Today's Old North Church
Today, the Old North Church is one of many stops on the famed Freedom Trail. Countless tourists come through this space every day – just look at this video! While watching, pay attention to a few things:
- There is a girl on a piano – a Street Piano, part of a project that places pianos around the city for anyone to come and play and perform for others around them
- There are tourists from all over, ranging from young to old
- There is a constant stream of people
- In the background, there is a memorial (more on this below)
The memorial is dedicated to modern day fallen soldiers, with one unmarked dog tag for each. There are rocks scattered beneath with years, dates, names, and other messages painted on them. This section of the garden is solemn, though it is not a quiet-and-alone type of solitude – it is filled with people who are there together, sharing a moment, with the sounds of the piano music and tourist chatter lightly floating in the air.
The piano that is placed there as part of the Street Piano project provides a sound profile for the space. It brings it to a dimension of life beyond just tourists walking around. There is music and people are reminded to be attentive of the world around them. Some stop to watch while others actually come and play piano. It brings together people who may not have otherwise been connected.
Lastly, there are stark reminders of the world we live in today, where everything is vaguely capitalist in one way or another. There is a chocolate shop that makes ancient chocolate, there is a printing press where for the first time in 236 years, they are printing the Boston Declaration, and there is even a modern coffee cup resting on a fence. The juxtaposition of new and old in these is particularly striking, as it shows how we have built our familiar every day modern constructs on top of the historic site that is here. There are literally layers.
One might say that this is the sad state of the modern world, where we have transformed all our historic sites into capitalist outlets, though on the other hand, it can also be viewed as the incorporation of history into the modern world.
Ultimately, as a palimpsest of Boston, the Old North Church is more than just a way for people to learn about history. It becomes a place where people can experience the layers for themselves, just as I did.
They can see the layers that are immediately apparent, such as the old door and the old pews, yet once they sit down or slowly walk around, they will begin to find the more buried layers.
The power of these layers is that they do more than just teach us about history: they also reveal the different perspectives people had on history at different times.