His contributions probably came in about 1772, after a four-year period of the General Assembly having to meet in Cambridge due to British use of the building as a military barracks, which resulted in considerable damage.

[7][8][9] A notable feature is the pair of seven-foot tall wooden figures depicting a lion and unicorn, symbols of the British monarchy.

A Royal Coat of Arms was removed from Council Chambers during the Revolution by Loyalists fleeing Boston;[10] it has been at Trinity Anglican Church in Saint John, New Brunswick since 1791.

[15] In 1755, Spencer Phips, Lieutenant Governor of the Province of Massachusetts Bay, signed a Proclamation at the Old State House calling on all settlers to hunt and murder Penobscot men and women in exchange for pay and land.

Lieutenant Governor Thomas Hutchinson stood on the building's balcony to speak to the people, ordering the crowd to return to their homes.

[18] On July 18, 1776, Colonel Thomas Crafts read the Declaration of Independence from the east side balcony to jubilant crowds.

In 1830, Isaiah Rogers altered the building's interior in a Greek Revival style, most notably adding the spiral staircase that remains today.

On October 21, 1835, Mayor Theodore Lyman, Jr. gave temporary refuge to William Lloyd Garrison, the editor of the abolitionist paper The Liberator, who was being chased by a violent mob.

Garrison was kept safe in the Old State House until being driven to the Leverett Street Jail, where he was protected overnight but charged with inciting a riot.

[22] The Bostonian Society was formed in 1881 to preserve and steward the Old State House, in response to plans for the possible demolition of the building due to real estate potential.

[24] On the West side, the building sports a statue of an eagle in recognition of the Old State House's connection to American history.

[27] If Paul Revere, Samuel Adams, and other patriots could have known that one day a British monarch would stand on the balcony of the Old State House, from which the Declaration of Independence was first read to the people of Boston, and be greeted in such kind and generous words—well, I think they would have been extremely surprised!

But perhaps they would also have been pleased to know that eventually we came together again as free peoples and friends to defend together the very ideals for which the American Revolution was fought.Today, tall buildings of Boston's financial district surround the Old State House.

The Old State House frequently has preservation and restoration projects as a part of the ongoing effort to keep the building in good condition.