Trailing Liberty

The Granary Burying Yard

Late post today as I attended to proper recognition for the moms out on the west coast. Since I daily espouse just how truly special both of them are in the motherhood department I’ll leave further discussion of their merits until tomorrow since you’re probably already rightfully overwhelmed with Mother’s Day tributes dominating the electro-magnetic spectrum today. I need the space today as well as I chronicle the conquering of the Freedom Trail yesterday. Growing up in New England I was inculcated with the region’s pivotal role in the Revolutionary War but I’d never walked the actual trail through Boston’s historical sites. This is kind of strange due to my professed love of history and especially military history. I think it’s like most people who live near big attractions. It’s there and I’ll get to it eventually but I’ve got these other things to do. I lived for nearly ten years in the National Capitol Region but I only visited the Smithsonian when we had visitors (thank God for visitors).

Favorite Son with Loaded Truck

Before I set out to hang with Paul (Revere), Sam (Adams), and John (Hancock) I had to wait for my Favorite Son to arrive for some upper body workouts. Since the new house we’re moving into comes with a washer and dryer and the ones we brought from Charlton would not work there (gas powered) we’re giving them to the Portsmouth duo. The upper body work was lifting them into the rental truck but that paled in comparison to the riding lawnmower we gifted him at Christmas. We had to load it by having one set of tires on the ramp while we supported the other side while simultaneously pushing it up; not for the faint of heart. I may be honestly outgrowing this type exercise.

The weather was still very Germanic for the walk but I figured that would keep the crowds down (no such luck). I decided to start from the Boston Common because of the garage underneath. This meant a long walk back from the finish. I took a lot of pictures (I apologize in advance about the selfies). The Freedom Trail is easy to follow as there’s a set of bricks set into the middle of the sidewalk to guide you. This is very helpful because navigating through Boston’s colonially planned streets is not for the faint of heart. I added in some stops close to the Trail that are not official stops but if I was going to do this I was going to grab as much as I could. So here’s my rendition of Boston’s Freedom Trail.

How the Freedom Trail is Marked

Boston Common was established in 1634 which makes it America’s oldest public park. Puritan colonists purchased the Common’s 44 acres from the first settler of the area. The pasture then became known as the "Common Land" and was used to graze local livestock until 1830. Also referred to as a "trayning field," over 1000 Redcoats camped on the Common during the British occupation of Boston in 1775. It was from here that three brigades of Redcoats left to make the fateful trip to Lexington and Concord. 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. The Common was a site for Puritanical punishments, home to a whipping post and stocks. Pirates, murderers, and witches were hanged from the tree known as "The Great Elm," now gone. Anyone who’s ever visited Boston will remember the Common, just a great, huge green space in the middle of the city.

The State House

The  Massachusetts State House sits atop a hill (Beacon Hill) overlooking the Common and was completed in 1798. The land for the State House was originally used as John Hancock’s cow pasture. Its most distinct feature, the golden dome, was once made of wood, but was later overlaid with copper by Paul Revere.

In the Central Burying Yard

Central Burying Ground - At the Boylston/Tremont corner of the Boston Common, dating from 1757 this cemetery is the final resting place of painter Gilbert Stuart, who’s most famous work is the portrait of George Washington that appears on the one dollar bill. Also interred here are 15 men who took part in the Boston Tea Party, as well as many Redcoats who died in the Battle of Bunker Hill and during the Siege of Boston. I was the only person in this huge swath of the Common and wondered at the history lying below my feet. I even found a gravestone for a guy I may be related to. I’m told my family traces its American footprint back to a group of six brothers that landed in Boston in 1690 – if so this might have been on of them.

The Liberty Tree location is marked by a large bronze plaque on the sidewalk. Hanging effigies of tax collectors on the Liberty Tree in 1765 is considered one of the first provocative events in pre-revolutionary America. This eventually got the attention of our British cousins who cut it down in 1775. The Liberty Tree was a meeting place and focal point for rallies and protests by the Sons of Liberty and was an important symbol for resistance to British rule.

