Historic Boston

Stepping out of the subway onto the street, I looked around to find something historical and was shocked to find I had just stepped out of a door in the Old State House. The subway goes under it and many other historic buildings as well. But these historic places continue a sublime existence and ignore the subway's intrusion because they know they were here first and they are revered and protected. Millions of dollars keep the historic sites in prime condition, and it is money well spent because Boston is crowded with history lovers.

Quick Tips:

To get the most out of your touring time in Old Boston, stay on the Freedom Trail. A copy of The Complete Guide to Boston's Freedom Trail by Charles Bahne, 2nd ed., 1993 Newtowne Pub. is , on sale everywhere, and is a must. It explains where the sites are, how to get there, what they're about, and the easiest way to travel from one site to the next (including three ways to use public transportation to get back to Boston once you have toured the USS Constitution in Charlestown). For more information see Historic Boston and Freedom Trail

Best Way To Get Around:

MBTA is user friendly in and around Boston. It includes bus, train, subway, and boat transportation. Its prime purpose is to replace the need for having an automobile in town. Walking is the other very important means of getting around. There are lots of trolley and horse and buggy tours, but they can't get close to some of the sites. Parking is expensive and difficult. It's best to find hotel accommodations with parking that are close to a subway station. You can find directions and schedules here.

My husband surprised me by treating us to an executive suite on the 10th floor of the Hilton Boston at Logan Airport. Our daughter had already booked a room for two nights at that hotel, and we drove up to Boston to visit with her. She would be busy during the day so we decided to tour historic Boston. The view from our room included most of Boston Harbor.

The Hilton is expensive but nice. Our accommodations had a granite countertop sink in the bathroom. A computer was set up on the desk in the bedroom and the lovely coverlet on the bed had a down comforter inside. The refrigerator was completely stocked with goodies, but there is a charge for each item. We bring our own cooler with what we like to have.

Complimentary hot hor d'oeuvres, a fruit platter, and a variety of hot and cold drinks are served in the evening between 6 - 8pm in the Executive Lounge. This beautiful big room on the 10th floor included a telescope to view Boston through the oversized windows along the outside wall. In the morning a breakfast buffet including fresh fruits, coffee, cereal, and/or pastries and was also complimentary in the executive lounge.

Our price of $119 was a special and valet parking was another $25 per day. We experimented with the free hotel shuttle that went to the subway station in the airport area. Tokens for the subway to the Old State House cost $.50 (seniors $.25). This was more economical than the $23 for a taxi to transport us near there the night before. Coming out of the subway at State Street and realizing we were actually in the Old State House was a nice surprise. How a subway was built under an historic building is quite a mystery.

After our day of touring we returned along the same route. While we waited for our free shuttle back to the Hilton other hotel shuttles came by also. Comfort Inn and Suites, Embassey Suites, Hyatt, and shuttles to all the terminals to name the ones we saw. In the future we'll compare prices when we come for another visit.

Vendors with free samples of food on toothpicks, crowds vieing for walking space, delicious food challenging us, and seemingly no place to sit and eat it - that's Quincy Market at lunch time. We reached the central dome and every seat was taken except for two in the balcony. Up the stairs and yes they were still available. City pidgeons got out of the way as I rushed to the coveted benches. My husband politely waited while I went back to the vendor with the free sample of chicken cooked in lemon and garlic sause, and I bought a roll-up. Then he found his favorite and as we ate our acquired treasures the pidgeons flew over our head, fanning us with their wings. To answer your question, there was no mess anywhere.

After we finished our lunch we gathered our belongings and as we got up to leave our seats were scooped up by the next wave of diners.

The lunch crowd was thinning out so we went back through the vendors to check out desserts. Prize chocolate candies, cakes of splendid varieties, and oversized cookies and delicacies of every nature challenged us to throw away dietary caution.

It's in Dock Square and it's not a park, and there's no dock either. Tradition! At one time there was a dock here but the waterfront has been filled in. However, Durgin and Park were partners who started a restaurant in a warehouse near Fanueil Hall about 130 years ago. They want it to look like it did back then and it does. Once you've been seated at one of the long tables upstairs, you'll be okay with all that.

