September 28, 2024 • 9 mins
King's Chapel is a must-see stop on the Freedom Trail in Boston. It's been an active church for hundreds of years, and there's so much history to take in, including the stories of the families buried in their crypt. The church is embracing the eerier side of history through the Halloween season, offering special after-hours crypt tours where you'll be led by candlelight. Gianna Russi, History Program Director at the Chapel, joins Nichole to talk about all the spooky details.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:07):
From WBZ News Radio in Boston. This is New England Weekend.
Each week we come together right here we talk about
all the topics important to you and the place where
you live. It is so good to be back with
you on the show this week. I'm Nicole Davis. If
you make your way down the Freedom Trail in Boston,
eventually you'll find yourself on Tremont Street at King's Chapel.
The church is kind of a time capsule in a
(00:29):
way because it's been around since the sixteen eighties and
not too much has changed. That also includes their crypt,
which you can tour most days, but over the coming
weeks the church is embracing the darker side of the
crypt through very special tours. There's definitely a lot to
learn about life and death in these tours. Janna Russie
is the director of the history program at King's Chapel
(00:49):
and she's here now. Jenne, It's so good to have you.
For people who may not have done the Freedom Trail tour,
who might not know much about the chapel, give us
a quick overview of why his store it's such a
local icon here in Boston.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
Sure, so, King's Chapel is what I like to call
Boston's most well preserved interior. The reason why I say
that is because if you want to see original box
pews dating back to the seventeen hundreds, seventeen hundreds would
that you could sit on, the only place you could
go to is King's Chapel. So it really makes it
a great location on the Freedom Trail, especially for history
(01:24):
buffs for people that are really into architecture, and has
a great Georgian interior, beautiful architecture, but also very historic
and well preserved architecture. So we are home to the
oldest continuously used pulpit in North America, dates back to
seventeen seventeen pre dates the actual structure itself, which is
very impressive. They still use it today. So it is
(01:45):
an act of congregation and the congregation itself dates back
to sixteen eighty six. So it is home to the
first Anglican church in North America at the time. It's
also the first Christian Unitarian church of its kind as well.
So great history and also really a microcosm of what
Boston society look like for the colonial era and throughout
(02:06):
its history. So we are home to great well preserved
architecture and also one of two remaining colonial crypts in Boston.
So if you are interested in ceremonies and burial practices
dating back to the colonial era, especially during you know,
the spooky season we're stumbling upon, then definitely makes sure
to visit King Shopple.
Speaker 1 (02:25):
Let's talk about that crypt specifically, because we'll get to
the tours in a second. But you mentioned it's one
of two remaining in Boston, and frankly, you don't see
preserved crypts like this really anywhere these days, So tell
us a little bit about what you have going on
down there and who is in the crypt.
Speaker 2 (02:42):
Sure, so we are alongside another crypt here in Boston remaining,
which is Old North Church's crypt. Our crypt is a
very wide space, but it actually is not home to
as many remains as many people as Old North for example.
So ours holds around one hundred and fifty people's remains.
(03:02):
For the majority they are family tombs, so that's why
we have those numbers for such a large crypt. So
these are the final resting place for many of the
congregants that worship at King's Chapel, many of whom are
very notable to Boston society at the time, and we
also have hard history that we grapple with as well,
with many of these congregants being slave traders themselves or
(03:25):
being directly involved in the slave trade as well. So
we grapple with a lot of this history at King's
Chapel as well, but we explore the lives of these individuals,
many of these families again some of Boston's most notable,
the Bullfinch family being one family tomb that's down there,
which may rebel for a lot of listeners, but we
(03:45):
go through these family tombs, and especially with our After
Hours towards which we'll get to you in a moment,
but that basically explores that just after Hours as well,
and talks a little more about the tradition of Halloween
in Boston.
Speaker 1 (03:58):
What's it like to try to preserve a crypt that
is centuries old? I mean, thankfully now we've got better
technology than they did in like seventeen hundred, which is
certainly a plus, but keeping things as you know, intact
as they possibly can, that's going to take a lot
of work.
