Buckman Tavern, Lexington, MA

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The Buckman Tavern is located to the right of the Lexington Battle Green and faces eastward towards the rising sun. It was built about 1690 by Benjamin Muzzey and a license was granted in 1693 making it the first Public House in Lexington. Muzzey operated the tavern for years before his son John took over. At the time of the Battle of Lexington, Muzzey’s granddaughter and her husband John Buckman were running it. John was a member of the Lexington Minuteman Company and the minutemen enjoyed gathering there when they were training on the Lexington common. On the dawn of April 19, 1775, several dozen minutemen gathered around the tavern to wait for British troops who were coming westward to seize arms in Concord. Just before sunrise, Captain Parker’s company of minutemen left the tavern and formed two lines on the common to oppose the advancing British troops. As the British arrived, a single shot was fired, which was thought to have come from the tavern. After the Revolutionary War, this tavern contained Lexington’s first village store and later on in 1812, the town’s first post office. Today, the tavern is operated as a museum by the Lexington Historical Society. To the left of the tavern, at the edge of the Battle Green, is the statue of Captain Parker, facing eastward.