The food is fresh, very fresh. You'll forget the old tin ceilings. Honest! Perfect cuts of prime rib just the way you like it. Excellent clam chowder and I'm fussy. A bowl full is an oversized meal. Fresh lobster daily. Steamers piled high on your plate. And you'll be okay with prices too.

In its 250 year history this major historic landmark housed a dry goods store in 1742, was the site of a newspaper in 1771, a pay station for Federal troops during the Revolution, housed the future king of France, Louis Philippe, during his exile in 1796, and in 1826 became the Union Oyster House. It has been that ever since.

Fresh meat and seafood properly prepared in a variety of tempting ways are old New England favorites. Appetizers include a delicious variety of clams and oysters served on the half shell or cooked in stews and chowders using old Yankee recipes that maintain good food should taste like what it is and be glad of it.

Live lobsters from their own pools insure taste for those who appreciate gourmet cooking. My choice for dinner was Lazy Man's lobster, lobster pieces in casserole baked in seasoned bread crumbs wine and butter. It was tender and tasty, just the way I like it. Fried, broiled, or baked, the meat is moist and tender.

Ye Olde Union Oyster House is located near Fanueil Hall and should be a dinner stop on your Freedom Trail adventure.

Emerging from the MBTA subway (blue line), we exited onto State Street. To our surprise we were in front of the south wall and entrance to the Old State House. The subway goes under the building.

Across the street is the National Park Service Visitors Center. They have a good assortment of books, information and gifts pertaining to Boston's history. Upstairs from it is the Boston Society Library a fantastic place to see original historical books and articles.

Turning left from the subway exit we walked a few steps to the east side of the Old State House on Washington Street. The brick circle in the median in the road in front of the Old State House is the site of the Boston Massacre, the shooting of a group of protestors by the British and another dramatic cause for the war.

The front of the Old State House still keeps the symbols of British rule, the lion and the unicorn majestically reminding the citizens of Boston they were the subjects of His Majesty King George III a long time ago. The Declaration of Independence was first read to the people of Boston from the balcony right under those very symbols of monarchy. In fact they are replicas put back in place in 1882 because the originals were torn down during the Revolution. The clock was originally installed in 1831. It was restored in 1992. The entire facade is a beautiful reminder of our democratic freedom.

We walked back to the south entrance on State Street (formerly called King Street) and noticed the red brick line in the side walk indentifying this as part of Freedom Trail, the walking tour of Historic Boston. The Old State House was built in 1713 to house the government offices of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. The museum is open from 9:00am to 5:00pm except on holidays. Before going upstairs we watched a movie presentation about the place.

The Council Chamber of the Royal Governor is upstairs at the east end of the building. A major cause for the Revolutionary War, the Writs of Assistance, were argued by James Otis in 1761 right in that room. Looking out the window on the east wall we could see the wharf and harbor. The central area of the second floor was the meeting place of the Massachusetts Assembly, the legislative body of the colony. Looking out the window on the north side of the building we saw the tower of the Old North Church, famous for containing the lanterns as a signal to warn the Americans the British were coming. The west end of that floor was used for the Supreme Judicial Court, responsible for decisions of important landmark trials. There John Adams, the second president of the United States, argued the case of the Boston Massacre. He represented the British soldiers. Original papers relating to that case and other important cases from that era are on display.

Within sight of the Old State House is the Old South Meeting House. Skyscrapers dwarf its appearance as does its design (colonial church with steeple), but it is massive. It has the capacity to seat five thousand people. Prosperity in Boston is indicated by the need for a building with such proportions in 1730 along with the Old State House in 1713 and Faneuil Hall in 1740. Most of the people were decended from the early Pilgrims and Puritans. The ability to pay for a meeting house the size of Old South must have reminded the king his American subjects could afford to pay taxes.

The people used the Old South Meeting House to give one voice in protest, a loud one. Filling Old South with that one voice gave volumn and strength to protest. They didn't want "taxation without representation" nor did they think of themselves as being really dependant on England or a king so far away. The king reminded Boston they were his subjects by seriously interfering with their prosperity. Old South heard America's despair and watched America form in response. She stands as a symbol to correct what is wrong in America.