Speaker 2 (04:13):
Yeah, So there's actually not been a really big historical
preservation project, surprisingly enough, with king Chapel, it is it's
still used by the congregation, so they really do a
great job in treating Kings Chapel and keeping it just
in really really good shape. And we take great measures
to make sure it stays in that shape, especially in
opening our doors to visitors, just making sure that things
(04:36):
are fixed when they need to be, and we get
the right people to do so. But because again it's
been really well preserved by the congregants who take great
care and love of this building. Thankfully, no need to
have a huge historic preservation project of any kind yet.
But yes, the crypt itself, it's gone through some changes
over time, but we still have a few name plaques
(04:58):
that are dating back to the time time when the
crypt was actually established, which is great.
Speaker 1 (05:02):
Wow, that is so cool, and you will get to
see that during the tours. So let's talk about the
tours they're running this month and next month leading up
to Halloween. And you know, death and crypts and stuff
can be kind of spooky, but that's not all that
it's about. So tell us what these tours include and
what they involve.
Speaker 2 (05:20):
Absolutely, So these tours give you access after hours to
our crypts. So we're normally open ten am to five
pm Mondays through Saturday, each day that we offer tours
during the day. We are now opening up for a
few hours at night, so it's going to get darker
a lot earlier coming up. So we start these at
five thirty, and we have these tours running every half
an hour, So we have when at five thirty, when
(05:41):
at six, when at six thirty, when at seven, and
our last one goes out at seven because we close
up at seven thirty. Now these tours are about thirty
minutes and they take visitors down to our crypts, but
we make it a lot more of a spookyer atmosphere,
which is probably what it looked like at the time.
So it's actually more historically accurate because the only source
of light you would have gotten was from the front
(06:02):
door of the crypt, so at nights you can imagine
how it felt like to be in there. So we
take visitors down through candlelight and explore these stories, but
also talk some elements of darker history and what ceremonies
and barrel practices look like back in the day, what
it would have felt like to really be down there,
and to us, that's spooky because we don't do those
things anymore now. We don't treat ceremonies or barrel practices
(06:25):
that way. So it really puts you in the footsteps
of these people from the colonial era and really explores
our crypt I think, in the most historically accurate way.
Speaker 1 (06:34):
And it's pretty cool too, because I mean these people.
I think that sometimes we don't think of people from
hundreds of years ago, we think of them as you know,
being different. As you said, everything was different back then,
but there's still people just like us. You know, we
all are born, we all die. We just kind of
go about it a different way these days.
Speaker 2 (06:49):
Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (06:51):
Yeah, So tell us a bit about these tours and
how you can get involved. Do you have to go
on the website and get a ticket, so on and
so forth.
Speaker 2 (06:58):
Sure. So, our active link is on our website as
well as our social media pages. So our Instagram, for example,
has our link as well, and that is kings Chapel
sixteen eighty six. Now the link that we use is
through thunder Ticks, so you could also put Thunderticks backslash
Kings Chapel. That's where we're selling our tickets right now.
(07:20):
But if you are curious, you can also stop buy
in person and buy ticket in person for any of
our tours during the day, but also those that run
at night as well, So it's fifteen dollars per person
for that after hours crypt tour, and we do have
some discounts for students and seniors that take that down
to twelve dollars, so that's really after hours experience.
Speaker 1 (07:39):
All right. And outside of these tours what's going on
at King's Chapel these days?
Speaker 2 (07:44):
Sure? So, as I mentioned, we're in active congregation, so
they run worship services every week on Sundays, which is
where you can hear a Revere bell that we are
home to ring every Sunday, which is really great that
we still have that active, the active historical element of
the church as well. And then during the week we
become that historic site, so we are a museum that
(08:06):
runs ten am to five pm. We run tours all
day and really greet visitors and tell them about King's
Chapel history. But how king Chapel as a historic site
is really a microcosm of Boston's history and how it
ties to things like the Revolution, the Abolition movement, just
all elements of Boston and our nation's great history. So
feel free to come by at any point and our
(08:29):
educators will be happy to really answer to any questions
you have or tell you a little bit more about
the church.
Speaker 1 (08:34):
Okay, and you're on social media, you've got a website
obviously if people want to find out more before they
come and plan their visit to spend a few hours with.
Speaker 2 (08:42):
You at the church, absolutely we are. We have our
website kings Chapel dot org. We also are on TikTok
as Kings Chapel sixteen eighty six, as well as Instagram
and Facebook.
Speaker 1 (08:55):
Thank you so much for being on the show and
have a great spooky season at the Crypt.
