Chances are you’ve passed by this old red brick building at 206 Washington Street in Boston and noticed how out of place it looks against a backdrop of modern skyscrapers made of concrete, steel and glass. Maybe you even cared enough to wonder about its origin.

How did this little building get here and why is it still standing?

The building is the Old State House a/k/a the Old Provincial State House. It’s an historic building built in 1713 and was once the seat of the Massachusetts General Court (Massachusetts Legislature) until 1798. 

Situated at the corner of Washington and State Streets, it is one of the oldest public buildings in the United States. 

The “Towne House” acted as a merchant’s exchange on the first floor, according to the National Park Service (NPS).

“The second floor served as the seat of colonial and later state government throughout the 1700s,” according to the NPS.

The NPS says, “The royal governor, appointed by the King of Great Britain, held his office in the building until 1775, and from the balcony he gave voice to the King, 3,000 miles removed from London.”

Bostonians first heard the Declaration of Independence read from the same balcony and 200 years later Britain’s Queen Elizabeth celebrated America’s Bicentennial from there.

So why is the Old State House still relevant in 2024?

The Boston Massacre occurred in front of the Old Provincial State House on the night of March 5, 1770, as an unruly group of colonists taunted British soldiers by throwing snowballs and rocks.

The NPS says, “Firing upon the crowd, the British killed five colonists, including Crispus Attucks,” an American whaler, sailor, and stevedore of African and Native American descent from Framingham, Massachusetts.

The Library of Congress says the Boston Massacre “helped galvanize Boston and the colonies against the mother country.”

READ MORE: The Boston Photographer Who Claimed to Capture Lincoln’s Ghost on Film

John Adams, as a young lawyer and the future president served as counsel for the defense in the trial of eight British soldiers accused of murder” in the Boston massacre. Adams argued the men acted in self-defense.

All eight were found not guilty of murder. Two were convicted of manslaughter.  

At a virtual hearing in federal bankruptcy court Tuesday, Judge Christopher Lopez in Houston said he was focused on ensuring patient safety as the chain reckons with its crushing debts: ”Real people receiving real care in real time . . . are at the forefront of my mind today.”

The hearing was the start of a months-long process to get the hospitals on a sound financial footing. The court must sort through all of Steward’s financial transactions over the past few years and determine which creditors will be paid back, all while the hospitals continue serving thousands of patients.

During the hearing, Steward also disclosed that it is conducting an internal investigation into “any claims or causes of action of the company against insiders of the company,” according to a presentation from its lawyers. “This investigation is ongoing.”

The investigation is being overseen by a three-person committee that includes independent Steward board members Alan Carr and William Transier plus John Castellano, an investment banker from AlixPartners working on the company’s restructuring.

The group, called the transformation committee, also has “full and exclusive authority” to oversee financing, sales, and restructuring transactions, according to the presentation.

The aggressive timeline for sale of the hospitals was a condition of a $75 million loan Steward needs while it reorganizes its debts. The company owes more than $1 billion to “secured” lenders, who received collateral to protect their loans, and more than $7 billion on long-term leases and loans from its main landlord, Medical Properties Trust, according to the company’s presentation at the hearing. Steward also owes an additional $1 billion in unsecured debts to other service providers and contractors.

The latest loan obligates the company to conduct a rapid sale process, Ray Schrock, Steward’s lawyer, told Judge Lopez during the hearing.

Under the loan terms, Steward would have to take bids on all its hospitals except nine in Florida by June 25, with an auction to be held on June 28. Bids would be due on the nine Florida hospitals by July 26, with an auction on July 30. The company has already begun seeking potential buyers for all of its hospitals, Schrock said.

“I’m not going to say we are happy with the timeline,” Schrock said regarding the June deadline for the first group of sales. “It’s not feasible.” The later Florida deadline was “more realistic,” he said.

Steward had already received letters of interest from potential buyers offering to buy some of the hospitals, Schrock said. But he added that hospital sales typically require approval from state, local, and sometimes federal authorities.

Bankruptcy attorney Adam Ruttenberg, a partner at Beacon Law Group in Boston who is not working on the Steward case, said it was unlikely the hospitals could be sold by the end of the June because of the required regulatory approvals.

“It depends on what you mean by sell,” Ruttenberg said. “Are we talking about having a buyer identified? Seven weeks to get bidders and identify who your best bidders are, that’s not unrealistic. Or are we talking about having a sale approved and closed? That strikes me as wishful thinking.”

Boards often appoint special committees, such as the Steward transformation committee, with the power to authorize transactions and investigate insiders in bankruptcy cases, Ruttenberg said.

“It’s standard in any case where there are hints of wrongdoing,” he said.

