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Key Attractions Freedom Trail This is a self-guided walking tour - following a red-brick line on the pavement - that can be taken at any pace and divided up into sections but is designed to take at least one whole day. The four-kilometre (2.5-mile) trail starts from the Boston Common Visitor Information Center and passes through North End, over the River Charles and onto the Bunker Hill Monument with great views back over to the city. On the way, it takes in at least 16 historic sites associated with the movement to free the Colonies from British control and information is provided at every point. The various sites along the way have their own admission conditions and opening hours. From Boston Common Visitor Information Center, the tour first reaches the Massachusetts State House on Beacon Street. Designed by Charles Bulfinch, completed on 11 January 1798, this is the oldest building on Beacon Hill and the seat of the Massachusetts' state government. Founded in 1809 and the site of a number of important anti-slavery speeches in the early 1800s, among other historic events, the Park Street Church, 1 Park Street, is next on the trail. Then comes the Granary Burying Ground, Tremont Street, which is the final resting place of the original 'Mother' Elizabeth Goose, not to mention the revolutionaries Samuel Adams, John Hancock and Paul Revere. Next, Kings Chapel, 58 Tremont Street, houses Paul Revere's largest bell, as this hero of the Revolution was actually a silversmith and metal worker. Nearby, the trail passes a plaque marking the site of the first public school (1635) and a statue of Benjamin Franklin outside the Old City Hall. Next on the trail is the Old Corner Bookstore, 1 School Street, once a cornerstone of nineteenth-century literary activity. Then, the Old South Meeting House, 310 Washington Street, a hive of revolutionary activity and the site of the decisive meeting that took place before the Tea Party. Then, the Old State House, 206 Washington Street, which was the seat of British government in Boston, but also where the Declaration of Independence was first read in 1776 from the balcony. Nearby, a ring of cobblestones mark the site of the Boston Massacre in 1770. Faneuil Hall, next to Quincy Market, built in 1742 was a open meeting hall for 250 years and the site of much revolutionary protest. It is crowned by the famous golden grasshopper. Paul Revere's House is next on the trail at 19 North Square. Built in 1680, Boston's oldest house was home to the famous revolutionary. Nearby, the oldest church in Boston (1723), Old North Church, 193 Salem Street, gave signals to the revolutionaries warning of the movements of the 'Redcoats', the British Colonial forces, during the Revolution. The trail passes by the Copps Hill Burying Ground, the ship USS Constitution and its Museum, to finish up at the Bunker Hill Monument and Museum in Charlestown. This is where the battle of Bunker Hill, the first formal battle of the American Revolution, took place on 17 June 1775. Freedom Trail Foundation Tel: (617) 227 8800. Fax: (617) 227 2498. Website: www.thefreedomtrail.org Boston Common Visitor Information Center Tel: (617) 242 5642. Transport: Subway Park Street station. Black Heritage Trail This is a guided walking tour that covers much of the Beacon Hill district. The 2.5km (1.6-mile) trail covers 15 historic sites relating to Boston's nineteenth-century African-American community but does not enter every site. Starting from Boston Common, the first site on the trail is the Robert Gould Shaw and 54th Regiment Memorial, which is a commemoration of the first black regiment of the Civil War. Next comes one of the oldest homes built by African-Americans on Beacon Hill, the George Middleton House at 5 Pinckney Street. Nearby, on Anderson and Pinckney Streets, is the Phillips School, one of the first mixed-race schools, and the John J Smith House, at 86 Pinckney Street, which was the home of the black abolitionist who was also a member of the Massachusetts legislature. Next is the Charles Street Meeting House, where Timothy Gilbert rebelled against church segregationist seating policies in the early 1830s. The next site, the Lewis and Harriet Hayden House at 66 Phillips Street, was part of the Underground Railroad. Its owner, Lewis Hayden, was born a slave in Kentucky in 1811, but