Freedom Trail, Part 2

The next site on the Freedom Trail is the King’s Chapel and the King’s Chapel Burying Ground. This was right across the street from our hotel. It looks a little funny because it lacks a steeple that was supposed to be added eventually, but never was. This is an Anglican church and has been the object of controversy. King James II ordered an Anglican church to be built in the colonies, but the Puritans wouldn’t sell any land on which to build a church because, after all, the Church of England was the reason they came to the New World. In order to build the church the governor had to seize a corner of the burial ground and build the church there.

The oldest continuously used pulpit in the country…

This was Paul Revere’s pew. All the pews were numbered, walled boxes with benches or chairs inside. Parishioners paid for their pews yearly – the more that the family paid, the closer their pew was to the front of the church. Members were free to decorate their pews however they saw fit. The pews were walled in  to hold in the warmth from the foot warmers that the members brought from home in the winter months. This was all very interesting.

The first organ in America.

The Governor’s Pew…George Washington actually sat in the Governor’s Pew.

The children sat on the pew facing the parents. That way the parents could watch the children as well as the minister.

Guess what…another cemetery!

 

This cemetery holds the remains of Capt. John Winthrop, Mary Chilton who was the first Pilgrim to touch land in America, William Dawes the other night rider to Lexington, and Elizabeth Pain who was the inspiration for Hawthorne’s Hester Prynne of The Scarlet Letter fame.

Right behind King’s Chapel is Boston’s Old City Hall. It isn’t used anymore by the city. Ruth’s Chris Steak House is in the bottom of it.

In the garden in front of the Old City Hall and surrounded by patio tables from Ruth’s Chris is this famous sculpture of Ben Franklin.

 

Just think…you can have a yummy steak right underneath the gaze of Ben Franklin…only in Boston. Then, I guess, you can have dessert under the watchful eye of Josiah Quincy, Boston’s second mayor.

Dan really didn’t want to take my picture in front of this donkey. You notice that I’m not petting it. Ha! It does stand for the democratic party because the majority of the first mayors of Boston were democrats. As an aside…Do you know that the hottest selling t-shirt in Boston this summer (according to the Boston Globe) is one that displays a picture of former President Bush with the slogan “Miss me yet? How’s that hopey changey thing workin’ out for you?” They were everywhere. The Boston Globe article says that the president didn’t get such a warm welcome on Martha’s Vineyard this year.

Dan wanted me to get a picture of this building because of its name – The Boston Five Cents Savings Bank.

Old South Meeting House – “The Nursery and Sanctuary of Freedom,” was a Congregational or Puritan parish. It was the largest building in town at the time preceding the Revolution, so became the place where the largest meetings were held prior to the Revolution. The colonists met here on the day after the Boston Massacre. This is where the Boston Tea Party was planned some 4 years later. 7,000 citizens met here to hear Sam Adams chair the meeting in which he said “Gentlemen, this meeting can do nothing more to save the country.” That was the cue for the Tea Party to begin.

  During the occupation of Boston by the British, the church was used as a stable and a riding school and drinks were served at a bar in the gallery. The pews were chopped into firewood and the library of the pastor was burned. The quote below is printed on the gallery wall.

The next stop on the trail is the Old State House, the oldest public building still standing in the eastern part of the United States. “Here the child Independence was born.” It stands in the middle of a bunch of skyscrapers and was almost torn down to widen a street until the city of Chicago offered to buy it and move it brick by brick to the shores of Lake Michigan “for all America to revere.” The people of Boston were so offended by the offer that they decided to preserve the building.

 

It was at this point that I was beginning to get a little droopy and I certainly looked it. Ha!

This is the old Custom’s House Tower, Boston’s first skyscraper and a landmark in the skyline. Marriott has bought it and turned it into timeshares.

Each Fourth of July someone stands on the balcony at the end of the Old State House to read the Declaration of Independence. The Boston Massacre occurred in front of the balcony.

 

Faneuil Hall is the most cherished of the buildings because this is where the colonists first began to speak out against British rule. This was where the citizens created a Committee of Correspondence and where the colonists first uttered the words “no taxation without representation.”  It was, and still is, a large meeting hall and market. The weathervane is a gilded grasshopper. It was said that the colonists knew who was a friend or foe by asking them to identify what was on the weathervane on top of Faneuil Hall.

Statue of Sam Adams

There were lots of people visiting Boston on Saturday and lots of vendors. The bottom of the hall is filled with places to eat and get snacks. We decided to stop at Dick’s to get a burger. It’s famous for its waiters who are intentionally a little uh rude. They tied bibs on us. The bibs were better than the dunce hats they made for others.

While we were eating we were visited by Redcoats.

