Winding their way along the red brick and red painted Freedom Trail, Boston tourists eventually find themselves in front of the Old North Church. Their eyes may seek out the bell tower where lanterns famously beamed out – one if by land, and two if by sea – a warning of arriving British troops. 

But if it’s a children’s story about Paul Revere’s epic solo ride they’re looking for, the historians at Boston’s oldest church are eager to complicate the narrative.

“Revere’s poem is not a history lesson,” Nikki Stewart, executive director of Old North Illuminated, said on the Codcast. “It’s kind of political propaganda, or,” more generously, “art.” 

Stewart helms the non-profit that maintains, programs, and interprets the 300-year-old historical site, which includes not just the active Episcopal church building but a busy half-acre campus in the North End. On top of the gallery, the bell ringing chamber, and the crypt, the site also features an early 20th century chapel originally built for Italian Protestants and the 1715 Clough House, which houses the colonial reproduction printing office of Edes & Gill.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow stretched quite a few facts in “Paul Revere’s Ride,” which are probably familiar to a casual history buff and a main draw to the Old North site. Revere was part of “a network of patriots” throughout New England, rather than a lone actor, and, as a minor point, “the lantern signals were not a signal to Paul Revere as the poem suggests, they were a signal from Paul Revere,” about the location of British forces, Stewart notes.

The lanterns were to act as a signal to other patriots in case Revere was unable to leave Boston, according to Old North Illuminated. Revere did take off on a ride with fellow Son of Liberty William Dawes, but while he was detained in Lexington after warning John Hancock and Samuel Adams, it was Samuel Prescott who went on to alert the militia in Concord.

The historic site is going further than correcting just the Paul Revere record these days. It’s been designated as a “site of conscience,” and at Old North Church that means digging into the messy history of the Revolutionary War and the church’s relationship to the slave trade.

“Slavery is a part of Old North’s history, really from the beginning,” Stewart said. Research over the past year revealed details about the church’s first rector, Rev. Dr. Timothy Cutler, who owned at least one slave and worked to integrate the congregation in an effort to spread Christianity to indigenous and African people in colonial New England. 

“We’re very careful to say that the church was integrated, and perhaps more so than a lot of other churches in Boston, but it was not a place of equality,” Stewart said. “It was still a place of deep segregation.”

The International Coalition of Sites of Conscience defines the sites as any memorial, museum, historic site, memory initiative, or non-governmental organization that commits to interpreting history through engaging the public in programs that stimulate dialogue on pressing social issues, sharing opportunities for public involvement and positive action on the issues raised at the site, and promoting justice and universal cultures of human rights.

This summer featured several efforts to recontextualize some famous Boston landmarks. Notably, a two-floor “Slavery in Boston” exhibit went in at Faneuil Hall, which has become flash point in the city’s fraught relationship with the slave trade. The city’s archeology department acknowledges that Faneuil Hall might be known as the “Cradle of Liberty,” but the building was made possible from a fortune Peter Faneuil built, in part, by buying and selling enslaved people.

Stewart notes other historic organizations across the region that are digging into the difficult conversations – sometimes a risky move with a historic tourism industry that relies on travelers who basically want to follow a fellow in a tricorne hat around, be inspired by Revolutionary-era trivia and architecture, and then grab a cannoli. 

“I think we have a long way to go because I think we are up against misconceptions that Boston has always been just a welcoming and inclusive and educated enclave,” she said. “And it’s really not that now, nor has it ever been. So we have a lot to do. We have a lot on the record to correct.”

JENNIFER SMITH

FROM COMMONWEALTH

House backs HDIP: The House comes around on market-rate housing initiative by including new funding for the Housing Development Incentive Program in a spending bill rather than a tax plan, as the governor and the Senate did. Read more.

OPINION

Bus bunching: Christopher Marks of TransitMatters explains bus bunching and how the MBTA can work to eliminate it. A key recommendation is doing away with fixed schedules on high-frequency routes. Read more.

Back to work faster: Karen Andreas of the North Shore Chamber of Commerce and Eileen McAnneny of the Pioneer Institute have a plan to get the jobless back to work faster and off the unemployment insurance system. Read more.

Ban fluorescents: Rep. Josh Cutler and Sen. Susan Moran say it’s time to do away with fluorescent bulbs and replace them with mercury-free LED lights. Read more.

FROM AROUND THE WEB

BEACON HILL

Gov. Maura Healey is using Florida and its governor, Ron DeSantis, as a foil in highlighting her agenda and governing values, just as DeSantis has occasionally used Massachusetts as his foil. (Boston Globe)

The state is seeking families willing to temporarily host newly arrived immigrants. (WBUR)

Some lawmakers are seeking a ban on the use of TikTok and other Chinese government-owned apps by state and local governments. (Gloucester Times)

MUNICIPAL MATTERS  

The marquee of the Mohawk Theatre in North Adams is getting a makeover even as the fate of the long-empty building is unclear. (Berkshire Eagle)

HEALTH/HEALTH CARE

The Centers for Disease Control says marijuana emergency department visits for children, teens, and young adults have spiked since the start of COVID three years ago. (Boston Herald)

WASHINGTON/NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL

Vermont is demonstrating a new facet of climate change – that catastrophic flooding can now happen almost anywhere. (New York Times)

More than 800,000 student loan borrowers are about to see $39 billion in debt erased. (NPR)

ELECTIONS

Adrienne Klein is running for city council in Cambridge and finds herself at odds with a new city policy requiring municipal employees to resign or take unpaid leave if they are running for elected office. (Boston Globe)

BUSINESS/ECONOMY

Gun enthusiasts are mixed on a firearms reform bill that targets “ghost guns” and calls for better data collection, but could also impact youth organizations offering shooting courses. (Worcester Telegram)

ARTS/CULTURE

The oldest Black-owned summer camp, Camp Atwater, has resumed full time operations after a pandemic pause. (MassLive)

The Screen Actors Guild and Writers Guild of America strikes are impacting film and television production in New Bedford. (New Bedford Standard-Times)

TRANSPORTATION

A 16-year-old girl was charged with assault and battery in what appears to be an unprovoked attack on a woman on a Silver Line bus. (Boston Herald)