Off Beat
Not even a heat wave could deter this Boston Freedom Trail icon and budding social media sensation.
Jeremiah Poope, a 23-year veteran tour guide on Boston’s Freedom Trail. Despite temperatures in the high 90s Thursday, Poope insisted on wearing his period costume. Abby Patkin/Boston.com Staff
July 2, 2026 | 7:04 PM
3 minutes to read
Sweat pouring from beneath his tricorn hat, Jeremiah Poope stood in full colonial garb Thursday as temperatures soared to about 100 degrees and a crowd of sun-drenched Freedom Trail visitors gathered around him on Boston Common.
“Yes, it is my real name, and yes, high school was fun,” the tour guide said as young children turned to their parents, grinning with incredulous delight.
But would a Poope by any other name smell as sweet? Upon starting as a Freedom Trail guide in 2003, the Worcester-area native initially opted to portray Dr. Joseph Warren, a prominent physician and Revolutionary leader who hailed from Roxbury.
“After about three tours, I was doing research on [Warren] and realized that he was, you know, very tall and handsome. So I felt, ‘Well, that doesn’t really fit the bill, unfortunately,’” Poope told Boston.com wryly.
He chose instead to embrace “Jeremiah Poope,” and thus a Freedom Trail icon — and budding social media sensation — was born.
“It’s a family name, really,” Poope explained. “It also was a good name to kind of attract the attention of students, because we do a lot of school tours and they all come down kind of expecting history to be boring. So if somebody comes and says, ‘Hi, I’m Jeremiah Poope,’ that kind of grabs their attention.”
An earlier job at the Old State House — his first after graduating from Emerson College — helped Poope get a foot in the door with Boston’s historical community. He encountered a school group chaperone there who encouraged him to become a tour guide, but a later conversation with a Freedom Trail player helped seal the deal.
“He said, ‘Would you ever consider doing what we do?’ And I said, ‘Are you kidding? I’m not putting on that costume,’” Poope recalled.
Out of curiosity, however, Poope asked the Freedom Trail guide how much he was paid.
“He told me, and I’m like, ‘When can I start?’ Because it was way more than I was making,” Poope laughed. “And I’ve been here 23 years since.”
Unlike some costumed guides on the Freedom Trail, Poope doesn’t attempt to play a specific colonial character.
“I can’t really act my way out of a paper bag,” he shrugs. “I’m just basically myself throughout the whole tour. In fact, I kind of put in a bunch of personal anecdotes through the stories of just zany things that have happened to me on the trail over the years and stuff, along with the history.
“I’ll throw in some legends and folklore that are fun, but you always have to kind of preface it by saying, ‘It has been said…’ or ‘According to legend…’ because it’s not necessarily 100 percent true.”
During a stop at the Granary Burying Ground Thursday, Poope regaled his tour with the tale of a teen who discovered a skull washed free of its final resting place, only to chase Poope around the graveyard with the remains in hand.
“Thank god they didn’t have TikTok yet,” Poope cracked. “I would have gone viral like that couple at the Coldplay concert.”
Poope peppered his tour with an anecdote about the hard-headed Benjamin Franklin statue outside Old City Hall, as well as plenty of (good-humored) digs at Paul Revere, “the Forrest Gump of Colonial America.” He also name-dropped some of New England’s lesser-known Revolution-era figures, such as Wentworth Cheswill, Phillis Wheatley, and Sybil Ludington.
“I think for a lot of kids history gets reduced to names and dates and stuff. I try to make them see that it’s human stories, and that these people — the fashions and technology were different, but inside [they] were still people, actually,” Poope explained. “These were people with hopes and dreams and fears, and they weren’t, you know, flawless marble statues.”
The crowd of Freedom Trail visitors was buzzing with energy by the time Thursday morning’s tour wrapped up near Faneuil Hall, while Poope was sweltering in a long coat and breeches. To be clear, however, that was his own doing.
“One thing I love about the people I work for, the Freedom Trail Foundation … is they’re always very concerned about the well-being of their players,” he explained. When a heat wave hits, “they make it very clear that we do not have to wear those costumes, and the importance is our comfort and safety.”
Poope said he opted to don the full regalia anyway, “just because I feel when people come from Peoria, or California, or something, they don’t want to see some guy in, like, jeans and a button-down shirt, you know?”
Still, he couldn’t help but sneak in a bit of playful sarcasm aimed at his attire.
“I’m suffering for you,” he told Thursday’s tour group. “Martyr to history here.”
Abby Patkin is a general assignment news reporter whose work touches on public transit, crime, health, and everything in between.
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