The Old South Meeting House is where Benjamin Franklin was baptized. It was also an incredibly important gathering place for American patriots as the Revolutionary War started heating up.

Old North Church is Boston’s oldest surviving church building and the setting for one of the most compelling moments in the country’s history—the famous lantern lighting that warned American patriots across the river that a British invasion was imminent.

The North End is Boston’s oldest residential neighborhood. Today, it is known for its Italian influence and old architecture. But in the 1770s, it was the epicenter for the budding American Revolution. You’ve probably heard of one particularly famous patriot who called the North End home: Paul Revere. In fact, his small, wooden house still stands, looking centuries older than the buildings around it.

For centuries, Faneuil Hall has been the humming center of Boston commerce and community, and today it’s a massive collection of shops, music and fun. But this place also played a pivotal role in Revolutionary history.

In the middle of a circle of cobblestones in front of the Old State House is one with a star carved into it. If you walk over to that star, you’ll be standing where one of the momentous events of American history occurred. This is the site of the Boston Massacre.

The 44-acre green space of Boston Common is one of the most famous public squares in the world. Today, it’s a beloved gathering space, but at first—and for many long years—the Common was a place pivotal to livelihood, justice . . . and revolution.

A stone monument marks the spot where a towering elm tree once stood. Under the branches of that tree, since nicknamed the "Tree of Liberty," Boston’s first patriots had their initial public meeting, on August 14th, 1765. The nine founders of the group called themselves the “Loyal Nine.” Like many, they were furious about the Stamp Act, which required colonists to pay a tax on newspapers, pamphlets and other documents. This was the first tax that Parliament imposed directly on the colonies’ internal affairs, and it raised the complaint of “taxation without representation.”

In 1773, dozens of patriots dumped 90,000 pounds of tea into Boston Harbor to protest the tea tax. You can learn more about this uniquely American tale of honor, of revolution and of love in the Boston Tea Party Museum.

They call her Old Ironsides, the USS Constitution. Built in Boston and commissioned in 1797, she’s the oldest waterborne warship in the world today. The Constitution was one of the brand-new United States Navy’s first six ships after the American Revolution, and it soon became legendary.

One of the most pivotal battles of the American Revolution, the Battle of Bunker Hill, was fought on June 17, 1775. Before then, most colonists didn’t want independence. They wanted to be treated the same as their fellow British subjects in England, to be allowed some local control over their own affairs. They were angry, yes, but not yet radical. All that changed on this hill.