Featured image: Faneuil Hall in Boston

Photos by Cheryl Landes

The National Park Service closed Faneuil Hall, Boston’s historic meeting center and marketplace, for extensive renovations yesterday. The closure includes the permanent Visitor Center and Great Hall.

Faneuil Hall in downtown Boston

The Visitor Center moved to a pop-up location at 15 State Street and will stay there until renovations are finished.

The National Park Service expects Faneuil Hall to reopen in April 2018.

Quincy Market, next door to Faneuil Hall, will remain open during the repairs.

Faneuil Hall was the idea of Peter Faneuil , a wealthy local businessman who proposed a central public marketplace in Boston in 1740. He fully financed construction, and the building was completed in 1742. During construction, he added the Great Hall as an afterthought, it seemed. The building housed the town government and a public hall for concerts, banquets, and ceremonies–in addition to its original intent as a marketplace.

Faneuil Hall became an important meeting place for the colonists’ discussions and debates leading to the Boston Tea Party and the American Revolution.

Read more about Faneuil Hall’s history and construction updates.

Two views inside the Great Hall on the top floor of Faneuil Hall