The Hancock-Clarke House and the Lexington battle dead

Record summary

The Hancock-Clarke House sheltered John Hancock and Samuel Adams immediately before the Battles of Lexington and Concord, and its setting connects it to the first fighting of the American Revolution. Later local traditions and battlefield tourism have made Lexington’s green, roads and nearby historic buildings subjects of ghost stories. The lead is useful for studying how revolutionary memory, military death and preserved architecture acquire haunting narratives. Evidence for specific apparitions before the modern folklore era is unclear, and the house’s documented wartime history should remain distinct from later legend.