Though most known for its Revolutionary-era protests, Faneuil Hall has served as a gathering space for successive generations to discuss and debate the meaning and legacy of American liberty.
About Faneuil Hall
For 275 years and counting, Faneuil Hall has hosted meetings, protests, celebrations, ceremonies, and debates. Because Revolutionary-era meetings and protests took place so frequently at the hall, successive generations continued to gather at the Hall in their own struggles over the meaning and legacy of American liberty. Abolitionists, women's suffragists, and labor unionists name just the largest of groups who have held protests, meetings, and debates at Faneuil Hall.
Faneuil Hall is owned by the City of Boston and operated as a visitor center and historic site by the National Park Service.
The National Park Service Visitor Center is located on the market (first floor) and the lower level of the building. The Great Hall is located on the second floor.
The Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company occupy and operate the fourth floor. Their museum and meeting hall is independently operated and generally open on weekdays, 9:00 AM - 3:00 PM.
Hours
Today's Hours: Faneuil Hall Visitor Center:Loading... The Great Hall:Loading... All operating hours
Admission
Free admission on all floors.
Ranger Programming
Ranger programs in the Great Hall are available year-round when the hall is not closed for City-sponsored events.
Films, activities, and programs are scheduled regularly in the Find Your Park space on the lower level.
Ranger-led tours of the Freedom Trail begin at Faneuil Hall seasonally.
Faneuil Hall is accessible via the ramp and elevator on the south side of the building.
Contact Info and Directions
Directions to Faneuil Hall by public transportation and by car can be found on our Directions webpage.
Faneuil Hall Visitor Center Phone Number: 617-429-6760
Address: 1 Faneuil Hall Square, Boston, MA 02109
The Visitor Center Desk is located on the Market (1st) floor. To access the Great Hall on the 2nd floor, either enter the building through the main central doors across from Quincy Market or take the elevator from the Market floor.
For 275 years, Faneuil Hall has served as a platform for voice and debate for generations of Bostonians. First a space for town meetings and Revolutionary-era protests, the Great Hall of Faneuil Hall has since welcomed abolitionists, women's suffragists, labor unionists, LGBTQ+ activists, and others for protests, meetings, and debates.
Faneuil Hall 2017 in Boston, Massachusetts is not the Faneuil Hall of 1767, Nor is Boston for that fact. Today, Faneuil Hall, and the adjacent Quincy Hall Marketplace, is an international destination for shoppers to the historic marketplace in the oldest part of Boston. Faneuil Hall, a gift to the residents of Boston from Peter Faneuil, allowed for a more formal marketplace and meeting hall which became the meeting place in Boston by the 1770’s. As tension grew with the m
In 1873, Lucy Stone spoke in front of a crow of 3,000 individuals at Faneuil Hall. Her words would energize the women's rights movement not only in Boston, but throughout the United States.
In 1858, Mississippi Senator Jefferson Davis spoke in Faneuil Hall against the secession of southern states and defended the Union. However, he also attempted to connect the legacy of the space to his argument that the United States should be a nation based on states' rights, and particularly the right of owning enslaved people. His views directly contrasted those of Boston abolitionists who referenced the nation's founding ideals while advocating against slavery.
Locations:Boston National Historical Park, Boston African American National Historic Site
During the struggle to desegregate Boston Public schools in the 1970s, activists rallied and protested throughout the city, including at many historic sites that now compromise the National Parks of Boston. Activists on both sides of the desegregation issue seized upon the power of place and the upcoming bicentennial of the country in 1976 to assert their voices and claim America's revolutionary legacy as their own.
On January 26, 1830, hundreds gathered in the Old Senate Chamber in Washington DC. They waited for Daniel Webster, Senator from Massachusetts, to take the floor for a much-anticipated rebuttal to Senator Robert Hayne of South Carolina. In what became known simply as his “Second Reply to Hayne,” Webster delivered a stirring address.
Gifted to the town by the merchant Peter Faneuil in 1742, Faneuil Hall originally served a dual purpose as a marketplace as well as the center of town government. In the decades and centuries that followed, Bostonians continued to gather here to assert their rights and to work for a better future.
Locations:Boston National Historical Park, Boston African American National Historic Site
On April 14, 1870 thousands gathered in Boston to celebrate the ratification of the 15th Amendment, which granted African American men the right to vote.
Chinese immigrants began to settle in Boston in the late-19th century, experiencing many challenges relating to hostility and exclusion. Through perseverance, Chinese immigrants and Chinese Americans established a community in Boston that provided services and a sense of home.
As the Italian population of Boston grew in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, this immigrant group integrated itself into the established Boston community by meeting at Boston’s traditional meeting place: Faneuil Hall.
At the turn of the 20th Century, the American Anti-Imperialist League mobilized to protest against what they believed to be the beginnings of an American Empire. Despite originating in Boston and spreading across the country, the League ultimately failed in its objectives.
Today's Hours:
Free admission on all floors.
Ranger programs in the Great Hall are available year-round when the hall is not closed for City-sponsored events.
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Faneuil Hall is accessible via the ramp and elevator on the south side of the building.