 

We were somewhat refreshed after our meal and ready to tackle the rest of the Freedom Trail.

The Freedom Trail, Part 1

Hurricane Earl blew through on Friday night and we awoke on Saturday morning to a gloriously beautiful day to start our trek on the Freedom Trail. (If we ever go back we will not do this all in one day!)
The tour starts on Boston Common which was just a block from our hotel. This parcel of land was purchased by the puritans from the first settler of the area, William Blackstone, an Anglican Minister. It was also a training field where 1000 Redcoats made camp during the British occupation of Boston during 1775.
 
Benjamin Franklin met people in front of the Visitor’s Center. He led one of the walking tours. He wouldn’t pose for a picture with us unless we purchased a ticket for the tour.

If there was a graveyard to see, we saw it. We were looking for some of our relatives! This one was on the grounds of the common and supposedly includes graves of some of the Redcoats and the painter, Gilbert Stuart.



Looking across the park to Beacon Hill.

  This is looking down Boylston toward the Ritz Carlton.

The Soldiers and Sailors monument on Flag Staff Hill…built in memory of Massachusetts soldiers who fought and died in the Civil War.
 
Every park that we saw had a carousel.

Looking up one of the streets in Beacon Hill.


The New State House which was built on land that was originally Jon Hancock’s cow pasture. I was standing in front of the iron fence above when I took the picture.

I believe the statue is Horace Mann, the father of education.
  
The next stop on the Freedom Trail is Park Street Church. This is located right across the street from the Omni. Every time we took a walk we heard the bells playing old hymns and chiming the hour…beautiful. It was built on top of Boston’s grain storage building, the granary. Park Street Church is famous for the movements that began here: prison reform, women’s suffrage, and the abolitionist’s cause. William Lloyd Garrison made his first speech here. My Country ‘Tis of Thee was sung for the first time on the steps of this church.
 
Next to Park Street Church is the Granary Burial Ground. Many of the patriots are buried here…

Paul Revere

James Otis

John Hancock

The monuments were very interesting…a skull with wings was one of the carvings we saw repeatedly.
This is the tomb of Ben Franklin’s parents. He was born in Boston, but is buried in Philadelphia.

Paul Revere’s tomb

Where there was a grave of a patriot, people had left pennies – I’m not sure why…

This was the grave of one of the “Mother Goose.”

One of the signers of the Declaration of Independence…

Sam Adams, who provided the fervor for the Revolution, while John Hancock provided the money.

The individuals who died at te Boston Massacre are also buried here. I don’t know why people were laying stones on top of the monument.

I guess that’s enough gravesites for one post! Ha! It’s a little strange standing on the graves of the individuals who you’ve read about your entire life. Most of the graves of the patriots or founders of the country have American flags stuck in the ground next to them and all of them had little pyres of rocks people had built with pennies scattered among the rocks.

Touring American History, Part 1

Several months ago we decided to take a vacation over Labor Day in celebration of our anniversary. I picked our destination, Boston, because I love history, I’m a history teacher, I love to read historical fiction, and I’m a died-in- the-wool romantic, so Boston was a natural choice. The next few (plus or minus one or two or seven) posts are going to be my chronicle of our trip because I want to remember it all. If you aren’t into history or don’t want to see about a million vacation photos, consider yourself warned. Ha!

We left on the Friday before the Labor Day weekend, the day that Hurricane Earl was supposed to hit Cape Cod and Boston. We actually had more trouble getting out of the Houston Airport because of thunder showers than we did getting into Logan. The only issue we had was a very bumpy (“you do understand that if you get out of your seats it is at your own risk”) landing.

We stayed at the Omni Parker House, the oldest continuously run hotel in the United States and the inventor of the parker house roll.

When we arrived in our room, this was what awaited us:

The girls had called ahead and made arrangements to have flowers delivered to the room. They also made dinner reservations for us for Saturday night at the Oyster House. The flowers were gorgeous, as you can see in the photos. Don’t we just have the sweetest daughters?!?

The hotel had a bottle of champagne and chocolate-covered strawberries sitting on a tray with a congratulatory note.  I can’t say enough about the service at this hotel.

Dan is taking an opportunity to rest because he knows that his wife has a grueling fun-filled day planned for tomorrow.

We walked around the corner to a little restaurant for a dinner of fish and chips and to familiarize ourselves with the area. The hotel sits on the Freedom Trail so the Old South Meeting House was behind the hotel on Washington St. and King’s Chapel was across School Street.

This is the spot where the original Boston Tea Party started.

  Old South sits on a square and there is a fruit and vegetable stand adjacent to the building.This area is always bustling, no matter the time of day.

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