While no allegations of wrongdoing have publicly been aired as part of the days-old bankruptcy case, the company has faced dozens of lawsuits, including allegations it has not met contractual obligations to various business partners and has failed to pay its bills.

In addition, Steward has been subjected to increasing criticism from public officials. Governor Maura Healey, for instance, has raised the possibility that Steward may have broken the law in its business dealings. “We don’t have enough to know what they’ve done, whether it’s criminal or illegal, but to me it really smells,” she told the Globe in February.

The sales timeline could be altered, particularly if Steward found a different lender. Steward is also seeking to sell its doctor network, Stewardship Health, but a deal with insurance giant UnitedHealth has been slowed by regulatory concerns. “We’re still working through that,” Schrock said.

In the end, the company may retain some of the hospitals, Schrock said. Healey wants Steward to sell all of its facilities in the state.

“We are going to look at reorganizing around a smaller footprint of hospitals,” Schrock said. The Florida hospitals are the “most profitable portion,” he said.

Andrew Troop, a lawyer at Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman who is representing Massachusetts, urged the judge to approve an order allowing doctors and other Steward employees to continue receiving their pay. “This is not a typical case,” Troop said. “Patients are waiting for the outcome of this hearing.”

Lopez said he planned to approve the order because he wanted doctors treating patients to “have nothing in the back of their minds.”

Steward did not assent to everything its lenders requested, Schrock said. Some lenders wanted Steward to issue notices under the US Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act that it could conduct mass layoffs at hospitals within 60 days. But Steward pushed back, Shrock said, because “we don’t think there’s going to be any closures.”

Since Steward’s cash crunch started last year, Medical Property Trust has deferred $166 million in rent and injected $141 million of cash into the hospital operator, Thomas Patterson, a lawyer for the real estate company said.

In Massachusetts, Steward’s hospitals include St. Elizabeth’s Medical Center in Brighton, Carney Hospital in Dorchester, Good Samaritan in Brockton, Holy Family in Methuen and Haverhill, Morton Hospital in Taunton, Nashoba Valley in Ayer, and Saint Anne’s in Fall River. It also runs Norwood Hospital, which has been closed since 2020 due to flooding.

Aaron Pressman can be reached at aaron.pressman@globe.com. Follow him @ampressman. Robert Weisman can be reached at robert.weisman@globe.com.

CAPE COD, MA — The Massachusetts House of Representatives recently agreed to a Fiscal Year 2025 budget, passing the bill onto the state Senate with multiple funding measures that bring dollars to Cape Cod.

Rep. Dylan Fernandes said there is $935,000 in state funding for the Cape and Islands in the FY2025 Massachusetts House of Representatives budget.

“Delivering results for the people I represent is the most important part of this job, and this $935,000 in funding delivers on key district priorities,” said Fernandes.

“The amendments I passed will support many of the attributes that make our community special by investing in fishing families and healthy oceans, boosting our research and education economy, providing healthy recreation and after-school activities for children, and strengthening Cape Cod’s economic competitiveness.”

Among the funding is $60,000 for Cape Cod YMCA to support their efforts to build a YMCA facility on the Upper Cape.

The planned construction of the Upper Cape YMCA would expand the facility’s capacity to offer a wider range of activities and programs.

Rep. Fernandes said he also fought for a $700,000 funding tranche for healthy oceans and local fishermen.

Of that, $500,000 will be directed to the Cape Cod Commercial Fishermen’s Alliance to procure sustainable fishing equipment and adopt sustainable fishing practices. A further $150,000 was directed to fund shellfish propagation on the Cape and Islands, supporting a culturally, environmentally and economically significant industry.

Finally, $50,000 was earmarked for the Martha’s Vineyard Fishermen’s Preservation Trust to support their food distribution program and otherwise support the fishing industry on-island.

The House also adopted a $100,000 budget amendment for Marine Biological Laboratory’s research and educational programs. These funds will be used to support ongoing research projects, enhance educational outreach initiatives, and further solidify Wood’s Hole’s status as a world leader in ocean research.

“The MBL is grateful for the state’s support for our world-renowned research and training programs, which help bolster the state’s economy by bringing 1,400 scientists and students to Woods Hole each year,” said Dr. Nipam Patel, Director of the Marine Biological Laboratory.

“We thank Representative Fernandes and Chairman Michlewitz for their efforts to ensure that the MBL has the programs it needs to continue to make the MBL and the state of Massachusetts a leader in biological, biomedical, and environmental sciences.”

The Cape Cod Chamber of Commerce could also receive $75,000 in funding if the budget passes, with the money slated to expand workforce development programming and help train commercial drivers on Cape Cod, officials said.

The legislation now moves to the Senate for approval, something that could happen by the end of May.