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THE GREEN DRAGON TAVERN, BOSTON

Green Dragon Tavern

NEW ENGLAND CRAFTSMAN, 1906

From New England Craftsman, Vol. I, No. 9, June 1906, Page 318:

The following account of the Green Dragon Tavern is condensed from that given in the Centennial Memorial of the Lodge of St. Andrew, whose history for a considerable while was associated with this famous building and which lodge has for nearly a century and a half owned the property.

Noted landmarks, which call to mind associations with the early history of the nation, always possess a peculiar interest to all lovers of their country, and the story belonging' to them is awakening, as well as instructive.

Among the famous places of Huston, in past days, was a widely known and celebrated building called the "Green Dragon Tavern," situated on the border of a mill pond which is now Union Street, and near the corner of Hanover Street; in its day it was the best hostelry of the town.

The celebrity of the "'Green Dragon," however, is not due to any remembered excellence of hospitable entertainment, but for the social and political public and private gatherings of the people, with other interesting local incidents, for three-fourths of a century antecedent to the American Revolution: and above all, for tje stirring, patriotic, no less than timely measures determined under its root by the heroic men of '76, who brought to pass that memorable epoch.

It was indeed the cradle of Rebellion; the chosen asylum, where the Revolutionary master spirits who organized successful resistance to British aggression on the liberties of the colonies took grave counsel together.

To the Masonic Fraternity of Massachusetts, the old "Green Dragon' presents associations of a special significance. It was here within its walls that the Free Masonry of the Commonwealth was preserved in Grand Lodge jurisdiction, bright and vigorous; where its charities, its hospitalities, and its good tidings were kept up between the years 1775 and 1792, a period which witnessed the disruption by reason of the war for Independence of important branches of the Order in Massachusetts. Still further, this was the scene of Warren's most intimate political and Masonic associations, with the patriots and Masons of his time.

No picture of the "Green Dragon Tavern" of any description is known to be in existence, save the one presented with this sketch which was engraved for the Lodge of St. Andrew from a model which the Hon. N. B. Shurtleff prepared some years since with his usual accurate and thorough Knowledge of ancient noted Boston houses. From this model in wood, llle present picture has been made.

With perhaps the single exception of Faneuil Hall, there was no public building in Boston at the close of the eiRhteenth century which had acquired a more extensive notoriety or filled a larger place in the local history of the town than the old Green Dragon Tavern. In 1697 the Tavern was kept by John Cary, and was at that early day and perhaps earlier known as the Green Dragon Tavern. In 1764 the property was purchased by St. Andrew's Lodge, when it took the name of Freemasons' Arms, at which time a Square and Compasses was placed on the front of the building. It however soon after dropped this title, and was popularly known as Masons' Hall, by which name it continued to be designated until the removal of the Lodge, when it resumed its ancient title of Green Dragon Tavern.

Feasts were frequently held in the long room of the famous tavern by the Masons of that time, one of which occurred December 20, 1773 at which was present Joseph Warren. Esq., Grand Master, and other brethren to the number of thirty-eight. An incident of the festival is mentioned as follows:—The Lodge having reached a convenient resting place in its "work", the brethren were called from labor to refreshment,— and refreshment in those days was what the word in its common acceptation implies. At this interesting period of the proceedings, Brother Oliver (the Closet Steward) never failed promptly to present himself at the door, in his best "bib and tucker," hearing a huge Punch Howl!— one half resting on his correspondingly huge abdominal protuberance, the other supported by his brawny arms. Thus prepared for the encounter, the brethren being seated in order with their glasses in hand, he with dignified solemnity and fully impressed with the magnitude of the business before him, slowly commenced his tour of duty, paying his respects first to the Master in the 'East", and then passing regularly around the hall, until the members were all supplied, or in the technical language of the day "all charged,"'and waiting the order of the Master. He then slowly retired, with the benedictions of his brethren, and a consciousness of having faithfully performed his share in the "work" of the evening.

Such a scene would not commend itself to favor at the present time; but it was one of a class common, not only in the Lodges, but with modifications, in the social, civil, literary and religious society of that early day, when

"The funeral bak'd meats
Did coldly furnish forth the marriage tables."

But it is perhaps to the political associations which cluster around its name, that the Green Dragon Tavern is more particularly indebted for its historic celebrity. It was here that many of the most important and eventful of the political transaction preceding the Revolution were, if not positively inaugurated, discussed, matured and put in execution. This was undoubtedly due to the fact that the hall in this building was the only room in the northern section of the town, excepting one used for popular assemblies, that was suitable for this purpose.

