The Old South Meeting House

The Old South Meeting House (OSMH) is a museum and National Historic Landmark on the Freedom Trail in downtown Boston, run by the non-profit Old South Association. Built in 1729, it served as a Puritan/Congregational meeting house until the 1870s (it was basically a church, although the Puritans didn’t call it a church because they didn’t consider the space itself to be sacred, thus it could be used for secular purposes like town meetings) and officially became a museum in 1877. Its rescue from demolition in 1876 makes it the first successful preservation effort in New England and the first public building to be successfully preserved in America because of its historical significance (discussed more below). Today, the museum consists of the main hall of the building (pictured below), which includes elements of the original 1729 architecture plus restorations from the 20th century, and an exhibit about the history of the building and its place in Boston's history.

The mission of the Old South Association which runs OSMH is:

...to preserve the Old South Meeting House and its history as inspiring symbols of free speech and democratic ideals; to sustain its tradition as an active community meeting place for the free exchange of ideas; and to be a place where people can connect with issues of the past and today through programs and exhibits. 

Today, Old South Meeting House is a busy museum, treasured National Historic Landmark and an active center for civic dialogue and free expression in the heart of downtown Boston, committed to serving a broad local and international audience. Old South Meeting House embodies the American tradition of civic discussion with thought-provoking programs that bring together people from different walks of life with a wide range of viewpoints. (http://www.osmh.org/about-us/mission) 

Following in the tradition of public speeches and meetings held in the space since the 18th century, including speeches commemorating the Boston Massacre and the debates that led to the Boston Tea Party (when 5000 people crammed into a building whose legal capacity is now about 600), the Meeting House also acts as a forum for free speech and civic discussion (as is stated in the mission statement), particularly in the 1920s when the Old South Association voted to allow speakers and public discussion "without regard to the unpopularity of any cause" (http://www.osmh.org/history/dissent-and-free-speech). This ran in direct opposition to the policies of the mayor and the city of Boston, who banned many controversial people from speaking in city, including Communist Anthony Bimba, birth control advocate Margaret Sanger and supporters of anarchists Sacco and Vanzetti.

Although its mission revolves around free speech and civic discussion, OSMH mainly acts as a history museum and a venue for educational lectures and programs for school groups and the public in general, weddings, and other events. In theory, anyone can rent out the space for any purpose, but nowadays most of its uses are relatively innocuous compared to earlier decades and centuries.