The Green Dragon Tavern

paper model age 10-Adult

The Green Dragon Tavern

Meeting place for patriots of the American Revolution

The Green Dragon Tavern in Boston is sometimes called the “Headquarters of the Revolution” by historians. In this place several secret groups met, and many of the patriots that would come to be forever linked with the foundation of the United States. The building itself is gone now, but a small ink and watercolor drawing still survives, as do the stories of what transpired within.

The tavern itself was actually in the basement while the upper rooms were used for meetings, weddings and parties. In 1764, it was purchased by the Masons of St. Andrews Lodge for use as their hall, but it remained a tavern in daily public use. Among the ranks of The St. Andrews were patriot heroes Dr. Joseph Warren, and Paul Revere. The Green Dragon became the meeting place for The Sons of Liberty, Boston Committee of Correspondence and the North End Caucus (with members Sam and John Adams) all of whom were linchpins and coordinators of the revolutionary movement. This is where the leaders of The Boston Tea Party met and planned their amazing bit of political theatrics. Paul Revere later described in his memoirs

“About thirty persons, chiefly North-End mechanics, had agreed to watch the movements of the British soldiers and the Tories, in anticipation of their descent on Concord.  These patriots met at the Green Dragon Tavern.  We were so careful, that our meetings should be kept secret, that every time we met, every person swore upon the Bible that they (he) would not discover any of our transactions, but to Messrs. Hancock, Drs. Warren and Church, and one or two more leaders.  They took turns to watch the soldiers, two by two, by patrolling the streets all night.” (None of them yet knew that Dr. Church was a Loyalist spy.)

From the Green Dragon Dr. Warren sent Revere on the celebrated alarm ride to Lexington carrying with him a coded message to John Hancock. Finally in January 1788, a meeting of the mechanics and artisans of Boston was held at the Green Dragon Tavern, and there passed a series of resolutions urging the importance of adopting the Federal Constitution that was then pending before a Convention of delegates from different parts of the State. If the Boston Tea Party can be said to be one of the beginning strokes of the American Revolution, then certainly this petition to adopt the Federal Constitution was one of the closing, both of which came out of The Green Dragon Tavern.