escaped to the north via this secret network of safe-houses and transport - and then set his house up as a station. The next site, the John Coburn House, is known for being designed by the architect Asher Benjamin, and was also set up as a gambling house. Next, the Smith Court Residences are five houses that typify a black household in the 1800s in Boston. They are still private residences. The next site, the Abiel Smith School, 46 Joy Street, was the first public school for black children, founded in 1834. Finally, the African Meeting House, 8 Smith Court, is the oldest existing church building in the USA dedicated to the black community, built in 1806. In 1832, the New England Anti-Slavery Society was founded here. Tel: (617) 742 5415. Website: www.nps.gov/boaf Transport: Subway Park Street. Opening hours: Trail departs from the Boston Common Visitor Information Center at 1000, 1200 and 1400. Harvard University & Harvard Square A trip to Boston would be incomplete without crossing the river to visit one of the country's oldest (1638) and most prestigious universities. Combined with the neighbouring and equally prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), there are over 30,000 students from all over the world enrolled here. Harvard Square is actually a triangle of brick pavement sitting above the Harvard subway station. In and around it are a couple of dozen cafÉs, bookshops, banks and restaurants, providing a backdrop to street performers, politically and religiously motivated campaigners and lots of ordinary pedestrian activity according to the season and the weather. Harvard University makes up one side of the triangle. The Out of Town newsagents is itself an institution - a good place to buy a local or foreign paper from before settling into a cafÉ and soaking up the student-cum-intellectual atmosphere. A focal point for visitors is the Harvard Yard (1636), which is the entrance into the quadrangle surrounded by ivy-covered buildings and a cloistered, peaceful existence. The buildings themselves are a catalogue of architecture from Colonial eighteenth century to the present day. There are free tours of the Yard from the Harvard University Events and Information Center. Harvard also has four world-class museums worth visiting. The first three can be entered on one US$5 ticket and together they encapsulate a history of world art in over 80,000 exhibits. The Fogg Art Museum covers the European Renaissance to the modern day, with notable works by Renoir, Monet, Van Gogh, Whistler and Klee. The Bush-Reisinger Museum takes in Central and North European art between 1880-1980. The Arthur Sackler Museum has Islamic and Asian exhibits, including Chinese jade. The fourth is the Museum of Natural History, renowned for its display of 3000 authentic-looking types of flowers made from hand-blown glass. Harvard University Events and Information Center Holyoke Center, 1350 Massachusetts Avenue Tel: (617) 495 1573. Website: www.harvard.edu Opening hours: Mon-Sat 0900-1700 (outside term), Mon-Sat 1000 and 1400 (term-time). Fogg Art Museum and Bush-Reisinger Museum 32 Quincy Street Arthur Sackler Museum 485 Broadway Tel: (617) 495 9400. Fax: (617) 496 8576. Website: www.artmuseums.harvard.edu Opening hours: Mon-Sat 1000-1700, Sun 1300-1700. Admission: US$5 combined ticket; free Wed and Sat am. Museum of Natural History 26 Oxford Street Tel: (617) 495 3045. Opening hours: Daily 0900-1700. Admission: $US6.50; free Sun am. Transport: Subway Harvard station. Boston Tea Party Ship & Museum This is actually part of a larger complex on Museum Wharf where the Children's Museum (tel: (617) 426 8855) and the Computer Museum (tel: (617) 426 2800) are also to be found. The 'Tea Party' was an act of rebellion against British rule and in particular against new taxes, imposed on, among other commodities, tea. The protest took place on 16 December 1773. A group of Bostonians, disguised as native Indians, boarded the tea-clipper Beaver and threw all of its cargo into the harbour waters. Here, on-board a full-size replica ship, Beaver II, visitors can discover the full story. Congress Street Bridge Tel: (617) 338 1773. Fax: (617) 338 1974. Transport: Subway South Station. Website: www.bostonteapartyship.com Opening hours: Mar-Nov daily 0900-1700 (until 1800 in summer). Admission: US$6. |
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