Isaac Royall House
MA - Boston, Massachusetts, USA
15 George St, Medford, MA 02155, USA
_facade.JPG)
MUSEUM
VISITOR INFORMATION
TICKET REQUIRED
Open weekends only, Saturday and Sunday, 1-4pm; group and school tours can be arranged separately.
FREE PUBLIC PARKING
The Slave Quarters building, which includes the restrooms, gift shop and archaeology exhibit, is free to enter. Touring the main mansion requires a paid guided tour.
SITE FEATURES
Surviving Structures
Summer tourism and major holiday periods may add demand (Boston regional inference). Site-specific monthly peak unconfirmed.
Late May-June or September-October for a confirmed tour paired with milder Medford walks. Check the current public-tour season and guided mansion availability.
HISTORIC SITES NEARBY
Nearby Historic Sites
miles
Landmark
WHO WAS HERE
2
George Washington
John Stark
About Isaac Royall House
The Royall House was the home of the Royall family, among the largest enslavers in Massachusetts. Its surviving slave quarters document the forced labor that supported the estate. During the American Revolution, the property was associated with General John Stark, Molly Stark, and George Washington. The house and quarters are now preserved and interpreted as a historic site.
A nonprofit museum in Medford occupies the surviving eighteenth-century mansion and adjacent slave quarters. Restored rooms, collections, archaeological resources, gardens, and grounds interpret the Royall household alongside the lives and labor of the enslaved people who lived there.
History happened here at Isaac Royall House
During the American Revolution, the Royall family were Loyalists, and after British soldiers skirmished with Patriot militiamen at the battles of Lexington and Concord in 1775, the Royalls left Medford and boarded a ship in Boston. They sailed to Halifax, Nova Scotia and then to England. Isaac Royall never returned to Medford.
After the Royalls' flight, the Massachusetts General Court confiscated the estate. John Stark made the Royall House his headquarters before the British evacuation of Boston on March 17, 1776. The mansion was used during the early months of the Revolution by Generals Lee, Stark, and Sullivan. George Washington, according to legend, interrogated two British soldiers in the house's Marble Chamber. The story that Molly Starkwatched the movements of the British troops in their camp by the river from a lookout on the roof is undocumented.
PEOPLE WHO LIVED HERE
PEOPLE WHO DIED HERE
PEOPLE AT REST HERE
EXTERNAL LINKS
Royall House and Slave Quarters, official site: https://royallhouse.org/
Royall House and Slave Quarters, institution: https://royallhouse.org/about-us/
Royall House and Slave Quarters, Royall family: https://royallhouse.org/the-royalls/
Royall House and Slave Quarters, slave quarters: https://royallhouse.org/what-youll-see/the-slave-quarters/
National Park Service, landmark nomination: https://npgallery.nps.gov/NRHP/GetAsset/NHLS/66000786_text