Meeting house where Boston Tea Party started damaged, closed

BOSTON (AP) - The historic meeting house where colonists gathered to begin challenging British rule in the years leading to the American Revolution and launched the Boston Tea Party has been damaged and closed to the public.

Officials say the Old South Meeting House sustained accidental damage from nearby construction.

The meeting house is one of the country's most important colonial-era sites. It may be best known as the location where the Boston Tea Party began in 1773 when colonists dumped tea into Boston Harbor in defiance of the Tea Act, seen by many as a form of taxation without representation.

Meeting house officials say in a statement posted Tuesday on Facebook they're "making great progress and plan to reopen by the end of the week."

The building has been closed for the past seven days.