Speaker 2 (08:59):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (09:00):
Please enjoy the rest of your weekend, have a safe
and healthy one, and join us again next week for
another edition of the show. I'm Nicole Davis from w
BZ News Radio on iHeartRadio.
From WBZ News Radio in Boston. This is New England Weekend.
Each week we come together right here we talk about
all the topics important to you and the place where
you live. It is so good to be back with
you on the show this week. I'm Nicole Davis. If
you make your way down the Freedom Trail in Boston,
eventually you'll find yourself on Tremont Street at King's Chapel.
The church is kind of a time capsule in a
(00:29):
way because it's been around since the sixteen eighties and
not too much has changed. That also includes their crypt,
which you can tour most days, but over the coming
weeks the church is embracing the darker side of the
crypt through very special tours. There's definitely a lot to
learn about life and death in these tours. Janna Russie
is the director of the history program at King's Chapel
(00:49):
and she's here now. Jenne, It's so good to have you.
For people who may not have done the Freedom Trail tour,
who might not know much about the chapel, give us
a quick overview of why his store it's such a
local icon here in Boston.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
Sure, so, King's Chapel is what I like to call
Boston's most well preserved interior. The reason why I say
that is because if you want to see original box
pews dating back to the seventeen hundreds, seventeen hundreds would
that you could sit on, the only place you could
go to is King's Chapel. So it really makes it
a great location on the Freedom Trail, especially for history
(01:24):
buffs for people that are really into architecture, and has
a great Georgian interior, beautiful architecture, but also very historic
and well preserved architecture. So we are home to the
oldest continuously used pulpit in North America, dates back to
seventeen seventeen pre dates the actual structure itself, which is
very impressive. They still use it today. So it is
(01:45):
an act of congregation and the congregation itself dates back
to sixteen eighty six. So it is home to the
first Anglican church in North America at the time. It's
also the first Christian Unitarian church of its kind as well.
So great history and also really a microcosm of what
Boston society look like for the colonial era and throughout
(02:06):
its history. So we are home to great well preserved
architecture and also one of two remaining colonial crypts in Boston.
So if you are interested in ceremonies and burial practices
dating back to the colonial era, especially during you know,
the spooky season we're stumbling upon, then definitely makes sure
to visit King Shopple.
Speaker 1 (02:25):
Let's talk about that crypt specifically, because we'll get to
the tours in a second. But you mentioned it's one
of two remaining in Boston, and frankly, you don't see
preserved crypts like this really anywhere these days, So tell
us a little bit about what you have going on
down there and who is in the crypt.
Speaker 2 (02:42):
Sure, so we are alongside another crypt here in Boston remaining,
which is Old North Church's crypt. Our crypt is a
very wide space, but it actually is not home to
as many remains as many people as Old North for example.
So ours holds around one hundred and fifty people's remains.
(03:02):
For the majority they are family tombs, so that's why
we have those numbers for such a large crypt. So
these are the final resting place for many of the
congregants that worship at King's Chapel, many of whom are
very notable to Boston society at the time, and we
also have hard history that we grapple with as well,
with many of these congregants being slave traders themselves or
(03:25):
being directly involved in the slave trade as well. So
we grapple with a lot of this history at King's
Chapel as well, but we explore the lives of these individuals,
many of these families again some of Boston's most notable,
the Bullfinch family being one family tomb that's down there,
which may rebel for a lot of listeners, but we
(03:45):
go through these family tombs, and especially with our After
Hours towards which we'll get to you in a moment,
but that basically explores that just after Hours as well,
and talks a little more about the tradition of Halloween
in Boston.
Speaker 1 (03:58):
What's it like to try to preserve a crypt that
is centuries old? I mean, thankfully now we've got better
technology than they did in like seventeen hundred, which is
certainly a plus, but keeping things as you know, intact
as they possibly can, that's going to take a lot
of work.
Speaker 2 (04:13):
Yeah, So there's actually not been a really big historical
preservation project, surprisingly enough, with king Chapel, it is it's
still used by the congregation, so they really do a
great job in treating Kings Chapel and keeping it just
in really really good shape. And we take great measures
to make sure it stays in that shape, especially in
opening our doors to visitors, just making sure that things
(04:36):
are fixed when they need to be, and we get
the right people to do so. But because again it's
been really well preserved by the congregants who take great
care and love of this building. Thankfully, no need to
have a huge historic preservation project of any kind yet.
