Our Journey: November 2007

Brent and I are in Boston...There is a CEO meeting for his work that he was asked to attend. Well I was lucky enough and loved that he purchased a extra ticket so that
I could join him. More to come on this fun trip!!!
Being that we would only be in Boston a short time I decided to walk the Freedom Trail...Freedom Trail

Due to its size, Boston is a very accessible city, it's reputation is that of a walking city. This is because of the creation of one of America's first historic walking tours, The Freedom Trail. The seceret is to always stay on this tiny brick road...you will only get lost if you get off of it...trust me!!!

The Freedom Trail Foundation has preserve this perfect introduction to Colonial Revolutionary Boston. The Trail takes you to 16 historical sites in the course of two or three hours (it took me longer than two to three hours; more like all day!!!)
and covers two and a half centuries of America's most significant past. A red brick or painted line connects the sites on the Trail and serves as a guide.
So here are some sites, these are not in the order that I saw them...first it is December 2008 and I am recalling in my mind everything I did. I took lots of pictures...and I remember getting lost a few times!!!
#1 Boston Commons and a few things in the area...
Boston Common is a central public park in Boston, Massachusetts. It is sometimes erroneously referred to as "Boston Commons". Established in 1634 by Puritan settlers, it is one of the oldest city parks in the United States. The oldest park I have sinced learned is in the United States is the Plaza de la Constitucion established by Spanish law in 1573 in St. Augustine, Florida. The Boston Common is 50 acres of land.

I have only seen cops on horses in the movies; now I can say I have seen the real deal!!! In the second picture you can see the police station located right in the park.
I passed by Frog Pond and Tad pole park...this is a really cute play area!!! The Frog Pond is one of Boston Common's most popular attractions and a perennial favorite with children and adults alike. Great fun any time of the year, in the summer the Frog Pond serves as a wading pool for young children, and in the winter it is frozen over for ice skating. I was thinking in my mind it would be so great to see Shelley skating here. Avery Mae would love it.

In these picture you can see squirrels all over. I swear fifty or more; they were friendly. They were not scared of people at all.

#2 The Massachusetts State House...

Built in 1798, the "new" State House is located across from the Boston Common on the top of Beacon Hill. The land was once owned by Massachusetts first elected governor, John Hancock. Charles Bullfinch, the leading architect of the day, designed the building.
The dome, originally made out of wood shingles, is now sheathed in copper and covered by 23 karat gold which was added to prevent leaks into the State House. The land for the State House was originally used as John Hancock's cow pasture.

In the House of Representatives chambers hangs a wooden codfish which is called Sacred Cod. The Sacred Cod signifies the importance of the fishing industry to the Commonwealth. At the top of the golden dome sits a wooden pinecone which symbolizes logging in Boston during the 18th century.

#3 Park Street Church...

There is a lot of history in this building, the site of the old town granary where grain was kept before the Revolution, dates back to 1809. Its 217 foot steeple was the first landmark travelers saw when coming into Boston. Park Street Church is located at Brimstone Corner which may have received its name because preachers spoke of fire and brimstone in Hell to their congregation and because sulfur was stored in the basement of the church.

This Evangelical Church of "firsts" is the location of the first Sunday school in 1818 and the first prison aid in 1824. On July 4, 1829, William Lloyd Garrison gave his first public anti-slavery speech here and two years later, "My Country 'Tis of Thee" was sung for the first time by the church children's choir.

#4 The Granary Burying Ground
was established in 1660. Samuel Adams, Peter Faneuil, John Hancock and Paul Revere, not to mention victims of the Boston Massacre (March 1770): Samuel Gray, Samuel Maverick, John Caldwell, Crispus Attucks and Patrick Carr. All were laid to rest here. Approximately 5000 people are buried at Granary even though there are only 2300 headstones. Since funerals were expensive, there would be one headstone per family. Each grave contains at least 20 bodies.

The big obelisk bearing the name Franklin is not the grave of Bostonian Benjamin Franklin, but of his parents. Ben was buried in his adopted city of Philadelphia.

