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24-716: The Christian Science Plaza is a 13.5-acre (5.5 ha) site on the corner of Massachusetts Avenue and Huntington Avenue in the Back Bay neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts . The plaza, which is owned by the Church of Christ, Scientist (the Christian Science church), was designated as a Boston Landmark by the Boston Landmarks Commission in 2011, with the Commission describing it as

48-765: A stop on the Silver Line bus, and LexPress. MBTA subway stations, from west to east, include Porter , Harvard , and Central along the Red Line ; both the Hynes Convention Center and Symphony along the Green Line ; and a station along the Orange Line under the Mass Ave. name. An additional stop at Arlington Center was mooted during the 1980s Red Line extension but ultimately

72-539: A "heavily-used public space." The site houses the religion's administrative center and its Mother Church, The First Church of Christ, Scientist . The Christian Science Plaza comprises 10.4 acres (4.2 ha) of open space, a 690 x 100 ft (210 x 30 m) reflecting pool , a children's fountain, and six buildings: 42°20′40″N 71°05′03″W  /  42.3445°N 71.0843°W  / 42.3445; -71.0843 Massachusetts Avenue (metropolitan Boston) The street begins at Everett Square in

96-609: A British expedition was on its way to arrest them. Warren also instructed Revere and Dawes to warn provincial officials in Concord that British troops intended to confiscate or destroy the armaments being amassed there by the province's militia . Revere and Dawes took different routes but met in Lexington about midnight and successfully warned Adams and Hancock, who quickly left Lexington. Revere and Dawes then proceeded towards Concord to complete their second mission. Samuel Prescott

120-472: A Dr. Prescott. According to this account, Prescott died in prison in 1777. Although corroborating evidence that this was Dr. Samuel Prescott of Concord is lacking, these details are most often accepted as fact. Prescott's arrival in Concord is reenacted every year at midnight on April 19. The reenactment is preceded by a Patriots' Ball and a procession by modern day Minuteman, ceremonial honor guards, and fife and drum units. Prescott's supposed ride through Acton

144-445: A larger scouting party sent out from Boston the previous evening to stop any provincial alarm riders or couriers. The soldiers captured Revere but both Prescott and Dawes escaped. Dawes was thrown from his horse and went back to Lexington. Prescott, according to Revere's account, took off on horseback towards a stone wall, jumped his horse over it, and disappeared into dense woods. After riding through woods and swamp, Prescott emerged at

168-486: A physician, as his father and grandfather had been before him. According to tradition, Samuel Prescott was courting Lydia Mulliken of Lexington, Massachusetts , just prior to the outbreak of the American Revolution. Lydia lived with her widowed mother, four brothers and two sisters in a home across Cambridge Road from Munroe's Tavern. Her older sibling, Nathanial, worked in his late father's clock shop and

192-592: The Hartwell Tavern . He alerted the Hartwell family who, in turn, raced off to warn others. Word soon reached Capt. William Smith, commander of the Lincoln minutemen , who ordered the town bell rung as a signal for his company to muster. On his way to Concord, Prescott alerted other houses in Lincoln and soon additional riders rode off to alert other towns. When Prescott arrived in Concord, he gave word to

216-503: The Minuteman National Historical Park . The road, by the same name, continues northwest and west, through many different cities and towns. It largely parallels or joins Route 2 and Route 2A , all the way into central Massachusetts, with a few gaps at towns that have different names for the central road. For much of its length, Massachusetts Avenue is a center of commercial activity, especially through

240-719: The Boston neighborhood of Dorchester and runs southeast-northwest through Boston, paralleling Interstate 93 for a short distance. Massachusetts Avenue passes below part of the Boston Medical Center complex near Harrison Street, before passing above routes 9 , 2 , and the Massachusetts Turnpike ( Interstate 90 ). It crosses the Charles River from the Back Bay neighborhood of Boston into

264-647: The city of Cambridge via the Harvard Bridge , where it passes both U.S. Route 3 and MA-Route 3 , it then bisects the campus of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology , passes through Central Square , and curves around two sides of Harvard Yard at Harvard Square . After Harvard Square it turns sharply northward, passes Harvard Law School , then passes through Porter Square , where it bears northwestward. It continues through North Cambridge , Arlington , and Lexington , where it enters

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288-517: The end of the nineteenth century from what were separate roads. In Boston the road was previously called East Chester Park south of Chester Square and West Chester Park to the north (Chester Square is in the South End and is now called Chester Park). Across the river in Cambridge the road follows part of what was once Front Street near the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and then follows

