Captain Isaac Hall Hitching Post

One block north of the Mystic River, the privately-owned Isaac Hall House is believed to have been where Paul Revere made his first stop on the evening of April 18, 1775, on his famous ride to Lexington. He tethered his horse, awakened Captain Hall, and warned him of the British advance.

According to Hall Gleason in a paper read before the Medford Historical Society on March 20, 1905, Revere told a personal narrative of how after crossing the Charles River, he mounted Deacon Larkin's horse and started on his ride. He intended to pass over Charlestown Neck and through Cambridge, near what is now Sullivan Square. According to Revere, it was here that he eluded two British officers and, “went through Medford over the bridge and up to Menotomy. In Medford I waked the Captain of the Minute Men, and after that, I alarmed almost every house till I got to Lexington.” Captain Hall sent messengers to Malden and called on his Medford Minute Men to march to Lexington.

In September 1775, Captain Hall organized a company of men to march to Dorchester Heights, acting as a commissary for the troops quartered there. He was active in town affairs and served as a town officer from 1765 until his death in 1789, holding at different times the office of engine-man, wood corder, salt-measurer, assessor, and fire-warden.

Erected in 2012, the hitching post marker reads:

CAPTAIN ISAAC HALL HITCHING POST
On the night of April 18-19, 1775, on his famous ride
to Lexington, Paul Revere tethered his horse here
and awakened Captain Hall of the Medford Minute
Men to tell him that “The Regulars are out.”
Dedicated April 19, 2012
Mayor Michael J. McGlynn
Joseph E. DeCroteau
Robert Grinley
Mayor Thomas E. Convery USAF Ret.
The Medford Historical Society