Boston, the capital of Massachusetts

The Puritan capital

Boston was founded in 1630 by Puritan colonists of the Massachusetts Bay Company, led by John Winthrop, and it became the seat of the colony’s government. The Secretary of the Commonwealth describes it as the capital since its founding. For most of the colonial period the government met in the Town House, the building now called the Old State House, in the center of Boston, where the Declaration of Independence was read to Bostonians from the balcony in July 1776.

The move to Watertown

The Revolution briefly drove the government out. When fighting broke out in April 1775 and British troops held Boston, the Provincial Congress moved to Watertown, a few miles up the Charles River. Watertown served as the provisional capital for about 18 months, through the siege of Boston and the British evacuation in March 1776, before the government returned to the city.

Bulfinch’s State House

After the war, Massachusetts built a new State House on Beacon Hill, on part of the former cow pasture of John Hancock, the state’s first governor. The architect was Charles Bulfinch, a Bostonian who became the most influential American architect of his day. On July 4, 1795, Governor Samuel Adams and Paul Revere laid the cornerstone, and the government moved in on January 11, 1798.

The dome is the building’s famous feature. It began with wooden shingles. In 1802 Paul Revere and Sons sheathed it in copper, and in 1874 it was gilded for the first time. Today it is covered in 23-karat gold leaf. It sparkled so brightly that during World War II it was painted dark gray, so it would not guide enemy ships or aircraft. On top is a gilded pine cone, carved by John and Simon Skillin, who also carved the first figurehead of the USS Constitution; it recalls the importance of timber to early Massachusetts.

A growing building

The State House was enlarged several times. A yellow-brick extension designed by Charles Brigham was added behind it in 1889-1895, and white marble east and west wings in 1914-1917. Inside are some of the state’s best-known traditions. The “Sacred Cod,” a carved wooden codfish, hangs in the House of Representatives chamber, and the Senate answered with a fish worked into its chandelier, nicknamed the “Holy Mackerel.” The ceremonial front doors of Doric Hall open only for a departing governor’s “Long Walk,” visits by a US president or foreign head of state, and the return of regimental flags.

Boston today

Boston had about 673,000 residents in 2025, the largest city in Massachusetts and the center of a metropolitan area of nearly five million people.

Visiting

Free guided tours of the State House, lasting about 40 minutes, are run by the Secretary of the Commonwealth. See the State House tours page.