This is part of a series on Lafayette’s visit to Massachusetts August 23, 1824 to September 3 1824.
Prequel
Lafayette started his trip north from Manhattan on the morning of August 20. I like to think of the trip beginning in Harlem at Lafayette Square
Statue in Lafayette Square in Harlem
The statue designed by Frederic Bartholdi was not there till 1900. It is a replica of a statue in Paris that went up in 1895. Think of Lafayette as going up I-95 or U.S. 1. There were numerous stops along the way as Lafayette would learn that his tremendous popularity was not just a New York thing, He spent the night of August 22 in Plainfield, Connecticut and received a tremendous reception in Providence. Around 6:00 PM he was at the state border in Pawtucket where Rhode Island militia would hand him off to Massachusetts militia and our account begins.
August 23 Evening And Night
The General crossed the state line around 6:00 PM changing his barouche for a traveling coach with four bays. He was preceded by the governor’s aides in a barouche and followed by the committee from New York in another coach. Houses along the road were illuminated. Children were offering flowers. Citizens were shouting and held torches to light the road.
At Walpole a battalion of troops saluted him while during a stop at Fuller’s Tavern.
In Dedham the whole village was illuminated. Lafayette stopped at Alden’s hotel around 10:00PM. There was artillery and ringing of bells. He shook hands with hundreds of people.
A cavalcade of gentlemen escorted him to the residence of Revolutionary War veteran Governor William Eustis (1753-1825) in Roxbury where he would spend the night. As he passed through Roxbury around 1:00 AM the Roxbury corps of artillery fired a salute of artillery and rockets. Governor Eustis and Lafayette embraced when he arrived at the mansion around 2:00 AM.
William Eustis
The Roxbury mansion where Lafayette stayed was acquired by Eustis after he returned from service as American minster to the Netherlands in 1818. It had been built by royal governor William Shirley in 1747 and is preserved today as the Shirley-Eustis House.
Shirley-Eustis House
For information on the Bicentennial project check out lafayette200.org.