USS Constitution

The oldest commissioned warship afloat in the world became known as Old Ironsides during the War of 1812 when she fought the British Frigate HMS Guerriere and cannonballs fired at the USS Constitution merely bounced off as if she were made of iron.

The durability of Constitution is attributed to a three-layer sandwich of wood from all across America. The ship’s copper fastenings were constructed by Paul Revere. Constitution put to sea, after two false starts, in 1798, four years after construction began.

The USS Constitution is a well-traveled ship, having patrolled the West Indies, Brazil, and the West African coast and participated in the Barbary Wars. The ship is permanently berthed in the Charlestown Navy Yard and ventures out six to eight times a year into Boston Harbor. At one time, it required a crew of 500! Today, it is a fully commissioned ship with a crew of 70. Constitution was considered a super-frigate in that she could out-gun or out-run anything she encountered. Rated at 44 guns, she typically averaged much more than her rating by carrying between 50 and 60 guns. She was crewed by many more men than comparable foreign frigates and had a top speed of 13 knots. Her diagonal riders, supportive ribs running laterally towards her centerline in her bilges and a huge technological advance, allowed her to carry guns much heavier than other frigates. Learn more about the warship at the USS Constitution Museum, located on the Freedom Trail.
RAISE THE SAILS In 1991 Commander David Cashman proposed Constitution should sail under her own power to celebrate her 200th anniversary. A donation barrel was placed in front of her gangplank and pennies dropped by school children visiting the ship from all 50 states would pay for new sails and eight miles of rigging. On July 20, 1997, Old Ironsides set sail for the first time in 116 years, recording a top speed of six knots.
PIRATES As one of colonial America’s foremost seaports, Boston saw its share of piracy. In the 17th Century several pirates were hanged in Boston. Pirates were also hung in cages, a practice called gibbeting, on some of the Boston Harbor Islands. These gibbeted pirates were in plain sight of all who sailed by, a warning to all pirates of the welcome their kind received in Boston. Deciding who was a pirate wasn’t always simple though, given that Boston also supported many privateers (pirates with license to plunder enemies of the King). In fact, one privateer, Capt. Silas Talbot, would eventually become the second Captain of the USS Constitution.

The Boston Common

Established in 1634, Boston Common is America’s oldest public park. Puritan colonists purchased the land rights to the Common’s 44 acres from first settler of the area, Anglican minister William Blackstone. The price was 30 pounds, and each homeowner paid him six shillings. The pasture then became known as the Common Land, and was used to graze local livestock until 1830. A town shepherd was paid two shillings and sixpence per head of cowe to tend townspeople’s livestock.

Also referred to as a trayning field, the Boston Common was sometimes crowded with soldiers. Over 1000 Redcoats made camp on the Common during the British occupation of Boston in 1775. It was from the shore of the Charles River, which was then at the southwest corner of the Boston Common, that three brigades of Redcoats embarked on the fateful trip to Lexington and Concord.

The Boston Common was a place for celebration as well. Bonfires and fireworks celebrated the repeal of the Stamp Act and the end of the Revolutionary War. Boston Common continues to be a stage for free speech and public assembly. Here, during the 20th century, Charles Lindbergh promoted commercial aviation. Anti-Vietnam War and civil right rallies were held, including one led by Martin Luther King, Jr. In 1979, Pope John Paul II celebrated Mass. Today the Common hosts several citywide festivals and performances throughout the year. It is still open for all to enjoy.

The State House

Designed by Charles Bulfinch, the State House was completed on January 11, 1798, and widely acclaimed as one of the more magnificent and well-suited buildings in the country. The land for the building was originally used as John Hancock's cow pasture. The State House's golden dome, its most distinct feature, once made of wood was later overlaid with copper by Paul Revere. It was covered with 23 karat gold leaf for the first time in 1874 and painted black during World War II to protect the city from bombing attacks. The State House dome was most recently gilded in 1997.

Today, the State House is one of the oldest buildings on Beacon Hill, and its grounds cover 6.7 acres of land. It is under the golden dome that senators, state representatives, and the governor conduct the daily business of the Commonwealth.

