Further Layers
Lastly, there were three final features of the church that stood out for their significance in Boston’s history.
The first is the fact that the gallery on each side of the organ had originally been divided in order to accommodate colored servants. This was incredibly fascinating, as the gallery was yet another element inside this church that had been affected by the social situation in Boston at a given period of time.
The second feature is the chapel that is located next to the church, on the same property, which was built in 1918 for Italian immigrants. This was yet another nod to the city’s history, particularly poignant given the church’s location in the North End.
The third is the steeple. Today, it features its original weathervane in spite of multiple reconstructions in the past. The original steeple was destroyed in a storm in October 1804 and the replacement was toppled by Hurricane Carol on August 31st, 1954. The next year, the steeple was repaired and restored, as seen to the left.
The Old North Church becomes intertwined in the passing of time, from one historical event to the next. There are recounts of older events from old-but-less-old times, and there are modern-day retellings of what happened, and so on.
In my mind, I imagine that if I were to draw a timeline of events and recounts, it would be filled with criss-crosses and zig-zags. These form the patchwork quilt that de Certeau writes about and echoes his first sentence:
People moving through the city at ground level write the "urban text" without being able to read it.