#5 Kings Chapel...In 1688, the Royal Governor built King's Chapel on the town burying ground when no one in the city would sell him land to build a non-Puritan church. The first King's Chapel was a tiny church used by the King's men who occupied Boston to enforce British law. By 1749, the building was too small for the congregation, which had grown to include a number of prominent merchants and their families. The present stone structure was built around it to avoid disturbing services.

The congregation hired America's first architect, Peter Harrison, to design a church "that would be the equal of any in England." The new church was completed in 1754. Harrison's plans included a steeple, which has never been built, and a colonnade, which was not completed until after the Revolution. The magnificent interior is considered the finest example of Georgian church architecture in North America. The church’s exterior columns appear to be stone, but in fact are painted wood, a cost-saving tromp l’oeil. Paul Revere crafted King Chapel’s 2, 347 pound bell in 1816, and he proclaimed in the “sweetest sounding” he had ever created.

#6 Frankin Statue and First School Site...
The first public school in America was established by Puritan settlers in 1635 in the home of Schoolmaster Philemon Pormont and was later moved to School Street. Boys from various socio-economic backgrounds attended Boston Latin School until 1972 when girls were also accepted.

A portrait statue of Benjamin Franklin overlooks the former site of Boston Latin School which Franklin, Samuel Adams, and John Hancock once attended. Franklin's place of birth was just one block away on Milk Street, across from the Old South Meeting House.

#7 Oh South Meeting House...
The Old South Meeting House was built in 1729 as a Puritan house of worship. It was also the largest building in colonial Boston.
The Old South Meeting House is best known as the site of where the Boston Tea Party began. In the winter of 1773, more than 5,000 colonists gathered at Old South in a meeting to protest the tax on tea. After many hours of debate, Samuel Adams announced, "This meeting can do nothing more to save the country!" Protestors stormed out of the Old South Meeting House to the waterfront where they dumped three shiploads of tea into Boston Harbor. They changed American history forever.

Today, the Old South Meeting House is a museum where visitors can view the reenactments of the Boston Tea Party debates.

#8 Oh Corner Book Store...
This little brick building sits at the Corner of School and Washington Streets, Old Corner Bookstore was a flourishing literary center in the mid-1800s. The original building was destroyed by the Great Fire of 1711, and was replaced by the current gambrel-roofed structure built in 1718 by Dr. Thomas Crease.
The original building on this site was owned by Anne Hutchinson. Feisty and outspoken, Anne Hutchinson expressed her views openly about religion and about women’s rights. She was banished from Massachusetts in 1638 for her audacious views. I would probably have shared her views and style...
The street level of this house was used as a pharmacy, the upper stories as a residence. The transition from medicine shop to marketplace for ideas began in 1829 when the house was leased to Timothy Harrington Carter, a bookseller. The first bookseller's business, Carter & Hendlee, was followed by nine similar companies over a 75-year period, the most famous being Ticknor & Fields. The windows of this lovely old building once gave natural light to editors who pored over the galleys of Walden, The Scarlet Letter, Hiawatha and the Atlantic Monthly. Ticknor & Fields, the nation’s leading publisher from 1833-1864 made its home here, publishing the works of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Harriet Beecher Stow, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Ralph Waldo Emerson, John Greenleaf Whittier, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Charles Dickens and Louisa May Alcott.
I felt the desire to read up on Anne Hutchinson. A statue of Anne Hutchinson stands in front of the State House in Boston. The inscription on the plaque at the bottom of the statue reads:
In Memory of Anne Marbury Hutchinson
Baptized at Alford
Licolnshire England
20 - July 1595
Killed by the Indians
at East Chester New York 1643
Courageous Exponent
of Civil Liberty
and Religious Toleration

This lady was educated and had faith in God...how ever she did not share the view of most Puritains and Catolics in the area. She would eventually come to realize that the hardships of colonial life and the rigid union of Church and State were more stifling than liberating, and there wasn't really any real "religious freedom" to speak of in the Massachusetts Bay Colony, especially for an educated English woman such as herself. We as woman have so much freedom compare to the close minded thoughts of her day.

#9 Old State House

Also known as Boston's "Towne House", the Old State House dates back to 1713. This Georgian style structure was occupied by the British during the Revolution and was a continuous reminder to the settlers of British dominance and presence in the colony.