This building is known to the people of Boston as the new State House, in order to differentiate it from the Old State House located on the corner of State and Congress streets. A gilded wooden pinecone adorns the top of the golden dome, a symbol of the state's reliance on logging in the 18th century. Although located on the Freedom Trail, in depth Massachusetts State House Tours are available to the public.

CODNAPPED The five foot sacred cod, a wooden carving that now hangs in the House of Representatives Chamber in the State House, had been installed in 1784 in the Old State House to signify the importance of the salt cod industry to the Commonwealth. In 1933, pranksters from Harvard codnapped the fish. Chamber business was suspended for four days until it was recovered.

COMMON GROUND Dedicated in 1897, the bronze Robert Gould Shaw/54th Massachusetts Regiment Memorial, sculpted in bas-relief by Augustus Saint-Gaudens, commemorates the most notable Black troops to see combat in the Civil War. Shaw and many of his men perished in their assault of Fort Wagner in South Carolina. William Carney, who was shot several times in the assault, rescued the regiment’s battle flag and became the first Black man to earn the Congressional Medal of Honor.

Park Street Church
Ten people, including Rev. Abiel Holmes, father of author Oliver Wendell Holmes, gathered in the mansion of William Thurston on Beacon Hill in 1809, to discuss the organization of a Congregational church in this area. By mid-March, the committee located a site at the corner of Park and Tremont Streets, atop the site of Boston’s town grain storage building, or granary, and Park Street Church was founded

Designed by Peter Banner, the 217 ft. steeple of this church was once the first landmark travelers saw when approaching Boston. Celebrating its Bicentennial in 2009, Park Street Church’s lofty architecture reflects an even loftier mission of human rights and social justice. Prison reform began in this church, women’s suffrage was strongly supported here, and some of the first and most impassioned protests against slavery were delivered inside these hallowed walls.
Park Street Church became known for supporting Abolitionist causes, hosting an anti-slavery lecture series as early as 1823. As part of the lecture series, a young William Lloyd Garrison delivered his first major public Abolitionist speech, on July 4, 1829. Still active in Boston as a Congregationalist church, it continues to hold weekly religious services. Located on the Freedom Trail, the Park Street Church is one of the most historically significant buildings in the story of the Abolition's history of the nation.

A CAPELLA My Country ‘tis of Thee was sung on the steps of Park Street Church for the first time on July 4, 1831.

AN INCENDIARY THEORY The Park Street Church site was formerly called Brimstone Corner. It may have gotten the nickname during the War of 1812, when the Congregationalists stored brimstone or sulfur (a component of gunpowder) in the basement. Or perhaps it’s because old-school Congregationalist ministers preached hell-fire and brimstone for unrepentant sinners.

Granary Burying Ground

Established in 1660, the Granary is notable as the resting place of Boston’s most famous sons. Named for the 12,000 bushel grain storage building that was next door, the graveyard has 2,345 markers. Some say as a many as 8,000 people were buried here.

The Infant’s Tomb #203 where an estimated 500 children have been interred is located near the central obelisk that marks the graves of Benjamin Franklin’s parents. Alongside the far wall to the southwest is the elaborately embellished marker of John Hancock’s tomb. Toward the rear Paul Revere is buried; a larger marker placed in the 19th Century stands by a small slate marker that dates from Revere’s burial. Bookend monuments in the two front corners of the burial ground represent patriots James Otis and Samuel Adams. Sam Adams had the Boston Massacre victims interred in his family tomb, and so beside the marker of that tomb is one for the victims: Crispus Attucks, Samuel Gray, Samuel Maverick, James Caldwell, and Patrick Carr. On the right hand wall is a plaque marking the tomb of Robert Treat Paine. He along with Sam Adams and John Hancock brings the number of signers of the Declaration of Independence buried in Granary to three.

GRAVEYARD GRAZING At one time the Granary was part of the Boston Common, and the livestock that grazed the Common handled landscaping at the burial ground as well. When buildings ultimately separated the Granary from the Common, some subtle rearrangement of headstones occurred to make way for the modern innovation known as the lawn mower. GRAVEN IMAGES Puritan churches did not believe in religious icons or imagery, so the people of Boston used tombstones as an outlet for artistic expression of their beliefs about the afterlife. One of the most popular motifs was the Soul Effigy, a skull with a wing on each side that was a representation of the soul flying to heaven after death. Elaborate scroll work, poetic epitaphs and depictions of the Grim Reaper and Father Time also adorn many headstones.
King's 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 the original wooden church, which was then disassembled and thrown piece by piece out the windows of the new construction.