But yes, the crypt itself, it's gone through some changes
over time, but we still have a few name plaques
(04:58):
that are dating back to the time time when the
crypt was actually established, which is great.
Speaker 1 (05:02):
Wow, that is so cool, and you will get to
see that during the tours. So let's talk about the
tours they're running this month and next month leading up
to Halloween. And you know, death and crypts and stuff
can be kind of spooky, but that's not all that
it's about. So tell us what these tours include and
what they involve.
Speaker 2 (05:20):
Absolutely, So these tours give you access after hours to
our crypts. So we're normally open ten am to five
pm Mondays through Saturday, each day that we offer tours
during the day. We are now opening up for a
few hours at night, so it's going to get darker
a lot earlier coming up. So we start these at
five thirty, and we have these tours running every half
an hour, So we have when at five thirty, when
(05:41):
at six, when at six thirty, when at seven, and
our last one goes out at seven because we close
up at seven thirty. Now these tours are about thirty
minutes and they take visitors down to our crypts, but
we make it a lot more of a spookyer atmosphere,
which is probably what it looked like at the time.
So it's actually more historically accurate because the only source
of light you would have gotten was from the front
(06:02):
door of the crypt, so at nights you can imagine
how it felt like to be in there. So we
take visitors down through candlelight and explore these stories, but
also talk some elements of darker history and what ceremonies
and barrel practices look like back in the day, what
it would have felt like to really be down there,
and to us, that's spooky because we don't do those
things anymore now. We don't treat ceremonies or barrel practices
(06:25):
that way. So it really puts you in the footsteps
of these people from the colonial era and really explores
our crypt I think, in the most historically accurate way.
Speaker 1 (06:34):
And it's pretty cool too, because I mean these people.
I think that sometimes we don't think of people from
hundreds of years ago, we think of them as you know,
being different. As you said, everything was different back then,
but there's still people just like us. You know, we
all are born, we all die. We just kind of
go about it a different way these days.
Speaker 2 (06:49):
Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (06:51):
Yeah, So tell us a bit about these tours and
how you can get involved. Do you have to go
on the website and get a ticket, so on and
so forth.
Speaker 2 (06:58):
Sure. So, our active link is on our website as
well as our social media pages. So our Instagram, for example,
has our link as well, and that is kings Chapel
sixteen eighty six. Now the link that we use is
through thunder Ticks, so you could also put Thunderticks backslash
Kings Chapel. That's where we're selling our tickets right now.
(07:20):
But if you are curious, you can also stop buy
in person and buy ticket in person for any of
our tours during the day, but also those that run
at night as well, So it's fifteen dollars per person
for that after hours crypt tour, and we do have
some discounts for students and seniors that take that down
to twelve dollars, so that's really after hours experience.
Speaker 1 (07:39):
All right. And outside of these tours what's going on
at King's Chapel these days?
Speaker 2 (07:44):
Sure? So, as I mentioned, we're in active congregation, so
they run worship services every week on Sundays, which is
where you can hear a Revere bell that we are
home to ring every Sunday, which is really great that
we still have that active, the active historical element of
the church as well. And then during the week we
become that historic site, so we are a museum that
(08:06):
runs ten am to five pm. We run tours all
day and really greet visitors and tell them about King's
Chapel history. But how king Chapel as a historic site
is really a microcosm of Boston's history and how it
ties to things like the Revolution, the Abolition movement, just
all elements of Boston and our nation's great history. So
feel free to come by at any point and our
(08:29):
educators will be happy to really answer to any questions
you have or tell you a little bit more about
the church.
Speaker 1 (08:34):
Okay, and you're on social media, you've got a website
obviously if people want to find out more before they
come and plan their visit to spend a few hours with.
Speaker 2 (08:42):
You at the church, absolutely we are. We have our
website kings Chapel dot org. We also are on TikTok
as Kings Chapel sixteen eighty six, as well as Instagram
and Facebook.
Speaker 1 (08:55):
Thank you so much for being on the show and
have a great spooky season at the Crypt.
Speaker 2 (08:59):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (09:00):
Please enjoy the rest of your weekend, have a safe
and healthy one, and join us again next week for
another edition of the show. I'm Nicole Davis from w
BZ News Radio on iHeartRadio.
Popular Podcasts
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.