Banned in Boston · STOP 05 · Downtown
This corner held the house of the woman Boston banished in 1637, and later the shop of the city's great literary publishers.
A little brick building from just after the fire of 1711 sits on the lot of a woman the colony banished in 1637 for holding meetings in her house. Later the same corner sold Hawthorne and Thoreau, and in 1903 a clerk here was arrested for selling Rabelais to the Watch and Ward. It's still on the corner, under its gambrel roof. Read its marker.
This is stop 5 of Banned in Boston. Walk it - any two stops are free.
The plate
Not Fit for Our Society
Collected on site
Corner of School Street and Washington Street
Directions
Near State · Near Downtown Crossing · Near Government Center · Near Park Street · Near Bowdoin
Sources (6)
- The Old Corner Bookstore markerHMdb #18085 (photos Bill Coughlin Apr 14 2009; page revised Jan 30 2023); erected by the Bostonian Society · 2009-04
- Anne HutchinsonWikipedia (citing Winship 2002, Battis 1962, LaPlante 2004) · accessed Oct 2026
- Life of Anne Hutchinson: with a sketch of the Antinomian controversy in MassachusettsGeorge E. Ellis (Library of American Biography), archive.org lifeofannehutchi00elli · 1845
- The Examination of Mrs. Anne Hutchinson at the Court at Newtown (1637), excerpt in Sources for America's HistoryBedford/St. Martin's (Macmillan), Henretta et al.; transcript from Thomas Hutchinson, The History of the Province of Massachusets-Bay (Boston, 1767), 482-520 · 1767 (transcript); accessed Oct 2026
- Walt Whitman to William D. O'Connor, 17 May 1882 (with editorial notes)The Walt Whitman Archive · 1882-05-17
- Banned in Boston: A Brief Tour Through 20th Century CensorshipBoston Magazine · accessed Oct 2026