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.
UNLUCKY 13 There is a legend that says prisoners condemned to hang on Boston Common could say their last prayers in King’s Chapel’s 13th pew, or the pew of the condemned. No one knows where pew #13 was located in the Chapel during the time of the Revolution. Whatever its location, it was one of the last unlucky stops for those on their way to the gallows.

Old Corner Bookstore

The building that would become known as the Old Corner Bookstore began as an apothecary shop. It was built by Dr. Thomas Crease after the Great Fire of 1711 on property that once belonged to the Puritan dissident Anne Hutchinson.

In 1828 a bookstore and printing shop was opened, and flourished through 1903 under various proprietors. It peaked under the management of publisher Ticknor and Fields which became the nation’s leading publisher between 1833 and 1864. They produced the works of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Ralph Waldo Emerson, John Greenleaf Whittier, Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr., Charles Dickens and Louisa May Alcott, many of whom were frequent visitors to the building. During the bookstore’s heyday the corner of School and Washington came to be known as Parnassus Corner, a reference to the mountain home of the Twelve Muses of Greek mythology. The building was restored in 1960.

RELIGIOUS FREEDOM Anne Hutchinson lived on this spot during the time when she became a controversial religious leader. She held weekly scripture readings in her home which were attended by as many as 80 people. Charged with heresy for her unlicensed preaching. Hutchinson was excommunicated and exiled to Rhode Island in 1638 where she founded the town of Portsmouth.

IRISH IMMIGRATION Across the street from the Old Corner Book Store is the Irish Famine Memorial. It commemorates An Gorta Mor (The Great Hunger), the potato blight brought to Europe on ships from the east coast of America. The wind-born disease devastated the Irish potato crop and over one million people died of famine and a million more emigrated to the United States. More of them settled in Boston than anywhere else in this country. To this da

Old South Meeting House
Built in 1729 as a Puritan meeting house, Old South Meeting House was the stage for some of the most dramatic events leading up to the American Revolution. None was more important than a meeting that occurred on December 16, 1773. Over 30 tons of taxable tea sat in the holds of three ships, the Dartmouth, Eleanor, and Beaver, moored at Griffin’s Wharf. Not wanting to pay the onerous duty, thousands of Bostonians crowded into Old South Meeting House to take part in a heated discussion of what was to be done with the tea. After the failure of a final attempt to have the tea sent back to England, Samuel Adams addressed the crowd saying, Gentlemen, this meeting can do nothing more to save the country. These words were rumored to be a secret signal to the Sons of Liberty. Cries of Boston Harbour—a tea pot tonight were heard throughout the hall, and men disguised as mohawk Indians marched down to Griffin’s Wharf to witness the fateful destruction of 342 crates of tea. It became known as the Boston Tea Party and set that stage for American history.

A TIMELY RESCUE In 1876, Old South Meeting House was sold by its congregation and scheduled for demolition. At the final hour, a determined group of activists saved it from the wrecking ball, ushering in the first successful historic preservation effort in New England. In 1877, Old South Meeting House was incorporated as an active museum and historic landmark open to the public.

PHILLIS WHEATLEY Phillis Wheatley was a member of the Old South Meeting House congregation, where as a young girl she drew inspiration for writing poetry. In 1773 she became an international celebrity as one of the first African-Americans to publish a book, Poems on Various Subjects Religious and Moral. Kidnapped from Africa and sold into slavery in Boston, Wheatley overcame incredible odds and her accomplishments challenged many Bostonians’ views on race. A rare original edition of her book is on exhibit at the Old South Meeting House.

Old State House

The Old State House was the seat of British Government before the Revolution and afterwards served as the Commonwealth’s first capitol building, with the office of the state’s first governor, John Hancock. Located at the crossroads of the city’s two main streets, the Townhouse, as it was then called, was the center of Boston’s civic, commercial, and political life. The distinctive cupola was once the tallest point in town, and the building’s façade was topped by the lion and unicorn, symbols of royal authority that were torn down and burned after the Declaration of Independence was read to the people of Boston from the building’s balcony in 1776.