It must not be inferred that the Revolutionary patriots who held their meetings in this Tavern met as Masons, or used Masonry as a cover for their purposes, for others than Masons were associated with them.

The hall was used as a central ami safe place for the meetings of private committees and rallying clubs, with which Warren as chairman of the "Committee of Safety"' was in frequent consultation and directed their movements.

Boston was full of clubs and caucuses at that time which were used with effect to secure unity of action; among these was "The Sons of Liberty"' and the "Caucus—Pro Bono Publico", of which Warren was the leading spirit. Among the most active of the Sons of Liberty was Paul Revere. They were so careful that their meetings should be kept secret that every time they met every person swore upon the Bible that nothing should be revealed except to Samuel Adams, John Hancock, Dr. Warren and Dr. Church. It is undoubtedly true that the famous Boston Tea Party was organized in this Tavern and largely by the members of the Lodge of St. Andrew. It may safely assumed, that from the year 1767, when the Revenue Acts were passed imposing a tax on tea, creating a Board of Customs, and legalizing Writs of Assistance, to the close of the War of Independence, there was not another public house in the whole country and assuredly not in Massachusetts where so much of the secret history of the Revolutionary period was made, as at the Old Green Dragon Tavern.

NEW ENGLAND CRAFTSMAN, 1951

From New England Craftsman, Vol. XLVI, No. 2, February 1951, Page 21

© 1950. by The Masonic Service Association of the United States. Reprinted by permission.

In the early days of Freemasonry in England and subsequently in America, lodges met in inns and taverns.

These were not of the often casual type which the automobile made so popular in this country: the early inn and tavern was often the largest and most substantial edifice in a town. It was often built with a large room expressly for meetings of societies, clubs, circles, groups of many varieties and characters.

A writer of the 17th Century stated: "Taverns are the busy man's recreation, the idle man's business, the melancholy man's sanctuary and the stranger's welcome." Prominent men met in taverns in London to discuss problems of science, religion, government, philosophy. Mackey said: "The coffee house was the Londoner's home and those who wished to find a gentleman commonly asked not whether he lived in Fleet Street or Chancery Lane but whether he frequented the Grecian or the Rainbow," in which tavern it may he noted met Lodge 75 in 1731, of which Henry Price, "Father of Freemasonry in America", was a member.

In the time in which the Mother Grand Lodge in London was formed (1717) lodges not only met in inns and taverns hut often described themselves by their meeting place.

The four old lodges which formed the Grand Lodge in London, can be described, as they were by Robert Freke Gould, noted English Masonic historian as

• Original No. 1, "Kings Arms", St. Paul's Churchyard
• Original No. 2. "Rose and Buffler", Furnival's Inn
• Original No. 3, "Queen's Head", Knaves Acre
• Original No. 4, "Horn"', Westminster

Other famous taverns associated with the beginnings of organized Freemasonry in London are "Goose and Gridiron". "Rummer and Grapes", "Apple Tree", Cheshire Cheese", etc.

In America the same practice continued; our early lodges met in inns and taverns long before the first Masonic Temple was built.

The first meetings of the Grand Lodge of New Hampshire were held in "The Earl of Halifax" tavern, in Portsmouth. In 1738 a lodge was holden at the "Harp and Crown" in Charleston. South Carolina, as reported in the South Carolina Gazette. The New York Gazette in 1739 advertised the meeting of a lodge at the "Montgomery Arms Tavern". Lodge No. 18, Dover. Delaware, was opened and established "at the Sign of General Washington," Dover. The first lodge on record in New Jersey, St. John's in Newark, met in "The Sign of Rising Sun" tavern in 1761. An early lodge in Providence, Rhode Island, met in the "White Horse" and later in the "Two Crowns" tavern. The Grand Lodge of Massachusetts met many times in the "Bunch of Grapes" and the "Royal Exchange" taverns.

Most famous in American Masonic annals, however, is the "Green Dragon Tavern" in Boston, built at the end the seventeenth or beginning of the eighteenth century. No actual picture of it exists; a picture drawn from contemporary descriptions, and corrected by old residents of Boston who had seen tbe old structure before its demolition shows it to have been a substantial house of two stories and a mansard roof upper story with dormer windows.

ft was perhaps fifty or sixty feet front and forty or fifty feet deep. There was a great chimney at each end. Inside was the famous "Long Room"— apparently a room the length of the house, in which not only St. Andrews Lodge, but many societies, clubs and associations met. Behind the tavern was a garden and pond; in good weather, when the lodge was called from labor to refreshment, meals were served in the garden in sight of the pond.

