Historic Site Events

Tuesday, March 18, 2025
7:00 – 8:30pm
Live on Zoom

How can something as simple as street lights transform a city? Join Jake Sconyers, host of the popular HUB History podcast, for a look at the surprising history of Boston’s street lamps. In this fascinating deep dive, Jake will delve into these “burning” questions:

– Why did Boston decide to buy English oil lamps for the streets but fuel them with American whale oil?
– How did Boston’s very first street lamps survive a shipwreck and the Boston Tea Party?
– Who decided where the lamps would be installed and how they would be maintained?
– Why did Boston vote to let its new street lamps sit dark after just a few months of illumination?
– How did the Boston Port Act affect the cost of street lighting?

Jake Sconyers is the longtime host of HUB History, a Boston history podcast that goes far beyond the Freedom Trail. He’s a freelance podcast producer, and a former Boston tour guide and docent at Roxbury’s Shirley-Eustis House.

A paint restoration project is currently underway at Old North to remove layers of white overpaint and reveal some of the church’s colonial-era artwork! Expert craftspeople are uncovering 16 angels in the balcony arches that were painted in the late 1720s and 1730s by congregation member John Gibbs. Visitors to Old North will have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to watch the conservation team in action and see long-hidden history being revealed.