Preserving the Russell House

The bullet holes are still in the walls. People come expecting a sanitized museum and find evidence of violence—actual holes where musket balls struck, the cellar where men died. We don't soften the story. Arlington's role on April 19 was brutal and chaotic. More people died here than at Lexington or Concord. The famous battles make good paintings. What happened here was grimmer: close-quarters killing in a family home. Jason Russell died in his doorway. Eleven men died or were wounded in his cellar. That's the reality we preserve.