Old South Meeting House

The Old South Meeting House with 33 Arch Street in the background

Boston's Old South Meeting House gained fame as the organizing point for the Boston Tea Party on December 16, 1773. 5,000 colonists gathered at the Meeting House, the largest building in Boston at the time. The church, with its 56 m (183 ft) steeple, was completed in 1729, and was almost destroyed in a the Great Fire of Boston in 1872. Famous congregation members included Benjamin Franklin and poet Phillis Wheatley.