At Bunker Hill, history receives a makeover
It is called the Lodge, and for 105 years it has been the first stop for any school group, tourist, or history buff visiting the Bunker Hill Monument in Charlestown.
Entering the mausoleum-like structure at the base of the famous obelisk, visitors dutifully passed a marble statue of an imposing Revolutionary War general and three dioramas from the 1970s with tiny figurines doing battle on a faux-grass hill. Created as a majestic gateway, the Lodge had become a cramped, overheated choke point, woefully inadequate for 200,000 annual visitors, officials said.
No longer.
The National Park Service, after rethinking the way it presents the history of one of America's the most pivotal battles, has culled artifacts from local archives and hired a local muralist. Tomorrow, the result, an airy new Bunker Hill Museum, will open to the public.
Across the street from the monument and no longer confined to the stone Lodge, the exhibits sprawl across two floors of a building that until 1970 housed the Charlestown branch of the Boston Public Library.
Inside, big colorful panels describe the battle and the building of the monument, and display cases show weaponry wielded in the bloody fight. Upstairs, in a circular painting overhead, known as a cyclorama, Arlington muralist John Coles presents images of black and Native American soldiers largely excluded from previous histories.
"The facilities were inadequate to tell the stories both of the battle and of the history of the commemorative efforts," said Martin H. Blatt, the Park Service's chief of cultural resources in Boston. "Everything was cramped into a space that was supposed to be contemplative. Now, you can come here and have a full museum experience and hear about the Battle of Bunker Hill, which really is the launching battle of the American Revolution."
Local historians are enthusiastic.
"It looks beautiful," said Arthur Hurley, president of the Charlestown Historical Society, which created an exhibit for the museum about the neighborhood's Irish past. "This was all done professionally. . . . And it's colorful and informative and interesting. The whole experience looks great."
Beautiful though it may be, the museum recounts one of the most gruesome battles of the Revolutionary War. On June 17, 1775, two months after the shot heard 'round the world, British soldiers, alarmed at the growing rebellion, set fire to Charlestown and launched an assault on a motley army of local farmers, tradesmen, and merchants who had built an earthen fort on Breed's Hill. Wielding rifles with bayonets, the British mounted three attacks. Over hours of bloody combat, they marched up the hill until they faced the colonists, who threw rocks and sticks.
The British won the battle, but historians consider it a Pyrrhic victory. The redcoats lost more than 1,000 troops, compared to about 400 dead among the colonists.
"There was a possibility, even after Lexington and Concord, of reconciliation, but there was no turning back from war after this, so this is a very key story," Blatt said.
Fifty years later, in 1825, the Marquis de Lafayette, a hero of the French and American revolutions, stood before 100,000 spectators and laid the cornerstone for the monument, a 221-foot granite obelisk, on nearby Bunker Hill.
It was dedicated in 1843. In 1902, the Lodge, with Ionic columns and heavy metal doors, opened. Built for 50 visitors at a time, it was designed as a meditative space. But it was often packed shoulder to shoulder with visitors.
About four years ago, the Park Service launched plans for a $3.7 million renovation of the monument. Mortar was replaced on granite blocks on the north and east sides. Workers also added 76 powerful floodlights trained on the obelisk and built wheelchair ramps to the monument. The new museum cost $750,000.
With $500,000 donated by the Masons, who count Bunker Hill veterans among their ranks, the Park Service refurbished the former branch library. The collection, donated by the Massachusetts Historical Society, the Masons, and the Bostonian Society, includes a British drum seized by the colonists, a British sword with nicked brass hilt, and two pitted metal cannonballs. Even the dioramas have been jazzed up with colored lights and an audio recording.
Yesterday, workers were putting the finishing touches on the museum, varnishing the main desk and adjusting the lights on the cyclorama. Tomorrow, they will open the doors with a ceremony intended to highlight the alliances that have grown between forces that once battled on the hill. Besides Mayor Thomas M. Menino, the speakers include the François Gauthier, the French consul general in Boston, and his British counterpart, Deputy Consul General David Chun.
Michael Levenson can be reached at mlevenson@globe.com. 