Lexington Battle Green

The town common where the first shots of the American Revolution were fired

The Lexington Battle Green is the town common at the centre of Lexington — a wide triangular green flanked by church and civic buildings. It looks much as it did in 1775, when fewer than 100 Minutemen stood here in the grey pre-dawn facing 700 British Regulars. The Minuteman statue (1900) marks the spot where the militia assembled. Seven of the eight men killed in the battle are buried in the Old Burying Ground at the corner of the green.

The green is freely accessible at all times. A small Visitors Center nearby has maps and background on the events. This is one of the most historically significant public spaces in the United States, and yet Lexington has kept it as a living, functioning town centre rather than a roped-off monument.

things to do sight
A story
Nobody knows who fired first on the morning of April 19, 1775. Eight Minutemen died — among them Jonas Parker, who was reloading his musket when he was bayoneted. The British suffered one wounded. The incident was dismissed by the British commander as a minor skirmish. By the time they returned from Concord that afternoon, having been harassed all the way, it had become a revolution.