Make Way for Ducklings

Do you remember reading the book, Make Way for Ducklings as a child?

In the Boston Public Gardens there is the Ducklings Statue!
















The gardens were great, lots of beautiful plants and flowers and the swan boats (closed when we got there)







and you never know who you'll run into in the gardens!

The Freedom Trail part II

Boston Common
America’s oldest public park, the Boston Common, began as a common grazing ground for sheep and cattle. Eccentric Anglican William Blackstone settled on Beacon Hill with only his books for company in 1622. In 1630, Puritans from Charlestown joined him to share the area’s potable springs, but by 1635 Blackstone bristled at the increased populations and moved to roomy Rhode Island to satisfy his reclusive nature. He returned to Boston on a white bull some years later to propose to his beloved.

Situated on 44 acres of open land, it was used as a common pasture for grazing cattle owned by the townspeople of Boston. The Common later became a "trayning" field for the militia and was used as a British Army camp during the occupation of Boston. The Common’s varied uses also included a place to hang pirates and witches or publicly pillory criminals in “stocks.” It has also served a higher purpose as a place for public oratory and discourse. Reverend Martin Luther King spoke here, Pope John Paul II said Mass here, and Gloria Steinem advanced the feminist revolution on these grounds. These days, visitors to the Common can enjoy a concert, a performance of Shakespeare or the simple, calm respite from the bustle of city life.



In the common is the Tadpole Playground which is a big area for kids that looks really fun! (I've no idea where the rest of my pictures from here went... I'll keep looking for them)








Benjamin Franklin Statue/Boston Latin School
America’s first public school offered instruction to boys, rich or poor free of charge here while girls attended private schools in peoples’ homes. The boys-only tradition finally ended in 1972 when girls were permitted to attend Boston Latin. It is fabled that on April 19, 1775 word of shots fired in Lexington circulated rapidly throughout Boston Town. Boston Latin’s instructor John Lovel was inspired to rise and rhyme “Close your books. Schools done, and war’s begun!”

A striking mosaic marks the spot where the school once stood, and where one if its most famous students Benjamin Franklin attended classes not long before he dropped out of school forever. Boston Latin School is still in operation in the Fenway neighborhood of Boston.







We stopped for a group photo near Ben


Site of the Boston Massacre
On this site, a skirmish between and angry group of colonists and a few terrified British soldiers erupted into the first deadly encounter between Boston colonists and British “red coats.”

The trouble began when a crowd of angry colonists left a local tavern and approached a British sentry standing guard outside the on a chilly March 5th, 1770. They were “a motley rabble of saucy boys,” according to John Adams who had assembled around an argument between a young boy and a soldier. Eyewitness accounts of the event are confusing. The boy was struck with the barrel of a musket by a sentry, and the crowd became a mob. They threw sticks, ice snowballs and rocks at the young British guards, and finally a wooden club that knocked one of the sentries to the ground.

It might have been their jeering taunt “fire, fire, why don’t you fire? You dare not fire?” that caused the confusion, or the panic of the young British soldiers who were outnumbered and under attack, but fire they did and within seconds 11 were wounded or dying.

Samuel Adams and Paul Revere seized upon the tragedy to spark a flame of anger among the colonists by representing the skirmish as a massacre. The British soldiers were tried for murder. John Adams, a Boston lawyer and ardent patriot defended them in spite of his contemporaries’ assertion that the event was a “horrible and bloody massacre.” He was as loyal to the ideal of justice as he was to the patriot cause.

I don't have any pictures from here, but I did see it. There is a tiny plaque in the area where this took place.

The Old North Church
Immortalized in Longfellow’s poem Paul Revere’s Ride, the Old North is the oldest church building in Boston and the city’s most visited historic site. On the evening of April 18, 1775, the Old North sexton, Robert Newman, climbed the steeple and held high two lanterns as a signal from Paul Revere that the British were marching to Lexington and Concord to arrest Samuel Adams and John Hancock and to seize the Colonial store of ammunition. This fateful event ignited the American Revolution.

