
- A Lexington Minute Man statue created by Henry Hudson Kitson in 1900 .
- A bronze plaque donated by the Daughters of the American Revolution in 1910 , marking the location where a belfry stood from 1768 to 1797 .
- A funerary memorial that was erected in 1799, making it the oldest memorial to the American Revolutionary War. Seven of the eight Minutemen killed in action are buried here. At the same time, the western end of the front line was here.
- A boulder that marks the eastern end of the front line at that time. It contains an inscription with the text of Captain Parker's order.
The Lexington Battle Green, along with the Buckman Tavern, forms the core of the Battle Green Historic District , which was established by the Massachusetts General Court in 1956.
Historical meaning
The Lexington Battle Green gained national importance for the United States on April 19, 1775. Between midnight and 1 a.m., Paul Revere reached town with news that British troops had left Boston for Concord to confiscate military supplies. The local bells were then rung, and by about 4:30 am, 75 militiamen under the command of Captain John Parker stood ready on the grass verge.
Just before dawn they line up along a line on Lexington Green, waiting for the British, led by Major John Pitcairn . After calling on the militia to surrender, Pitcairn ordered his men to disarm their opponents. A musket was fired while attempting to implement it, which turned into a smaller gun battle. Before Pitcairn regained control of his men, eight American men were dead and ten wounded. This marks the beginning of the War of Independence.
See also
literature
- Polly M. Rettig, CE Shedd Jr .: National Register of Historic Places Inventory - Nomination Form. (PDF) United States Department of the Interior , National Park Service , December 23, 1974, accessed January 19, 2017 .
- Frederic W. Cook, George M. Nutting et al .: Massachusetts: a guide to its places and people . Houghton Mifflin Company, The Riverside Press, Boston, Cambridge 1937, OCLC 416534 .
Web links
- Lexington Green in the United States Geological Survey's Geographic Names Information System
- Lexington Battle Green in the United States Geological Survey's Geographic Names Information System
Individual evidence
- ↑ Listing of National Historic Landmarks by State: Massachusetts. National Park Service , accessed August 11, 2019.
- ↑ cf. Rettig / Shedd, p. 2.
- ↑ a b cf. Rettig / Shedd, p. 5.
- ↑ a b cf. Rettig / Shedd, p. 3.