Today you can sit in a pew in Old South and hear these early Americans express their discontent with ear phones provided when you pay your entrance fee. You can look around at its three stories of massive shuttered, arched windows and its great raised podium with its huge canopy (an early attempt to improve acoustics). Tall columns hold up two balconies that were built for those who couldn't afford a pew on the main floor. Everything is painted a buttermilk white ,making the setting warm but austere.

Birth of independence from England is said to have started in diferent buildings nearby, here the death of those who started it is remembered. Three signers of the Declaration of Independence are buried here, as are the victims of the Boston Massacre, Ben Franklin's parents, and Paul Revere, who lived for another 43 years after his famous ride. James Otis and Samuel Adams, two very important Revolutionary War figures, are buried here. Peter Fanueil, responsible for building his famous market place and meeting hall, is buried here too.

Next to the burying ground is the Park Street Church, built in 1809 after the Massachusetts State House was erected on a hill nearby a few years earlier.

Puritans settled in Massachusetts to avoid what they considered offensive about the Anglican Church, the official Church of England. In 1687 Gov. Andros, then governor of Massachusetts, seized a part of a burying ground in the king's name for the building of an Anglican Church. In 1749, as Boston prospered, the present King's Chapel was built over the first wooden one. Hostility towards King's Chapel ran high until after the Revolution. In 1785 the King's Chapel congregation became Unitarian and follows that theology today.

Buildings in Boston such as the Old State House and Old South Meeting House are stately but austere. King's Chapel inside and out is ornate. Columns inside are fluted wtih hand carved capitals and are doubled throughout. Pews are expensively padded. Ceilings are vaulted. The high pulpit with spiraled balusters on the stairs leading up to it is crowned with a beautiful canopy. Carved garlands of fruit decorate window frames. Marble busts of those important to the history of the church are present throughout.

This is the oldest burying ground in Boston and the one that was disturbed by the building of King's Chapel.

Like other Mayflower pilgrims, Mary Chilton and her husband John Winslow settled in Boston after 1630. Mary Chilton's will is a good source of the extent of the wealth of Boston residents of her class and era. They are buried in King's Chapel Burying Ground. Their tombstone has been replaced with a new one.

William Dawes (who rode to Lexington to give the alarm when Paul Revere did) is also buried here. Nathaniel Hawthorne's Scarlet Letter character Hester Prynne, whose real name was Elizabeth Pain, is buried here. The carved Death's head and epitaphs on the tombstones are worth noticing. An ornate cage covers a subway shaft in one corner of the burying ground.

In this general area you will find signs on buildings identifying where Ben Franklin was born and other historic locations that now house a modern city building. The Old Corner Bood store where such works as Walden, The Scarlet Letter, Hiawatha, and the Battle Hymn of the Republic were published here, as was the Atlantic Monthly.

Many years ago while I was in Boston I visited Faneuil Hall. Fish vendors occupied the street level. It was in the spirit of things as Peter Faneuil intended in 1742, but inappropriate for such a touristy area in modern times. Now crafts, souvenirs, T-shirts, and sweatshirts (mostly with Harvard or Boston) are sold instead of fish.

Go to the outside entrance opposite Quincy Market and you can enter where 21 stairs lead to the meeting place on the second floor. Park rangers will give a talk about the hall. Famous paintings of Samuel Adams, George Washington, John Hancock, Peter Faneuil, and a huge canvas of Daniel Webster before the US Senate hang on the walls, reminding us of their part in our country's beginnings, some that took place right in that room.

In this town meeting hall American's protested the Sugar Act in May 1764. They termed it "taxation without representation". The Bostonians gathered here to protest the Stamp act, the Townsend Acts, and the landing of British troops in Boston. Here also they created a Committee of Correspondence to inform other towns and colonies of encroachments on their rights by the British and what they wanted to do about it.

Plans for the Boston Tea Party originated in this room under the leadership of John Hancock in Nov of 1773. After that the British took over the hall and its use was restricted.

In the mid-1800s the issue of slavery was protested here, and then women’s rights and temperance rallies. Debates on war issues have been a regular happening. I came here about 30 years ago with my son's high school debating team to hear Dr. Benjamin Spock, the noted pediatrician, debate capital punishment.