Lexington is a prosperous suburb nine miles northwest of Boston, but its fame rests on a single April morning in 1775: this is where the first shots of the American Revolution were fired.
British troops marched out of Boston late on April 18 to seize rebel military supplies stored in Concord. Paul Revere and William Dawes rode ahead to raise the alarm. Fewer than 100 Minutemen (local militia members, so called for their readiness to muster at short notice) assembled on the town green before dawn, waiting at the Buckman Tavern. Around 5 a.m., some 700 British Regulars arrived. The colonists were ordered to disperse. Nobody knows who fired first, but when it was over eight militiamen were dead, including a drummer boy.
The Battle Green in the town centre is a National Historic Landmark and still the heart of Lexington. The Minuteman statue stands on the spot. Three of the original buildings survive nearby: the Buckman Tavern (where the militia waited), the Hancock-Clarke House (where John Hancock and Samuel Adams were sleeping when Revere arrived), and the Munroe Tavern (used by British troops as a hospital on their retreat). All three are open as museums. The Battle Road Trail connects Lexington with Concord along the route of the fighting.