The Hartwell Tavern and the Revolution

The Lexington Memorial Statue on the Green in Lexinton Massachusetts,

To start off this Historic tour you might want to also visit Lexington Massachusetts and/or Concord Massachusetts. Route 2A more or less connects both of these towns that weigh so heavily in Revolutionary history. But I want to note that if you are traveling from Concord to Lexington on 2A, this route will skirt Lexington and you will want to turn off on Massachusetts Ave to go to the Minuteman Statue.

Both images of the Minuteman statue were taken the same morning in 2004 when I got lost going to work in October and found myself in Lexington with my camera (lucky me).

Getting to The Hartwell Tavern

The Hartwell Tavern is along the Battle Road which is the Route the British came in on from Boston to confiscate the reported weapons and powder from the colonials. Today much of the route is along normal roads and isn’t all that interesting. But once you get to the other side of Route 95 you can pick up the Battle Road Trail and get away from the cars.

For the rest of us, we’ll drive to the parking lot for the tavern. To get from the Hartwell Tavern from the Minuteman Statue on Lexington Green, you would travel up Mass Ave, under Route 95, and pick up Route 2A which is also known as the North Great Road. (see map at bottom)

You pass a large road on the right which leads to Hanscom Air Force Base. Don’t travel too fast at his point because, in less than a half mile on the right, you will see a large parking lot with two entrances about 200 feet apart.

You should have no problem parking as there are two lots to pick from and on the Western edge, you’ll see a dirt road heading off in the woods. You will walk 800 feet along Bedford Lane and you come out on Virginia Road (another dirt road) and just ahead of you is the Hartwell Tavern.

All buildings along the battle road such as the Hartwell Tavern are maintained by the National Park Service. The Park Service offers educational programs all during the year and if you check the NPS website you can get a listing of places and times, to see if anything coincides with your trip.

Hartwell Tavern on Oct 13th 2006

Hartwell Tavern October 13, 2006, view in my gallery

Hartwell Tavern on the Battle Road Trail

If you come out on Patriots’ Day in April you will see events all along the battle road, recreating the early days of the Revolutionary War, with the British fighting the Colonial Militia. If you wind up here and it’s mid-October then you may find an interpreter (National Park Service employee/historian) at the Tavern to tell you about it.

As you look at the pictures on this page, I want you to be aware that arriving late in the afternoon between 3 and 4 PM on a sunny day should result in good pictures. But a bit earlier in the afternoon could also work.

In the first pictures of the Minuteman statue (which is on Lexington Common, I photographed the Minuteman Soldier and this was back in 2004 on my way to work at 8 AM. This image of the Hartwell Tavern was taken on October 13, 2006, at 3:50 PM.

As you can see a little earlier in the afternoon may result in brighter colors and if you arrive between the 10th and 15th of October you should find good fall colors. If you arrive in late September or early October you’ll probably only find sparse color along the battle trail.

As you can see from those two images, October 13 is a good date to arrive. If you shot the Lexington monument between 7-9 AM then travel around Concord exploring the area and in the afternoon, straight to the Hartwell Tavern. This should provide some good light for photographing the Tavern and the outbuildings around it.

Below is a map that will take you from Lexington to Bedford where the Hartwell Tavern is. The next stop (which will be in another article) will take us out to the old North Bridge where the American militia turned back the British troops.

This is a link to the Old North Bridge blog entry.

Jeff Foliage Folger

Autumn is a state of mind more than a time of year – Jeff Foliage

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