Park Street Church

Brits Still Hanging Around - Thought it Was Funny in Front of Bank

Park Street Church was founded in 1809, at the corner of Park and Tremont Streets and became known for supporting Abolitionist causes. William Lloyd Garrison delivered his first major public speech against slavery there.

Granary Burying Yard

Massacre Victims

Sam Adams

Paul Revere

John Hancock

Granary Burying Ground is right next door to the church. It was established in 1660 and named for the 12,000-bushel grain storage building that was once next door (before the church). It is estimated there are over 5,000 Bostonians who have made the Granary their final resting place. That includes the victims of the Boston Massacre, Samuel Adams, Paul Revere, and John Hancock. It was kind of jarring to see these names, still prevalent in popular culture with their simple gravestones (well except for Hancock – he went big early – see signature on Declaration of Independence).

King's Chapel

Inside King's Chapel

King’s Chapel was built in 1688 by the royal governor Andros on a town burying ground when no one in the city would sell the congregation desirable land on which to build a non-Puritan church. King’s Chapel Burying Ground was Boston Proper’s first cemetery. It hosts a multitude of famous residents, including John Winthrop, Massachusetts’ first Governor, and Mary Chilton, the first woman to step off the Mayflower.

Franklin Statue

Site of First Public School

Franklin Statue and Boston Latin School  is right behind King’s Chapel. Boston Latin School, founded in 1635 is the oldest public school in America. A sidewalk mosaic and a statue of former student Benjamin Franklin currently marks the location of the original schoolhouse. Five signers of the Declaration of Independence attended Boston Latin. Boston’s old city hall (now a steak house) is also on this site and is an impressive building in its own right.

Old Corner Book Store/Chipotle

Old Corner Book Store is the oldest commercial building in Boston and was built in 1718 as an apothecary shop and home on property that once belonged to Puritan dissident Anne Hutchinson. The Old Corner Bookstore was the center of American book publishing in the mid-1800s when Boston was the country's literary mecca. From this place, publishers produced the works of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Ralph Waldo Emerson, John Greenleaf Whittier, Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr., and Louisa May Alcott, many of whom were frequent visitors to the building. It now houses a Chipotle’s which seemed strange but maybe prophetic.

Old South Meeting House

Old South Meeting House was built in 1729 and was not a church, but rather a meeting house for the Puritans to worship. Old South Meeting House was the biggest building in all of colonial Boston and the stage for some of the most dramatic events leading up to the American Revolution, including the meeting that occurred on December 16, 1773 that resulted in the event that became known as the Boston Tea Party when lots of British Tea (if unloaded would have been subject to tax) ended up in Boston Harbor.

Old State house

Old State House was built in 1713 to house the colony’s government and was at the center of events that sparked the American Revolution. In 1768, the colony’s House of Representatives defied the royal governor and refused to rescind their call for united resistance to British taxes. British officials, however, dissolved the legislature and sent two regiments of the army to occupy Boston. Less than a decade later, in 1776, the Declaration of Independence was first read to the people of Boston from the Old State House balcony.

Massacre Location

Site of Boston Massacre is marked by a large oval in the sidewalk. I’ve walked by this place dozens of times and never realized its importance until yesterday. The tensions that led to the Boston Massacre were the product of the occupation of Boston by Redcoats in 1768. The violent clash on March 5, 1770 began when a British guard struck a young Bostonian in the face with the butt of his musket for insulting his commanding officer. He was surrounded by an angry mob of Bostonians that hurled taunts and snowballs at him. The crowd continued to press on the soldiers and shots were fired resulting in  five men dead. The Sons of Liberty held funerals for the victims and organized a vigorous propaganda effort, in order to turn public opinion against the Redcoats.

Fanueil Hall

Fanueil Hall - Often referred to as "the home of free speech" and the "Cradle of Liberty," Faneuil Hall hosted America's first Town Meeting. Built by wealthy merchant Peter Faneuil as a center of commerce in 1741, this is 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 270 years. It was here 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."