If I recall correctly this was in the North End, I remember seeing it but it was dark when we were in the North End so I don't have a picture. It just means I need to come back because you can take tours in many of these buildings!

The Freedom Trail

The majority of the scavenger hunt in Boston was centered around the Freedom Trail so I could see the sites.

We didn't make all of the stops on The Freedom Trail but we hit a bunch.



Faneuil Hall (commonly called Quincy Market)
Faneuil Hall hosted America’s first Town Meeting. Built by wealthy merchant Peter Faneuil in 1741, this imposing structure is the place where the Sons of Liberty proclaimed their dissent against Royal oppression. Faneuil Hall has served as an open forum meeting hall and marketplace for more than 250 years and has continued to provide a forum for debate on the most consequential issues of the day.


The first floor served as a marketplace for the local townspeople to sell their goods. The second floor housed the town meeting hall. Here, Bostonians protested the taxation policies of the British Empire and set the doctrine of "no taxation without representation." It was here on November 5, 1773, that John Hancock and other Bostonians held the first of the tea meetings to discuss the fate of that "baneful weed."


Faneuil Hall hosted America’s first Town Meeting. Built by wealthy merchant Peter Faneuil in 1741, this imposing structure is the place where the Sons of Liberty proclaimed their dissent against Royal oppression. Faneuil Hall has served as an open forum meeting hall and marketplace for more than 250 years and has continued to provide a forum for debate on the most consequential issues of the day.


The first floor served as a marketplace for the local townspeople to sell their goods. The second floor housed the town meeting hall. Here, Bostonians protested the taxation policies of the British Empire and set the doctrine of "no taxation without representation." It was here on November 5, 1773, that John Hancock and other Bostonians held the first of the tea meetings to discuss the fate of that "baneful weed."





Old State House
Old State was the seat of British Government during the Revolution. After the Revolution, it became the Commonwealth’s first state house and remained so until the new one was completed in 1798. The building's distinctive cupola was once the tallest and most impressive building in the town, sending the message that there was no higher authority than the king.


Some of the most significant events of the Revolution took place inside the walls of this tiny Georgian structure. It was inside the council chamber that a defiant James Otis railed against the writs of assistance in a fiery performance that ignited the colonists’ rebellion. “Then and there the child liberty was born,” John Adams later reported. Inside this building, James Otis and Samuel Adams wrote letters to other colonial assemblies, arousing their patriotic fervor. In an astonishing show of defiance, colonial legislators locked themselves inside the Chamber to resist the decrees of Royal Authority and to prevent the Royal Governor from dissolving the Assembly.

It was just outside these doors that the Boston Massacre unfolded in 1770, serving as the backdrop for the shooting that lead to the tragic deaths of Crispus Attucks and four others. Six years later, it was from this balcony that the Declaration of Independence was first read to the people of Boston. Abigail Adams was there that day and she watched as the exhilarated crowd tore down the golden lion and the silver unicorn, symbols of British rule. “Great attention was given to Colonel Graft’s every word,” she wrote to her husband John. “As soon has he ended, the cry from the balcony was ‘God Save Our American States’ and then three cheers rended the air…Thus ends royal authority in this state and all the people shall say, Amen.”

The lion and the unicorn have been restored, and now, Old State is the oldest surviving public building in Boston, housing as a museum of Boston history operated by the Bostonian Society.



The State House
Designed by Charles Bulfinch, the “new” State House was completed on January 11th, 1798, and widely acclaimed as one of the more magnificent and well-suited buildings in the country. Its golden dome was once made of wood, and later overlaid with copper by Paul Revere to prevent leaks.

It was covered with 23 karat gold leaf for the first time in 1874. The land for the State House was originally used as John Hancock's cow pasture. Today, the State House is the oldest building 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.

A visit to the House Chamber inside the State House will be rewarded with a first-hand view of the infamous Sacred Cod. The life-size wood fish that hangs in the Chamber was created in 1784 as a reminder of the importance of the Cod fishing industry to the state’s economy. Why infamous? Because in 1933 it was “codnapped” by pranksters from the Harvard Lampoon. Business was suspended for several days until it was recovered. A gilded wooden pinecone adorns the top of the Golden Dome, as a symbol of the state’s reliance on logging in the 18th century. Happily, this icon has never been abducted.



