Probably the best way to orient yourself in downtown Boston -
and to appreciate the city's role in American history - is to walk
some or all of the Freedom Trail . You can pick up or leave
this easy self-guided route anywhere - a line of red bricks marking
the trail is embedded in the pavement - but technically it begins
on Boston Common at the Visitor Information Center .
From here, head for the golden dome of the Massachusetts
State House (free tours Mon-Sat 10am-3.30pm), which was
completed in 1798 to a design by Charles Bulfinch. It remains the
seat of Massachusetts' government; its most famous feature, the
wooden Sacred Cod symbolizing the wealth Boston accrued from its
fisheries, hangs in front of the Speaker, and faces in different
directions according to which party is in office.
Though Park Street Church (July & Aug Tues-Sat
9am-3pm; rest of year by appointment; free) is by no means "the
most interesting mass of bricks and mortar in America" that Henry
James claimed, its ornate white steeple is undeniably impressive.
This was where the orator William Lloyd Garrison launched his
campaign to free the slaves on July 4, 1829. The 1600 graves of the
Old Granary Burying Ground just around the corner (daily
9am-5pm; free) include those of Paul Revere, Samuel Adams and John
Hancock, as well as the reputed Mother Goose, a Bostonian named
Elizabeth Vergoose (or Vertigoose), said to have collected nursery
rhymes for her grandchildren; while King's Chapel Burying
Ground (daily 9.30am-5pm; free) contains Boston's earliest
colonists and the first governor, John Winthrop. A statue of
Benjamin Franklin marks the site of Boston Latin , America's
first public school, attended by Franklin and Samuel Adams. Guests
at the nearby Omni Parker House Hotel (not officially on the
Trail) have included Charles Dickens and John Kennedy, Malcolm X
and Ho Chi Minh. The Old Corner Bookstore at School and
Washington streets (Mon-Sat 9am-6pm, Sun noon-5pm) was a literary
salon frequented by Longfellow, Thoreau and Hawthorne.
Next come the Trail's two most striking and significant
buildings. At the Old South Meeting House (daily: April-Oct
9.30am-5pm; Nov-March 10am-4pm; $3), the largest building in
colonial Boston and an old Puritan house of worship, Samuel Adams
addressed the patriots about to carry out the Boston Tea Party on
December 16, 1773. This was no raucous and unruly mob: they were
solemn men, well aware of the likely impact of their actions. The
elegant Old State House , built in 1712 and still proud,
although dwarfed by surrounding skyscrapers, was the seat of
colonial government. From its balcony the Declaration of
Independence was read on July 18, 1776; exactly two hundred years
later Queen Elizabeth II appeared on that same balcony. Inside is a
museum of Boston history (daily 9am-5pm; $3). Outside, a
plain ring of cobblestones set on a traffic island at the
intersection of Devonshire and State streets marks the site of the
Boston Massacre on March 5, 1770, when British soldiers
fired on a crowd that was pelting them with stone-filled snowballs,
and killed five, including the black Crispus Attucks.
Modern visitors gravitate to Quincy Market and Faneuil
Hall (it rhymes with Daniel; daily 9am-5pm; free) for the
lively shops, restaurants and takeaways that made this a pioneer
example of successful urban renewal (by the developer who went on
to transform London's Covent Garden). Faneuil Hall was, how ever,
once known as the "Cradle of Liberty," a meeting place for
Revolutionaries and, later, abolitionists. Nearby on Union Street,
step off the Freedom Trail to visit The New England Holocaust
Memorial , six tall hollow glass pillars built to resemble
smokestacks and etched with quotes and facts about the Holocaust,
with an unusual degree of attention to its non-Jewish victims.
Passing under the six-lane John Fitzgerald Expressway and into
the North End, you reach Paul Revere House , Boston's last
surviving seventeenth-century house (daily: mid-April to Oct 31
9.30am-5.15pm; Nov 1 to mid-April 9.30am-4.15pm; closed Mon
Jan-March; $2.50), built after the Great Fire of 1676, and home to
Paul Revere - patriot, silversmith, Freemason and father of sixteen
children - from 1770 until 1800. When Revere embarked upon his
famous ride of April 18, 1775, to warn Lexington of imminent
British attack, two lanterns were hung from the belfry of Old
North Church , 193 Salem St (daily: June-Oct 9am-6pm; Nov-May
9am-5pm), to alert Charlestown in case he got caught. A little
further up, from Copp's Hill Burial Ground (daily 9am-5pm;
free), you can see across the harbor to Charlestown; as indeed
could the British, who planted their artillery here for the Battle
of Bunker Hill.
In theory, the Freedom Trail now crosses the Charlestown
Bridge, but that's a long walk over. Its final two sites are better
reached by the frequent ferries from Long Wharf to
Charlestown Navy Yard (Mon-Fri every 15-30min 6.30am-8pm, Sat &
Sun every 30min 10am-6pm; $1 each way). First is the USS
Constitution , also known as "Old Ironsides," the oldest
commissioned warship afloat in the world. Launched in Boston in
1797, it was prominent in the War of 1812. Every July 4 it is
ceremonially turned around - sailed out into the bay and its cannon
fired - mainly to equalize the weathering on its two sides. Unless
it's closed due to ongoing rehabilitation work, free tours of the
ship are led by costumed guides (daily 9.30am-3.50pm, ), or visit
the USS Constitution Museum (daily: summer 9am-6pm; rest of
year 10am-5pm; free). Above the museum, the Bunker Hill
Monument sits on Breed's Hill, the actual site of the battle
fought on June 17, 1775, which, although won by the British, did
much to convince them that they could not hope to triumph in the
end. A spiral staircase of almost three hundred steps leads to the
top; a small museum (daily 9am-5pm; free) at the base has
dated but informative exhibits on the battle.