Blackstone Block Pubs

Union Bar

Green Dragon

The Blackstone Block - At the corner of Union and Hanover Streets, the Blackstone Block is the oldest existing city block in the country and a preserved piece of Boston dating to the 18th Century. The Capen House, now the Union Oyster House restaurant was built in the early 1700’s and housed an importer’s shop that sold silks. During the American Revolution, patriot Isaiah Thomas printed the radical newspaper The Massachusetts Spy from this building before he was forced to flee Boston. Established in 1826, the Union Oyster House is the oldest continuously run restaurant in the country. Two doors from the Union Oyster House is the Ebenezer Hancock House, built in the late 1760’s by John Hancock. At one point 2.5 million silver crowns, loaned by the French to help pay Washington’s troops, were stored in this building. The Green Dragon pub, a favorite of the Sons of Liberty, was also located here. It was understandably hard to remain on track passing by this number of very active pubs but I persevered although the seeds of a Boston pub crawl were planted.

In front of Revere House

Revere House

Famous Revere Statue with North Church in Background

Paul Revere House is located in the North End and was built around 1680. It is the oldest remaining structure in downtown Boston and the only home on the Freedom Trail. Paul Revere lived here when he made his famous messenger ride to Lexington on the night of April 18-19, 1775 that would be immortalized by Longfellow’s famous poem Paul Revere’s Ride.

Old North Church

Inside Church

The Old North Church is the oldest standing church building in Boston  and first opened in 1723. Its 191 foot steeple is the tallest in Boston and played a dramatic role in the American Revolution. On April 18, 1775 Paul Revere was signaled the advancement of British troops towards Lexington and Concord from there. Revere in Charlestown to learn what has been immortalized by the phrase "one if by land, two if by sea" in Longfellow’s poem. The British were advancing by boat across the Charles River.

Copp's Hill

Copp’s Hill Burying Ground is just up the hill from the church. Copp’s Hill Burying Ground is located on a hill  and was Boston’s largest colonial burying ground, dating from 1659. Some notables buried in Copp's Hill are preachers Cotton and Increase Mather, two Puritan ministers closely associated with the Salem witch trials. Because of its height and views, the British used this vantage point to train their cannons on Charlestown during the Battle of Bunker Hill in 1775. The epitaph on Captain Daniel Malcolm's tombstone at Copp's Hill is riddled with the marks of vengeful British bullets

Training Yard Currently Under Renovation

Great House Foundations

Charleston Training Field – Charlestown, now a neighborhood of Boston, was settled a few years before Boston and is home to many historic sites. Charlestown Training Field was the site of Colonial drilling and musters. In City Square Park, are the foundations of the Great House, built for Governor John Winthrop in 1629 was destroyed by the British during the bombardment of Charlestown during the Battle of Bunker Hill in 1775.

Bunker Hill

Hanging with Prescott

Bunker Hill Monument - The Battle of Bunker Hill on June 17, 1775, was the first major battle of the Revolutionary War. It took a force of 3,000 Redcoats three assaults to dislodge the Colonial Militia from a hastily constructed redoubt atop Breed’s Hill in Charlestown. It was in this battle that, "don't fire until you see the whites of their eyes!" is said to have been uttered by Colonel William Prescott. While technically a British victory, the Battle of Bunker Hill proved that Colonial forces could fight effectively against the British.

On Walk Back - Seeing Steeple of North Church Across Charles River
Near Spot Revere did the Same Thing in 1775

From Bunker (Breed’s) Hill I had the long walk back to the Common but I thoroughly enjoyed that (well except for the whole buckling pain in my knee). It was a day I could fully immerse myself in history and not be distracted by competing demands on my time. I more fully appreciate everything Boston means to this nation. It would be fun to see what they would think about what they wrought. Obviously I stole a lot of the words for the descriptions. They came from the official guide to the Freedom Trail which was immensely helpful in navigating through rainy Boston.  I know there’s been too many pictures but I would not deny you the daily dose of granddaughter and grandpuppy pictures.