Meeting House Hill

This quintessential New England scene depicts Meeting House Hill in Roxbury, Massachusetts, a town founded in 1630 that is situated just outside Boston, Massachusetts, opposite the small neck of land that connected the city to the mainland. This made Roxbury strategically important during the Continental army’s siege of Boston, which the British occupied following the outbreak of war. The Patriot army encamped on Meeting House Hill, controlling land access to the city and preventing supplies from crossing Boston neck. When this painting was completed in 1799, the patriots’ defensive earthworks were still standing and are visible to the right of the church steeple and along the horizon on the far left.

Samuel Curtis (1785-1876), painter
Roxbury, Massachusetts, 1799
Oil paint on canvas

1918.764