The Old State House was the center of all political life and debate in colonial Boston. On July 18, 1776, citizens gathered in the street to hear the Declaration of Independence read from the building's balcony, the first public reading in Massachusetts. The Royal Governor presided here until the new State House was built on Beacon Hill in 1798.

Today, the building is run by The Bostonian Society as a Boston history museum.

#10 Old City Hall

With the 1969 move to the current Boston City Hall, Old City Hall was converted over the next two years to serve other functions–an early and successful example of adaptive reuse. Boston based architecture firm Finegold Alexander + Associates Inc completed the adaptive use and renovation.

It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places and was designated a U.S. National Historic Landmark in 1970.[2][1]

It now houses a number of businesses, organizations, and a Ruth's Chris Steak House, though its most famous tenant, the upscale French restaurant Maison Robert, closed in 2004.

Upon doing some other research I learned this...This site was the location of two Boston City Halls. In 1810, the Suffolk Country Courthouse was erected. In 1841, that courthouse was converted to Boston's second city hall. In 1865 it was replaced by Boston third city hall, the building you see today on School Street. In 1969, Boston built its fourth city hall at Government Center and vacated this site.

Thirty-eight Boston mayors served their terms of office on School Street at this site over a period of one hundred and twenty-eight years. All twenty of the Democrat mayors adopted the donkey as their party's symbol, while only five of the ten Republican mayors utilized the elephant.

#11 Today's current City Hall in Boston

#12 Boston Massacre Site

In front of the Old State House, a circle of cobblestones commemorates the Boston Massacre.

At this site, tensions between the colonists and British soldiers erupted into violence on March 5, 1770. A minor dispute between a wigmaker's young apprentice and a British sentry turned into a riot. The relief soldiers that came to the aid of the British were met by an angry crowd of colonists who hurled snowballs, rocks, clubs, and insults. The soldiers fired into the crowd and killed five colonists. Samuel Adams and other patriots called the event a "massacre".

#13 The Omni Parker Hotel,

named after founder Harvey D. Parker, opened its doors in October of 1855, and is the longest continuously operating hotel in America.

A luxurious place of which any Boston Brahmin would approve. The hotel and its restaurants are credited with a slew of famous firsts, including Boston cream pie (the state's official dessert ), ParkerHouse rolls, and the term "scrod." Parker's Bar, a mahogany and stained glass haven, is the perfect spot for having a drink by the fire, and The Last Hurrah is modeled after the traditional Boston bar of the bygone era.

There have been quite a few interesting people that have stopped by over the years. Ho Chi Minh was a busboy, and Malcolm X was a waiter. John Wilkes Booth stayed there a week before he shot Lincoln.

What makes the hotel illustrious, though, is it's literary past. No less than British novelist Charles Dickens was impressed with the "hot and cold bath" in his room at the Parker House on his second visit to Boston in 1867. This was the first hotel in Boston to have hot-and-cold running water, and the first to have an elevator.
The hotel's most famous group of patrons was certainly the members of the nineteenth century Saturday Club. Beginning in the mid 1850s, a exclusive group of talented people assembled in the old Parker House on the last Saturday afternoon of each month. Their notoriously rambunctious roundtables featured readings, intellectual exchanges, and endlessly flowing chatter, mirth, food and spirits. The Club's members included philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson, poet and Atlantic Monthly editor James Russell Lowell, novelist Nathaniel Hawthorne, poets John Greenleaf Whittier and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and writer Oliver Wendell Holmes.

While I was in Boston this Hotel was getting a major facelit...I stood and watch for a bit. I knew in my heart this Hotel had some great History behind it.

Hotel with a view
Parker House has more claims to fame than hosting 19th-Century literary figures. It remains a popular place for Massachusetts politicians. John F. Kennedy announced a run for Congress there in 1953 in a room since called the Press Room. Theatrical people such as Sarah Bernhardt and Joan Crawford stayed there. So did Ulysses S. Grant. Today, Parker House is the only hotel on Boston's Freedom Trail.

#14 Faneuil Hall

has served as a marketplace and a meeting hall since 1742. Funding was provided by a wealthy merchant, Peter Faneuil, for the construction and local artisan to create the grasshopper weather vane that still perches on the building's cupola. Inspirational speeches by Samuel Adams and other patriots were given at Fanueil Hall. These oratories became the footstool for America's desire to obtain independence from the British.