Old South Meeting House
Built in 1729, Old South Meeting House was a Puritan house of worship. Old South was Boston’s largest building during the time of the Revolution, and big things happened inside. This old church furnished Boston’s boisterous patriots with a stage for their impassioned protests. They even started the Boston Tea Party here after Samuel Adams delivered the coded message. “This meeting can do nothing more to save the country!” he pronounced to the assembly. Colonists, led by the Sons of Liberty and disguised as Native Americans left Old South and walked quietly and purposefully to the waterfront where they dumped 342 chests of tea into the harbor.

British soldiers soon retaliated, turning this “sanctuary of freedom” into a place to drink liquor and exercises their horses.

Old South is now a museum but was almost lost forever when it was slated for demolition in 1876. Determined preservationists saved it within minutes of the wrecker’s ball’s first strike. Old South's reputation as a place for history-making oratory has continued through the generations. You can go inside to visit "Voices of Protest," a permanent exhibition that tells Old South's story over two centuries. It's a sometimes disturbing, often inspiring, frequently controversial, but always fascinating story of the people who have made history within these walls.







Park Street Church
This church was founded in 1809 in the midst of an exciting chapter in the nation's history. Ten people, including author Oliver Wendell Holmes, gathered in the mansion of William Thurston on Beacon Hill on February 27th, 1809, to discuss the organization of a church in this area. By mid-March, the committee had located a site at the corner of Park and Tremont Streets, and Park Street Church was founded.

The 217 ft. steeple of this church was once the first landmark travelers saw when approaching Boston. Its 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.

The site of Park Street Church is known as “Brimstone Corner” perhaps because the congregation once stored “brimstone,” or sulfur (a component of gun power) in its basement during the war of 1812. Or maybe it’s because old-school ministers delivered many a “hell-fire and brimstone” sermon here. The idea seems to have caught on. Even today, self-appointed prophets (not associated with Park Street) can be heard delivering their colorful and spirited pronouncements promising hellfire for the unrepentant to unsuspecting passers-by on Brimstone Corner. . The church was also where William Lloyd Garrison delivered his first major public abolitionist speech.

Park Street Church can also be remembered for a more peaceful event. "America" (My Country 'Tis of Thee), by Samuel Francis Smith, was first sung at the Park Street Church on July 4th, 1831



Granary Burying Ground
Called by some, “America’s Westminster Abby” the Granary Burying Ground’s tranquility and beautifully carved stone markers offer solace and a place for contemplation.

Some of America’s most notable citizens rest here. An elaborately embellished obelisk marks the site of John Hancock’s tomb. Nearby rests his servant Frank. Although Franks’ marker is humble, the fact that his resting place is marked at all is a sign that his employer held him in very high esteem. Other Revolutionary heroes buried here include Paul Revere, Samuel Adams, James Otis, all five of the Boston Massacre victims, Benjamin Franklin’s parents and Peter Faneuil.

Originally called South Burying Ground because of its location at the most southerly area of Boston settlement, it was then renamed Middle Burying Ground, as Boston sprawled toward the south. The current name is derived from the grain storage building, or granary, which stood on the site where the Park Street Church now stands.

Although the Granary contains only 2300 markers, it is estimated that more than 5000 people are buried here. Each tomb contained on average about 20 bodies. The Infant Tomb alone contains about 400 babies. Since headstones were expensive it was common to put several bodies of one family under one headstone with one name on it. There is discrepancy in the number of headstones and the number of people buried in the Granary. There may be several possible explanations as grounds keepers arranged the stones in neat rows to facilitate maintenance, shaped the grounds more into a mold of the new “trendy” garden-style cemetery, or wanted to encourage people to stroll in the site instead of having sheep grazing on the “unorganized,” old looking burying ground.












more tomorrow ...