Faneuil Hall, located near the
waterfront and today's Government
Center, in Boston, Massachusetts, has
been a marketplace and a meeting hall
since 1743. It was the site of several
speeches by Samuel Adams, James Otis,
and others encouraging independence from
Great Britain. Now it is part of Boston
National Historical Park and a
well-known stop on the Freedom Trail. It
is sometimes referred to as "the Cradle
of Liberty".
In 2008, Faneuil Hall was rated number 4
in America's 25 Most Visited Tourist
Sites by Forbes Traveler.
History
= 18th century=
After the project of erecting a public
market house in Boston had been
discussed for some years, merchant Peter
Faneuil offered, at a public meeting in
1740, to build a suitable edifice at his
own cost as a gift to the town. There
was a strong opposition to market
houses, and although a vote of thanks
was passed unanimously, his offer was
accepted by a majority of only seven.
Funded in part by profits from slave
trading, the building was begun in Dock
Square in September of the same year. It
was built by artist John Smibert in
1740–1742 in the style of an English
country market, with an open ground
floor serving as the market house, and
an assembly room above. According to
Sean Hennessey, a National Park Service
spokesman, some of Boston's early slave
auctions were located near Faneuil Hall.
The grasshopper weather vane on top of
the hall is a well known symbol of
Boston; see the section "Grasshopper
weather vane," below.
In 1761 the hall was destroyed by fire,
nothing but the brick walls remaining.
It was rebuilt by the town in 1762. In
1775, during the British occupation of
Boston, it was used for a theatre.
= 19th century=
In 1806, the hall was greatly expanded
by Charles Bulfinch, doubling its height
and width and adding a third floor. Four
new bays were added, to make seven in
all; the open arcades were enclosed, and
the cupola was moved to the opposite end
of the building. Bulfinch applied Doric
brick pilasters to the lower two floors,
with Ionic pilasters on the third floor.
This renovation added galleries around
the assembly hall and increased its
height. Neighboring Quincy Market was
constructed in 1824-26. Faneuil Hall was
entirely rebuilt of noncombustible
materials in 1898–1899.
= 20th and 21st centuries=
On October 9, 1960 the building was
designated a National Historic Landmark
and added to the National Register of
Historic Places a number of years later.
The ground floor and basement were
altered in 1979. The Hall was restored
again in 1992.
Faneuil Hall Marketplace
Faneuil Hall is now part of a larger
festival marketplace, Faneuil Hall
Marketplace, which includes three long
granite buildings called North Market,
Quincy Market, and South Market, and
which now operates as an indoor/outdoor
mall and food eatery. It was designed by
Benjamin Thompson and Associates and
managed by Ashkenazy Acquisition Corp.;
its success in the late 1970s led to the
emergence of similar marketplaces in
other U.S. cities.
Uses
On Friday in early August 1890, one of
the first black Republican legislators
of Boston, Julius Caesar Chappelle, made
a speech "At the Cradle of Liberty" in
support of the Federal Elections bill
that would help give blacks the right to
vote. Chappelle was a Boston legislator
from 1883-1886. The Faneuil Hall event
was covered by the media in the United
States, and the speech by Chappelle
appeared in an August 9 1890 article,
"At the Cradle of Liberty, Enthusiastic
Endorsement of the Elections Bill,
Faneuil Hall again Filled with Liberty
Loving Bostonians to Urge a Free Ballot
and Fare Count..." on the front page of
The New York Age newspaper on Saturday,
August 9, 1890. 
On November 7, 1979, Faneuil Hall was
the site of Sen. Edward M. Kennedy's
speech declaring his candidacy for
president. On November 3, 2004, Faneuil
Hall was the site of Senator John
Kerry's concession speech in the 2004
presidential election.
On April 11, 2006, Governor Mitt Romney
signed Massachusetts' historic
healthcare into law with a fife and drum
band in Faneuil Hall before 300 ticketed
guests. 
On October 30, 2013, President Barack
Obama delivered a defense of the
Affordable Care Act from the same spot
where Governor Mitt Romney signed his
state's expansion of healthcare in 2006.
On November 2, 2014, Boston Mayor Thomas
Menino was laid in state at Faneuil Hall
following his death on October 30, 2014.
The Headquarters of the Ancient and
Honorable Artillery Company of
Massachusetts has been in Faneuil Hall
since 1746, currently on the 4th floor.
It is also still used for political
debates between Massachusetts candidates
as well as political shows, such as The
O'Reilly Factor.
Name
Though Faneuil is a French name, it is
anglicized as  or . There is some
evidence that it was pronounced quite
differently in Colonial times, as in
funnel. Peter Faneuil's gravestone is
marked "P. Funel," although the
inscription was added long after his
burial.