Faneuil Hall was expanded in 1806 by Charles Bulfinch. When Boston became a city the use of Faneuil Hall as a government meeting place came to an end, but it was still regularly used. Today, the first floor is still used as a lively marketplace and the second floor is a meeting hall where many Boston City debates are held. The fourth floor is maintained by the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company.

#15 Paul Revere House

Built around 1680, this house is the oldest building in downtown Boston. It served as the home of silversmith Paul Revere and his family from 1770 to 1800. Paul Revere is famous for his "midnight ride" to Lexington, Massachusetts informing Samuel Adams and John Hancock that the British were coming to arrest them.

In the 19th century, thousands of Irish, Italian, and Jewish immigrants from the North End lived in the Paul Revere house and in the 20th century, the house was restored and converted to a museum. The site is owned and operated by The Paul Revere Memorial Association.

Listen, my children, and you shall hear
Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere,
On the eighteenth of April, in Seventy-five;
Hardly a man is now alive
Who remembers that famous day and year.

He said to his friend, "If the British march
By land or sea from the town to-night,
Hang a lantern aloft in the belfry arch
Of the North Church tower as a signal light,
One, if by land, and two, if by sea;
And I on the opposite shore will be,
Ready to ride and spread the alarm
Through every Middlesex village and farm,
For the country folk to be up and to arm.

#16 Old North Church

Behind the Paul Revere Statue is the Old North Church....

Known as "Christ Church in the City of Boston", this Episcopal church was built in 1723 and is Boston's oldest Church building.

On the steeple of this church, Robert Newman signaled with lanterns the approach of the British regulars; "One if by land, and two, if by sea".

The steeple is 191 feet tall, making it the tallest steeple in Boston. The bells within the steeple were the first bells ever brought to America. Paul Revere was one of the neighborhood bell ringers. The interior high box pews and brass chandeliers, as well as the Church's first clock are all original.

#17...A Movie detour...well on my way to the old North Church I got detoured!!! It's important you know I did not get lost; because I do that alot. But, while I was in Boston they were filming a movie "The Lonely Maiden". It has not been release yet but this is what I have found online...The Lonely Maiden Overview
Starcast: Morgan Freeman, Christopher Walken, William H. Macy

Director: Peter Hewitt
They closed off the area around the Paul Revere Mall. To keep the pigeons out of the way they hired a street person and supplied him with plenty of food and bird food/seed to keep them busy. I got a few pictures of the trucks that handle the movie equiptment and the dressing rooms...
This first picture shown here is looking unto the set from the back of the mall area... (I had to complety walk around the area as they had it well blocked off). The entrance of The Paul Revere Mall (James Rego Square)stands a statue;
The statue of Revere is one of the most photographed sculptures in Boston. Not surprisingly the sculptor portrayed Revere during the famous Midnight Ride, but unlike many illustrations where PR is showing galloping full speed, the motion of the bronze Revere seems to more dignified.Although the statue is one of the most recognized landmarks in Boston, it is hard to imagine that it has quite an uneasy history, taking 16 years to create and 40 years to install in its present place. The sculptor Cyrus Edwin Dallin began working on it in 1883, more than 20 years after the name of Revere was immortalized by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow in his poem in 1860. Dallin was not a Boston native but was at the time a teacher at the Masschusetts State Normal Art School when he received the contract. The final version was the 5th or 8th (by different accounts) created by the sculptor when the commission finalized the design in 1899. May be this was due to the fact that the sculptor was only 22 when he was awarded the contract. But it was not until September 22, 1940 when the statue was opened to public. Dallin died four years later in 1944.

Revere was one of the first famous works of the sculptor, but during his life he created more thatn 260 works. Other well recognized sculptures are the angel Moroni atop the Salt Lake City Temple which became a symbol of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and the Appeal to the Great Spirit monument that currently stands in front of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston.

I had to walk around the blocked off area down a few side streets...I got to see a few interesting things. Notice the Elliot school!!!

This next picture was taken in an alley...lots of shade. But you can see it is the camera men up in the cage filming...

These are the trucks/trailers used for the movie star's dressing rooms...this was as close as they would let you get.