The tavern was sometimes called the cradle of the Revolution, because of the noted Revolutionary figures who there gathered, and the great event — the "Boston Tea Party" — which was there planned. Between 1775 and 1792 Freemasonry in Massachusetts was largely nourished in the Green Dragon Tavern, particularly St. Andrews Lodge and its Masonic activities.

St. Andrew's Lodge is believed to have been organized in 1752. There is no evidence to attest the fact, except circumstantial evidence, but it was here, four years later, that it reorganized under a charter from the Grand Lodge of Scotland. St. Andrews would likely not have chosen this place for that reorganization had tbev not been accustomed there to meet. It did meet in the Green Dragon Tavern — soon to be called Freemasons Hall — until 1818 when it moved to the "Exchange Coffee House".

Here, too, the Massachusetts Grand Lodge was organized on St. John's Day in Winter, 1769, with the great Joseph Warren, who was to fall at Bunker Hill, as Grand Master. This Grand Lodge continued here to meet until the union with St. John's Grand Lodge in 1792.

The old tavern was bought by St. Andrew's Lodge in 1764 and a large Square and Compasses were erected on its front — it was this which led to the renaming of the tavern. The tavern resumed its old name when the lodge moved to the Coffee House.

Our forefathers were more particular as to the celebrations of the feasts of the Sts. John than we moderns; St. John's Day in winter (December 27) and St. John's Day in summer (June 24) were religiously kept by Colonial Masons.

A note will suffice to show the importance of these festivals in Grand Lodge eyes. At the annual communication of Grand Lodge, December 3, 1773, the record reads:

"The Most Worshipful Grand Master (Warren) then desired the opinion of the Grand Officers present with respect to celebrating the Feast of St. John the Evangelist, 27th Instant.

• "Motioned and Seconded. The Feast be Celebrated the 27th Instant, at Masons' Hall (at the Green Dragon).
  
• "Voted, The Stewards of the Grand Lodge of St. Andrew's, and the Massachusetts Lodges, agree for and provide the dinner, and that three Brethren he desired to jovn the Stewards.
  
• "Voted, Brothers Bruce, Proctor (and) Love.
• "Voted, The Festival he advertized in the Public Prints."

In the Boston Evening Post of December 20, 1773, the following advertisement appeared.

"The Brethren of the Honorable Society of Free and Accepted Masons are hereby notified, That the Most Worshipful Joseph Warren. Esq., Grand Master of the Continent of America: intends to Celebrate the Feast of St. John the Evangelist, on Monday, the 27th of December Inst, at Free Masons' Hall (at the Green Dragon), Boston, where the Brethren are requested to attend the Festival.

"By Order of the Most Worshipful Grand Master.
"Wm. Hoskiss, G. Sec'y.

"N.B. Tickets may be had of Mess. Nathaniel Coffin, jnnr.. William Mollineaux. junr., and Mr. Daniel Bell.

'"The Table will be furnished at Two o'clock."

This "Feast" was held in the Long Room of the Green Dragon on the 27th, and the record names as being present, "M. W. Joseph Warren, Esq., Grand Master: Hon. Win. Brattle, Esq.; Rev. Dr. Samuel Mather; Worshipful Joseph Webb, Esq.: and thirty-eight others, including the Grand Officers."

This is not the place nor is there space to retell much of the early Colonial sentiment against Great Britain which culminated in the War of the Revolution. There was a long period of preparation, a time during which resentment at many of the acts and enactments of the mother country seethed and fomented, spread and became more intense throughout all the Colonies. Anti-British sentiment was particularly rife in Boston.

England began to bring things to a head by sending two regiments of troops to Boston, partly to quiet "the radicals" and partly to aid in the enforced collection of taxes. Boston was then a city of some twenty thousand people; a prosperous colony. Its citzens had the stiff-necked independence of the New England descendants of the Pilgrims, pioneers who fought Indians and cold, poverty and the wilderness, for the right to be independent and worship as they please. They were hardy of character and stern of justice.

Bostonians in general and Masons in particular resented the British troops. There was doubtless much baiting and persecution of individual soldiers by hoodlums and riff-raff, but the resentment of the solid citizens of Boston was probably hardest to bear.

All this culminated in the "Boston Massacre" when on March 5, 1770, a riot occurred in which British soldiers fired on citizens and killed four.

As an immediate result Great Britain withdrew the troops and repealed many of the objectionable taxes— but not the tax on tea!

The patriots were determined that no tea should be landed to be sold, with the tax for the benefit of the East India Company added. Tea ships were sent home from New York and Pennsylvania, and others were interned in Charleston, but the governor refused clearance papers for three tea ships in the Boston Harbor.

