The Bunker Hill Monument Association (BHMA) is calling upon the Boston Landmarks Commission and the Monument Square Landmark District Study Committee to suspend and nullify the current Monument Square Landmark District study process, citing material historical omissions, the absence of a military historian from its study process, and concerns regarding the inadequacy of the study’s stated basis for designation.
Members of the BHMA board assert that the study for the pending Landmark District places primary emphasis on the nineteenth-century ‘planned development’ of Monument Square, while failing to give formal and substantive recognition to the military events that gave the site its enduring significance. Board members also expressed concern that the current monument Square Landmark District Study committee does not include a qualified military historian among its contributors. “To elevate this secondary use of the land while excluding the revolutionary war events that gave the land its meaning is a misrepresentation of Monument Square’s core significance,” said BHMA board director, Johanna Hynes, “The meaning of Monument Square cannot be severed from the land on which the events of June 17, 1775 – March 17, 1776 unfolded. The omission of these military events from the pending district’s narrative has undermined the integrity of the committee’s process.
Chapter 772 of the Acts of 1975, authorizes the Boston Landmarks Commission to designate sites associated with historic military events that took place across the city, state, New England and or nation as local landmarks. Events such as the Battle of Bunker Hill and the nine month fortification that followed clearly meet this standard. According to the BHMA board, Monument Square was created to pay for the Monument, and the Monument was built to memorialize and mark the Battle of Bunker Hill. The organization’s leadership opposes the framing of any pending landmark district in Monument Square that does not include our nation’s first army battle – an epic military event – as part of its narrative, standards and criteria.
Bunker Hill Monument Association