Boston area locals will often use the
term "Faneuil Hall" or "Fanueil" to
refer to the entire surrounding
neighborhood, particularly as a landmark
for its vibrant nightlife.
Building elements
= Bell=
The bell was repaired in 2007 by
spraying the frozen clapper with WD-40
over the course of a week and attaching
a rope. Prior to this repair, the last
known ringing of the bell with its
clapper was at the end of World War II,
in 1945, though it had since been rung
several times by striking with a mallet.
= Grasshopper weather vane=
The gilded grasshopper weather vane on
top of the building was created by
Deacon Shem Drowne in 1742. Gilded with
a gold leaf, the copper weather vane
weighs 80 pounds and is 4 feet long. The
weather vane is believed to be modeled
after the grasshopper weather vane on
the London Royal Exchange, based upon
the family crest of Thomas Gresham.
= Public art and landscape artwork=
The area between the eastern end of
Faneuil Hall and Congress Street is part
of Boston National Historical Park. In
this landscape is a 19th-century
sculpture of Samuel Adams created by
sculptor and poet Anne Whitney. The
granite plaza surface is marked for 850
feet with the approximate location of
the early Colonial shoreline c. 1630.
The street layout and building plot plan
designations from an 1820 map are shown
by etched dashed lines and changes from
pink granite to grey granite paving
slabs. The shoreline marking artwork
entitled, A Once and Future Shoreline,
is made with etched silhouettes of
seaweed, sea grass, fish, shells and
other materials found along a high tide
line.
Art within Faneuil Hall includes many
paintings and sculpture busts of
Revolutionary War activists, pre Civil
War abolitionists, and political
leaders.
Timeline of events
1761 - Building burns down
1762 - Hall rebuilt
1767 - October 28: Petition to boycott
imported goods signed.
1773 - December 3: Meeting about tea
lately arrived on the ship Eleanor;
Capt. James Bruce, Samuel Adams,
Jonathan Williams, and others present
1806 - Building remodelled and expanded
by Charles Bulfinch
1826 - Aug. 2: Daniel Webster eulogizes
John Adams and Thomas Jefferson
1831 - July 11- Timothy Fuller speaks
"at the request of the Suffolk
Anti-Masonic Committee"
1834 - Sept. 6 - Edward Everett
eulogizes Lafayette
1837
Wendell Phillips speaks
1st Exhibition and Fair of the
Massachusetts Charitable Mechanic
Association
1839 - Peleg Sprague stumps for
candidate William Henry Harrison
1843 - July 4 - Charles Francis Adams,
Sr. speaks
1848 - April 15 - Edward Everett
eulogizes John Quincy Adams
1854 - May 26 - After arrest of Anthony
Burns, public meeting "to secure justice
for a man claimed as a slave by a
Virginia kidnapper, and imprisoned in
Boston Court House, in defiance of the
laws of Massachusetts."
1863 - April 18 - Andrew Jackson
Hamilton "of Texas" speaks "at the war
meeting"
1865 - Jan. 9 - Edward Everett speaks on
"the relief of the suffering people of
Savannah"
1876 - June 7 - Meeting "in favor of
public parks;" Oliver Wendell Holmes,
Sr. and others speak
1878 - Aug. 1 - "Indignation meeting ...
to protest against the injury done to
the freedom of the press by the
conviction and imprisonment of Ezra H.
Heywood"
1887 - Oct. 29 - Eben Norton Horsford
speaks on occasion of the unveiling of
Anne Whitney's Leif Ericson statue
1890 - Friday, early August - Julius
Caesar Chappelle, Republican legislator
of Boston, MA, one of the first black
legislators in the United States, makes
a speech that was printed in The New
York Age newspaper's front page article,
"At the Cradle of Liberty" on August 9,
1890. 
1903
March 4 - Frederic J. Stimson debates
James F. Carey
March 19 - Protest "against the
suppression of truth about the
Philippines"
1909 - May - 32nd Grand DivisionORC
Convention
1974 - Weathervane stolen, then returned
1992 - Building restored
2012 - Lower Level and First Level
completely renovated by Eastern General
Contractors, Inc. of Springfield, MA.
Gallery
See also
Dock Square
Harborplace
South Street Seaport
List of National Historic Landmarks in
Boston
National Register of Historic Places
listings in northern Boston,
Massachusetts
References
Further reading
Burgon, John William,. - Life and Times
of Sir Thomas Gresham. - London: Robert
Jennings
Abram English Brown. Faneuil hall and
Faneuil hall market: or, Peter Faneuil
and his gift. Boston: Lee and Shepard,
1901.
External links
Faneuil Hall Marketplace
Faneuil Hall
Faneuil Hall
(Official website of the Freedom Trail)
Suffolk County listings
Boston Classical Orchestra
Historic American Buildings Survey,
Library of Congress. Includes 1937
photos.
SAH Archipedia Building Entry