Many political associations and clubs met at the Green Dragon Tavern. Of these some were small, some large, some formed of men of one trade or craft, some of men from various walks of life. Among them were "The North-End Caucus" largely made up of North-end mechanics and the "Sons of Liberty".

Warren was a member of one— perhaps both - as was Revere and other noted members of St. Andrew's Lodge.

It is not possible to prove that the "'tea party" was a St. Andrew's Lodge idea, or that it was executed entirely by members of the lodge. It was probably a combined action by the "North-end Caucus" men, the "Sons of Liberty", members of St. Andrew's Lodge and there cam be no doubt that the whole plan was made, and doubtless rehearsed, in the ""Long Room" of the Green Dragon tavern.

John W. Barry, Iowa, told the story briefly and well in The Builder, 1916.

"Mistaking the attitude of the Americans, as we that of their King, The English East India Company had offered to refund the tax by selling tea at a lesser price in America than in England. The King in-i-l on bis claimed right to tax without consent. So HurLtf resolution of conciliation was voted down in England's Parliament by 270 against 78. The issue was joined; England claimed the right to tax without consent: the Americans denied such claim. England said: "Land the tea" — A gathering Dec. 16, 1773, in The Old South Meeting House said "No." A messenger had been sent to Milton to urge Hutchinson, the King's representative, to order the tea back to England. Long after dark the refusal was delivered by Rotcb the messenger. At one Adams announced: 'The meeting can do nothing to save the Country." When the church doors opened there were 40 to 50 men disguised as Indians. Says Avery, 'in two or three hours, 342 chests of tea valued at about 1800 pounds sterling were emptied into the sea.

"The smoothness of the performance suggests a master playwright and many rehearsals. When the work had been completed the crowd quietly dispelled before daybreak Paul Revere was riding fast to Philadelphia with the glorious news that Boston had all thrown down the gauntlet for the King to pick up."

"The "Sons of Liberty" met at the Green Dragon Tavern where St. Andrew's Lodge also met regularly. This was the lodge of Paul Revere and Joseph Warren. It was a 'North-End Lodge' whose secret meetings alternated with the 'Sons of Liberty", who controlled early Revolutionary movements. The men were same in both.

"The record of that lodge on Nov. 30, 1772. showed only seven members present and in the record is the statement: 'M.B. Consignees of Tea took up the brethren's time.' On December 16, the night of the Tea Party, the secretary, after noting that the lodge closed till the next night, makes the T entry thus: —'On account of few members in attendance' and then fills up the illi the letter 'T' made big. Gould says this record is the only one of that now famous Tea Party at Boston. That Tea Party was as dignified a Masonic event as the laying of a Corner Stone — as indeed in very truth it was. Here is what that eminent authority John Fiske says of it:

"For the quiet sublimity of reasonable hut dauntless purpose, the heroic annals of Greece and Rome saw no greater scene than that which the Old South Meeting House witnessed on the day (night) when the tea was destroyed."

Avery says: *An authoritative answer to the oft asked question., "Who emptied the tea?" has never yet been found. But Paul Revere was well on his way to Philadelphia before morning."

Who made up the band of "Indians" who threw the tea into Boston Harbor on December 16, 1773? There is no authentic record. But historians are convinced by circumstantial evidence that the Mohawk Indians made cold tea of Boston Harbor included Joseph Warren, Paul Revere. Samuel Adams, Joseph Webb, Thomas Melville, Adam Collson, Henrv Purkiit and Lemuel Beck.

It is stated as a matter of fact by some historians that among the St. Andrew's Lodge members of the tea part were Collson, Chase, Gore, Ingollson, Peck, Proctor, Purkitt and Urann.

Over emphasis on incidents alone is decried by all historians: it is the overall picture, not the highlights which must be studied to see the correct perspective of an era.

The Boston Tea Party was such an incident. There would have been a Revolution without it. The Green Dragon Tavern, its "Long Room", the "North End Caucus", "the Sons of Liberty" and St. Andrew's Lodge did not cause the revolt of the American Colonies.

But they helped. They crystallized sentiment. They produced a happening which had all the inspiration which mystery, picturesqueness, patriotism and daring could add. They did something which has rung down through the years as an expression of the determination of Colonial Americans not to be slaves. They produced a deathless story for posterity.

It is, therefore, with considerable pride that Freemasons can recall the Green Dragon Tavern, and exult that in days when a brave heart and a determined spirit were essential if the United States was to come into being Freemasons were in the front ranks of those who said "No one shall pay tax on this tea!"