Lexington on Foot

Buckman Tavern

This tavern was built in the early 1700s by Benjamin Muzzey. As the first public house in the village of Lexington, it became a center not only for eating and drinking, but also village gatherings, both official and unofficial. In 1775, the tavern was operated by John Buckman and his wife, who was a descendant of Benjamin Muzzey. The village green just outside the tavern became the training grounds for the Lexington militia.

When word came from Boston on the night of April 18, 1775, that British troops were on their way, the Lexington militia assembled on the green. But their response was faster than the British march, and after several hours with no sign of the redcoats, the militia began to disperse. Many went to the tavern to wait and see what would happen.

At 4:30 in the morning of April 19, a rider brought news that the British regulars were close. The men of the Lexington militia left the tavern and assembled once again on the village green. Around 5:00 in the morning, they came face-to-face with British troops.

Lexington Minutemen Memorial

This memorial to the Lexington militia was erected in 1948. It was designed by Bashka Paeff, a Russian-born sculptor who came to the United States with her family in 1894. While studying sculpture in Boston, she supported herself by working as a subway toll collector, earning her the nickname “the subway sculptor.”

At the base the memorial is an inscription that reads, “These men gave everything in life, yea, and life itself, in support of the common cause.” On the back side of the memorial is a list of all the members of the Lexington militia who mustered on the Green on the morning of April 19, 1775. No official list of the Lexington militia’s members from 1775 has been found. The names listed on the memorial were compiled by historian Frank Warren Coburn in 1912.

Prince Estabrook Memorial

Prince Estabrook was an African-American, born around 1740, who was enslaved by Benjamin Estabrook, who operated a grist mill near Lexington. Massachusetts law, at the time, forbade Black men from training with the militia, but free African-Americans were still expected to muster in times of war or emergency. Despite his status as an enslaved man, Prince was among the militiamen who mustered on Lexington Green when news of the approaching British troops arrived. Also on the Green was Joseph Estabrook, the son of Prince’s enslaver.

When the shooting began, Prince was struck by a musket ball in his left shoulder. He recovered from his wound, and over the next eight years served in the Massachusetts militia and the Continental Army. At some point, he earned his freedom, and after the war continued to live with the Estabrook family in Massachusetts.

This memorial was dedicated in 2008. It’s final sentence reads, “This monument is dedicated to the memory of Prince Estabrook and the thousands of other courageous black patriots long denied the recognition they deserve.”

Minuteman Statue

This statute was unveiled on April 19, 1900, the 125th anniversary of the battles at Lexington and Concord. It was created by Henry H. Kitson, a sculptor from Boston. The statute was intended to be a figure that would represent all the members of the town militia, but it has come to represent their leader, Captain John Parker, since there are no known portraits or images of Parker from his lifetime. The planter at the foot of the stone base was originally a watering trough for horses.

Not every member of the Lexington militia who mustered on the Green in April 1775 was a minuteman. The minutemen were a select group within each town’s militia, who were expected to be prepared to muster within one minute of an alarm. It was typically a role reserved for the younger and more fit members of the militia.

Old Belfry Tower

In 1761, Isaac Stone donated a bell to the town of Lexington. It weighed over four hundred pounds, and a town meeting agreed to hang it in a belfry, which was built the following year. In 1768, the belfry was relocated to the town common. The bell would toll to summon people to worship, warn them of danger, or in observance of deaths. Early in the morning on April 19, 1775, Captain John Parker used the tolling of the bell to summon the Lexington militia to the Green, after Paul Revere brought word that British troops were approaching the town.

In 1909, a storm destroyed the belfry structure. It was rebuilt in 1910, and then in 1913 the belfry was moved to its current location, back on the original hill where it was first built in the 1760s. The bell rings at 5:30am on Patriots’ Day, the state holiday marking the battles at Lexington and Concord.

Parker Monument

This memorial marks one end of the position taken by the Lexington militia on the morning of April 19, 1775, as British troops entered the town. The other end of the line is marked by the Revolutionary War Memorial.

Captain John Parker, a veteran of the French and Indian War, gathered the Lexington militia when Paul Revere and other alarm riders brought word that a British force was coming from Boston, aiming to seize a cache of weapons and supplies at Concord. Parker knew that these materials had already been hidden, so all he planned to do was demonstrate the town’s readiness. He drew his men up in parade ground formation, intending to watch the British march by.

On the memorial is a quote often attributed to Parker:

“Stand your ground. Don't fire unless fired upon. But if they mean to have a war, let it begin here.”

An advance party of British troops moved to confront the militia. Captain Parker ordered his men to disperse and return home, which they began to do, when a shot rang out from an unknown source. The British troops opened fire and the militia fired back. When the smoke cleared, eight Lexington colonists were dead and ten were wounded.

Revolutionary War Monument

This granite obelisk is the first Revolutionary War memorial in the United States. It was erected on July 4, 1799, at one end of the line occupied by the town’s militia on the morning of April 19, 1775.

Jonas Clarke, who served as minister in Lexington from 1752 to 1805, composed the dedication inscribed on the monument. It opens with the words, “This Monument is erected by the inhabitants of Lexington, under the patronage & at the expense of The Commonwealth of Massachusetts, To the memory of their Fellow Citizens.”

In 1835, seven of the eight men who died at Lexington on the morning of April 19, 1775 were exhumed from the Old Burying Ground and reinterred in a tomb beneath the monument.