The guy hired to keep the pigeons busy!!! Another picture of the Paul Revere statue. This is were I was heading when I got stop by officers hired to block off the movie set.
A description of the Paul Revere Mall; I guess I will see it better on the next trip if they aren't doing another movie!!!
Located between two historic churches, St. Stephen's and Old North, the Paul Revere Mall is a quiet tree-lined area sided by brick walls with bronze plaques that tell the stories of famous North End residents. At one end of the mall is this impressive statue of Paul Revere on horseback.

This truck was use for props...movie stuff!!! And a look of St. Leonards Church.
This truck was park in the front where the Paul Revere Statue stands.

I noticed this really cute fire station...

The streets of old boston are narrow, you do not see alot of garden areas, or open green spaces like you do out West were I come from. When you do come accross a green area it is small, peaceful, old ect. This picture is taken near St. Leonards Church; Founded in 1873, St. Leonard's Church is the first Roman Catholic church in New England built by Italian immigrants. The Peace Garden is a lovely spot to take a time-out from the city and enjoy a moment of quiet contemplation. In addition to the garden, the church is known for the Saint Anthony Shrine in the church basement, the oldest shrine dedicated to the saint in Boston.
This church stand in front near the entrance to Paul Revere's mall area..in fact his statue faces it, while the Old North Church chapel can be seen behind the statueSt. Leonards Church

Also on my detour I came accross this area...

# 17 Copps Hill Burying ground

Copp's Hill Burying Ground is Boston's second oldest burying ground. It was first founded in 1659 as Windmill Hill. The area was named after shoemaker William Copp who once owned the land.

Thousands of artisans, craftspeople, and merchants are buried on the Hill. Additionally, thousands of African Americans who lived in the "New Guinea" community at the base of Copp's Hill are buried in unmarked graves on the Snowhill Street side.

Also interred at Copp's Hill are the Mather family of ministers; shipyard owner Edmund Hartt; Robert Newman, best know for placing the signal lanterns in the steeple of the "Old North" Church on the eve of the Battle of Lexington and Concord; Shem Drowne, the weathervane maker who crafted the grasshopper atop Faneuil Hall; and Prince Hall, the anti-slavery activist and founder of the Black Masonic Order.

# 18 Bunker Hill Monument

The Bunker Hill Monument stands 221 feet tall at Breed's Hill, the site of the first major battle of the American Revolution fought on June 17, 1775. Control of this high ground near the harbor was important to the British occupation of Boston.

When colonial forces chose to fortify Charlestown, they by passed the more dominant "Bunker Hill" and dug in on Breed's Hill which was lower and closer to the water.

"Don't fire until you see the whites of their eyes" is the legendary order attributed to Colonel William Prescott to make sure that each shot would count. The poorly trained and ill prepared colonial forces repelled two major assaults by the British Army before retreating. Almost half of the British soldiers were either killed or injured. Although the colonists lost the battle, their bravery and strong showing against the British encouraged them to fight on.
One must climb the 294 steps that lead to the top of the pinnacle. There are no elevators in the monument; however, the amazing vista at the end of the journey is well worth it.

# 19 Charlestown Navy Yard/USS Constitution
USS Constitution is the oldest commissioned warship afloat in the world. It was first launched in 1797. Constitution is one of six ships ordered for construction by George Washington to protect America's growing maritime interests. The ships greatest glory came during the war of 1812 when she defeated four British frigates which earned her the nickname "Old Ironsides," because cannon balls glanced off her thick hull. The ship was restored in 1927 with contributions from the nation's school children.

The Charlestown Navy Yard was built on what was once Mouton's or Morton's Point, the landing place of the British army prior to the Battle of Bunker Hill. It was one of the first shipyards built in the United States. During its 174 year history, hundreds of ships were built, repaired and modernized, including the World War II destroyer USS Cassin Young. Today, thirty acres of the Navy Yard are preserved by the National Park Service as part of Boston National Historical Park.

and other sites....
Fun things I saw....

While doing some window shopping I came accross this neat store. I love how they displayed their product. This store was located in the market place area...

Because it has been over a year before I finished documenting my Boston trip I have forgotten the name of the hotel we stayed in. These are some pictures taken of the entry floyer I loved the simpleness of just glass and marbles!!!