312-668: The former Main Street south of the Battle Green and the former Monument Street north of the Battle Green. Massachusetts Avenue is served with direct connections for a number of the MBTA 's bus and subway routes between Lexington and Boston. Direct bus connections on Mass Ave include 1 , 8 , 10 , 16 , 17 , 39 , 43 , 47 , 55 , 62 , 64 , 66 , 67 , 68 , 69 , 70 , 71 , 72 , 73 , 74 , 75 , 76 , 77 , 78 , 79 , 83 , 86 , 91 , 96 , 170 , 350 , 351 , CT2 , CT3 ,

336-580: The former Main Street to Harvard Square (Main Street originally ran between Kendall and Harvard Squares, and the part to the east of Central Square retains the original name). From Harvard Square to the Arlington line at Alewife Brook it follows what had been North Avenue since 1838, and prior to that the Road to Menotomy. In Arlington it follows the former Arlington Avenue, and in Lexington it follows

360-839: The larger towns. Apartments, shops, and restaurants fill both sides of it, and there is a lot of pedestrian traffic. A number of linear parks cut across various portions of Mass. Ave., including the Southwest Corridor Park , the Commonwealth Avenue portion of the Emerald Necklace , the Charles River Bike Path , the Cambridge Linear Park , Alewife Brook Reservation , and the Minuteman Bikeway . On

384-591: The night of April 18–19, 1775, Paul Revere rode his horse down a portion of this road, then known as the Great Road, on his "Midnight Ride", and William Dawes and Samuel Prescott also rode on portions of this road on their way to Concord . These travels were on the Cambridge side of the Charles River ; the Harvard Bridge was not constructed until the 1880s. Massachusetts Avenue was formed at

408-611: The ride are scant and inconclusive. According to historian D. Michael Ryan, a record of a "Dr. Sall Prescott" serving as a surgeon at Fort Ticonderoga in 1776 has led many historians to conclude that Prescott served the Continental Army in a medical capacity. A Revolutionary War veteran from Ashburnham, Massachusetts , recorded in his memoir that he had been imprisoned by the British in a prison in Halifax, Nova Scotia , with

432-513: The sentry there and the Concord First Parish Church bell was rung to alert the town. Thus Prescott completed the second objective given to Revere and Dawes. In Concord, Prescott bid his brother Abel to ride to Sudbury to alert companies there while, according to tradition, Samuel rode to Acton and Stow to carry the alarm there. Abel was fired on by a British regular who spotted him as he was returning from Acton and Stow; he

456-617: The townspeople of Concord, Massachusetts , of the impending British army move to capture guns and gunpowder kept there at the beginning of the American Revolution. He was the only participant in the ride to reach Concord. Little is known for certain about Prescott's life outside of his involvement in the dramatic events before and during the Battles of Lexington and Concord . He was born on August 19, 1751. He grew up in Concord, Massachusetts , where his family had lived for generations. He became

480-816: Was a member of Captain John Parker 's militia. Due to the fact that Paul Revere referred to Prescott as a "high son of Liberty," (meaning an ardent supporter of the Patriot cause), some have speculated that Prescott had ties to the Sons of Liberty or acted as a courier for the Committees of Correspondence prior to the start of the Revolution. On the evening of April 18, 1775, Paul Revere and William Dawes were dispatched by Joseph Warren to warn Samuel Adams and John Hancock , who were then in Lexington, that

504-546: Was headed home to Concord from Lexington when he encountered Revere and Dawes on horseback around 1 a.m. on April 19. Revere later described their meeting in his 1775 deposition to the Massachusetts Provincial Congress and in a 1798 letter to Jeremy Belknap . Revere claimed that Prescott was a "high son of Liberty"--suggesting that he was trustworthy. Upon hearing about their mission, Prescott offered to assist Revere and Dawes, pointing out that he

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528-465: Was known in the area and residents would be more likely to believe a warning coming from him rather than strangers. Proceeding along the road to Concord, the three riders warned residents of several houses in Lincoln, Massachusetts , by knocking on doors. It was in Lincoln, not far from the Concord town line, that a British mounted patrol intercepted the three riders . The British soldiers were part of

552-720: Was not constructed. Two MBTA Commuter Rail stations are located on Massachusetts Avenue, Porter in Cambridge and Newmarket at the South Bay Shopping Center in Dorchester . Samuel Prescott Samuel Prescott (August 19, 1751 – c.  1777 ) was an American physician and a Massachusetts Patriot during the American Revolutionary War . He is best known for his role in Paul Revere 's " midnight ride " to warn

576-538: Was slightly wounded in the side, but succeeded in making his escape by secreting himself in the house of a Mrs. Heywood. Due to Prescott's efforts that night, the minuteman and militia companies in numerous towns were alerted, mustered, and marched to Concord in time to engage the British Army at the Old North Bridge and other locations along the road to Boston. Details relating to Prescott's life after

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