Some of the most significant events leading up to the Revolution took place inside and around this handsome Georgian structure, and many of the basic concepts underlying American government were first voiced within its walls. In its Assembly Hall, Samuel Adams urged resistance to taxation imposed without representation. In its Council Chamber a defiant James Otis railed against unwarranted search and seizure, in a speech that later prompted John Adams to declare that Then and there the child independence was born. Outside its doors the Boston Massacre unfolded in 1770, resulting in the deaths of five men, and galvanizing public opposition to British authority.

The Old State House is today maintained as an historic site and museum by the Bostonian Society.

LIFE, LIBERTY AND PURSUIT On July 18, 1776, the Declaration of Independence was read for the first time to the public in Massachusetts from the balcony of the Old State House. Abigail Adams was there, and wrote to her husband John ...great attention was given to Colonel Kraft’s every word. As soon as he ended ..., three cheers rended the air..... Thus ends royal authority in this state, and all the people shall say Amen.

SIGNATURE ITEMS Included in the Bostonian Society’s collection displayed in the Old State
House is the red velvet suit that John Hancock is believed to have worn when he was sworn in as the governor of Massachusetts. Other items include a vial of tea saved from the Boston Tea Party, as well as the Liberty Tree flag and a lantern hung to signal meetings of the Sons of Liberty, silver works by Paul Revere, a musket used at the Battle of Lexington, and a drum from the Battle of Bunker Hill.
The Boston Massacre

In 1770 tensions were high between Bostonians and Redcoats sent to Boston in the wake of the Stamp Act riots. Occasionally things would erupt into fist fights and angry confrontations. On March 5, Private White, on guard at the Custom’s house in King’s Street (now State Street) left his sentry box and struck young Edward Garrick in the face with the butt of his musket for insulting his commanding officer. White soon found himself surrounded by an angry mob that hurled taunts and snowballs at him.

Captain Preston of the 29th Regiment arrived with eight Redcoats to reinforce White. The troops forced their way through the increasingly hostile crowd, now swollen to several hundred people. Amidst a hail of snowballs and rocks, a club thrown from the crowd struck Private Montgomery in the face. Witnesses said Montgomery then fired the first shot. The crowd continued to press on the soldiers and more shots were fired. When the smoke cleared, five men lay dead or dying.

Faneuil Hall

Christened the Cradle of Liberty, Faneuil Hall’s vital role in revolutionary politics hadn’t been part of its original plans. Peter Faneuil, a wealthy merchant, built the hall as a center of commerce in 1742. While the market stalls on the first floor house successful shops to this day, it is the second floor meeting hall that has the greater legacy.

It was at Faneuil Hall in 1764 that Americans first protested against the Sugar Act and the Stamp Act, setting the doctrine that would come to be known as no taxation without representation. Gatherings to protest the Stamp Act, the Townshend Act, and the Redcoat occupation would follow, as would one of the first in a series of meetings that would culminate in the Boston Tea Party. The statue of Samuel Adams in front of Faneuil Hall could not be better placed, for it was here that he did his greatest work, dominating town meetings and staging a funeral for the victims of the Boston Massacre. The third floor is Headquarters for the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company of Massachusetts, the third oldest chartered military organization in the world and the oldest in the western hemisphere.

Following the Revolution and to this day, Faneuil Hall retained its position as a stage for debate. Faneuil Hall was rebuilt 1763 when it burned down. Charles Bulfinch redesigned the current building in 1805.
THE GRASSHOPPER The most famous weathervane in Boston is Faneuil Hall’s golden grasshopper. Peter Faneuil commissioned the grasshopper from acclaimed craftsman Shem Drowne, whose weathervane also tops the Old North Church. Tradition has it that the weathervane was used during the War of 1812 to spot spies. Anyone who did not know the answer to the question What is on top of Faneuil Hall? in those days invited suspicion.

LAND OF THE FREE Twenty four times a year, between 300 to 500 new citizens take the Oath of Allegiance at Faneuil Hall and are sworn in as new citizens.

SHOP ‘TIL YOU DROP Don’t mix up historic Faneuil Hall with Faneuil Hall Marketplace – the bustling commercial center located just behind historic Faneuil Hall. The series of restored 19th Century buildings is the most visited location in Boston.