Everyone should know, “On the 18th of April in ’75, hardly a man is now alive who remembers that day and year,” as Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote.
It was that day, 250 years ago that Paul Revere and his cohort of riders waited for the signal, lamps set in the belfry of the Old North Church in Boston’s North End. “One if by land, and two if by sea,” Longfellow wrote. It was two — the British, called the Regulars by the colonists, were coming across the Charles River by boat. Revere rode through the countryside warning colonials that British troops were moving their way.
It looked a little different in the lobby of the Wood Museum of Springfield History Friday afternoon as Springfield Mayor Domenic J. Sarno and state Rep. Carlos Gonzalez, D-Springfield, hung replica lamps to commemorate that day, 250 years ago, when the first battles of the American Revolution were fought in Lexington and Concord.
Gonzalez, the chairman of the Western Massachusetts delegation in the state House of Representatives, arranged for the ceremony with Springfield, joining communities across the state, “As a uniting call to action no matter who you are, to commemorate and remind ourselves that our history is about working together for a better tomorrow,” he said.
The two lanterns were part of a set of 108 built as replicas of the lanterns supposedly used by the colonists that day in 1775, except the very subtle Red Sox logo on the diffuser of one lamp threw its historic authenticity out the window.
“These lamps are symbolic of a key moment in our history and the start in Massachusetts of the 250th anniversary of the Ride of Paul Revere across the commonwealth,” Gonzalez said. “It is important to know that in these challenging times of divisiveness, we need to come together in more ways than one, and recognize what unites us, not what divides us. The American Revolution was not won by individuals acting alone, but by communities who organized, registered and worked together.”
Gonzales said lamps were hung in the old North Church in Boston, Fall River, Danvers, Worcester and Springfield.
Sarno said Springfield was a key community at the time of the revolution.
“Massachusetts is the birthplace of American democracy and Springfield played a key role in that,” he said, noting that Gen. George Washington choose Springfield as the country’s first and most important armory.
