Expedition to Concord: Land Routes from Boston
The primary land route from Boston to Cambridge was the “Old road to Roxbury”, described in Record of the Streets, Alleys, Places, Etc., in the City of Boston, 348–49, updated here with modern designations and for clarity. The circuitous Old Road to Roxbury was the earliest road from Boston, beginning south of Boston Common, heading southwestward along the route now designated by Washington Street (crossing what was once Boston Neck), then northwestward on Roxbury Street (at Dudley Square). The road then cut a path through a property that now covers the old road to meet Columbus Avenue, goes northeast a short way on Columbus, then west on Tremont Street (to Brigham Circle), where the street becomes Huntington Avenue.
Following this westerly, the road then follows the modern MBTA Green Line, the street becoming (a different) Washington Street temporarily as it passes underneath Riverway. From there, the road follows Washington Street as it turns sharply northwestward, taking the split that is Harvard Street (in Brookline) and following this past Coolidge Corner, the street eventually becoming Harvard Avenue, which dead-ends on Cambridge Street. The road then follows Cambridge Street northeastward until reaching North Harvard Street, which branches off northward (in North Allston).
Following this as it turns northeastward, the road passes the Harvard Business School off the right, the Harvard Stadium off the left, and crosses the Anderson Memorial Bridge over the Charles River, the site of the former “Great Bridge” (the only bridge near Boston that in 1775 crossed the river), then follows this road, now the J. F. Kennedy Street, to Harvard College until merging with Massachusetts Avenue (in Harvard Square). (For more on the Great Bridge, see ibid., 217.) Measured using modern digital mapping tools, the distance along this route from the south end of Boston Common to the point where J. F. Kennedy Street merges with Massachusetts Avenue is about 7.7 miles.
In contrast, the distance from the northwest of Boston Common to Cambridge center (crossing the Charles by longboat for about a mile, then traveling along the shoreline northeastward and westward over a former bridge at long-ago drained Willis Creek, then following northward along roads no longer extant until turning south and joining Cambridge Street at Inman Square, then approximately following this northwest to Cambridge center, reaching where J. F. Kennedy Street merges with Massachusetts Avenue) is just about 3.3 miles—a savings of 4.4 miles, or more than an hour’s march, over the above land route. The path through Cambridge is difficult to rectify with modern maps. (See Pelham’s 1777 map, Boston with Its Environs.)
The remainder of the route taken by the British on April 19, 1775, follows modern Massachusetts Avenue to Lexington, an additional distance of 8.5 miles to the southeast tip of Lexington Green, or 7.6 miles to Munroe’s Tavern, or 8.1 miles to the Woburn Street/Massachusetts Avenue intersection (where Percy’s reinforcement formed in line formation), or 8.8 miles to Rev. Jonas Clarke’s home north of Lexington Green.
From Lexington, the approximate route to Concord center following Massachusetts Avenue to Old Massachusetts Avenue, then up Marrett Street and down Nelson Street, cutting across the divide back to Massachusetts Avenue, then following the westward trail through the National Park Service’s Minute Man National Historic Park (Virginia Road and Old Bedford Road), passing Meriam’s Corner at the split with (the other) Old Bedford Road, then following modern Lexington Road into Concord town center is a distance of 6.8 miles from the southeast tip of Lexington Green to the modern Concord Monument in town center. For completeness, the distance from the Concord Monument to North Bridge is 0.7 miles, and the distance from the monument to Barrett’s Farm (via North Bridge), using roads that no longer exist, is 2.5 miles.
Finally, the distance from Watson’s Corner (modern Massachusetts Avenue at Rindge Avenue) to the point where modern J. F. Kennedy Street merges with Massachusetts Avenue is about 1.4 miles, and from there, as given above, it is another 7.7 miles to Boston Common, a total of 9.1 miles. For completeness, let us add that the distance from Watson’s Corner to the Jason Russell House in Menotomy (modern Arlington) is 2.4 miles.
From Watson’s Corner to the Charlestown center, the old path is difficult to derive from the lay of the modern roads. However, it is approximately Summer Street to Washington Street, then down Main Street to what was then Charlestown center, about where Main meets modern City Square Park, a distance of 4.1 miles (or just 3.3 miles from the north face of Bunker Hill). When Percy took this route, he saved about five miles on his return march to Boston.
In total, Lieutenant Colonel Smith’s expeditionary force crossed the Charles (about 1 mile) and marched to Concord center via Lexington some 17.6 miles (18.3 miles for those who went on to North Bridge, 20.1 miles for those who went on to Barrett’s Farm). They then marched 7.2 miles back from Concord center to just east of Lexington, where they found Lord Percy’s reinforcement. Percy had taken the land route from Boston and had marched 15.8 miles. Together, they then marched 10.8 miles back to Charlestown center (City Square Park).