Photo: Getty Images
BOSTON (WBZ NewsRadio) — For the first time in three centuries, Boston's historic Old North Church has a woman sexton.
Chelsea Milsap is from Detroit, a descendent of Mayflower passengers with a background in project management and fire prevention. As a sexton, her responsibility is the physical side of the church, along with the spiritual. She'll be tasked with caring for all the sacred objects at the Freedom Trail stop, including the pews and the historic crypts.
Milsap says in a place as filled with history as Old North, it's easy to be awestruck by your surroundings, like a wooden clock which happens to be the oldest public clock in the nation.
"You're hearing the same exact sound that millions of people have heard as they've walked through those doors," Milsap told WBZ NewsRadio's Karyn Regal. "Like the Marquis de Lafayette, when he was here he heard that sound, those very ticks. The slaves that were trafficked through here. They heard the sound."
Milsap says she'll curate the experience at the church by contextualizing objects in the scope of history.
"People might only visit this place once in their lifetime, and it's important to make that mark on them," she said. "To make it a memory that's worth telling."
WBZ NewsRadio's Karyn Regal (@karynregal) has more:
Follow WBZ NewsRadio: Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | iHeartmedia App