Boston – Tea Party and Trails

 The trams complete narrative route is 90 mins, we waited in the que about 5 mins to get on the first tram and the tram was full as we drove away….people were waiting at stops along the way and there were no seats for them to get on, the driver stopped to say that there was another tram on the way, some said this was the 3rd tram that couldnt pick them up…hhhhmmm, we had to be careful about getting off,  Rosie didnt want to wait in the baking sun for a tram that couldnt pick us up.  We trundled around the outlying areas  of Boston and got off in the middle of the historical area at Boston Common.

Boston Common has been the heart of Boston since 1634, this 44 acre area is the countries first public park, the park was used for public hangings until 1827 and to graze livestock until 1830. The park was also home to 1000 redcoats in 1775 before going into battle.  

In the middle of the Park is the start of the Boston Freedom Trail, it traces Americas revolutionary birth along the historically laden streets of Boston, the trail covers key colonial sites and the stories behind them.  The well trodden route is marked by a trail of red bricks along the footpath which you follow and points of interest are highlighted by these brass markers in the pavement.  There is so many ways you can explore this 2.5 mile foot trail, either self guided like Rosie and The Operator, we downloaded a Free Freedom Trail App on the iphone which gave us the history and stories of every site….plus, it gave us freedom (excuse the pun) to sit down and have a beer or lunch as required.  If we were going on a guided walking tour the best rated and fun one would be the one run by the National Historical Park Visitor Centre for $13 bucks per person which is narrated by a wigged and costumed chaperon.

                                                                                                        Let Rosie and The Operator show you some of the sights and tell you a few stories of the city.  This is the State House built in 1798.  The dome on the top has been sheathed in copper and covered in 23 carat gold….to prevent leaks, as you do!

Rosie is a sucker for a cemetery, this one is the Granary Burying Ground and established in 1660, it gets its name from being situated next to the old town granary. Approximately 8000 people are buried there but there are only about 2300 headstones as it was common to have one headstone per family.

Paul Revere is buried here….you know, ‘one if by land and two if by sea’……he is a famous son of this city and we will hear heaps more about him.  By trade he was a silversmith and bell maker, he was also a notary public, dentist and secret note deliverer for the revolution.

The Operator found a friend in a corner of the park….a bronze donkey…..no one knew what it meant….it had to mean something right?  Upon abit of google research we found out that it was a local symbol of the Democratic party, erected in 1862 outside Bostons Old City Hall….The Operator was the only one to sit on him….were everyone else Republicans?

The Old State House looks so regal and small tucked away amongst the modern buildings that tower over it.  Dating back to 1713 this building served as the seat of British Government until the Revolution.  Some of the American Governments first basic concepts were raised here, such as no taxation without representation and no un warranted search and seizure.

On March 5th 1770 a dispute between a young colonist and a British century escalated into a riot.  A guard left his sentry box when the colonist insulted his commanding officer, then he struck the colonist with the but of his musket.  The guard soon found himself surrounded by an angry mob, 8 red coat reinforcements came to his aid.  The hostile mob had increased to several hundred and started to hurl snowballs and rocks.  A club hit a soldier in the face and the solders fired into the mob killing 5 colonists.  The patriots organised a vigorous propaganda campaign, calling the event a bloody massacre……the circle in the front is where the ‘massacre’ happened.

On July 18 1776 the first public reading of The Declaration of Independence in Massachusetts was heard from this balcony. It truly is a lovely building, we were there about lunchtime and everyone had kind of disappeared, there was hardly anyone about. The beauty of the whole day is that Boston didn’t feel crowded at all, we had plenty of room to move.

The statue in the front is a tribute to the Potato Famine victims in Ireland, the building in the back however with the humpy roof is the Old Corner Bookstore and built in 1712. It is one of Bostons oldest surviving structures and started out as an apothecary store. In 1828 it became a bookstore which evolved into the nations leading publisher in the mid 1880s. We stopped in this square and had a sandwich for lunch. The day was beautiful, blue sky and mild temp of about 21c. This is a busy hub of the Freedom Trail and we were surrounded by three tours at once telling the tales from the past, every single one of them, including our app had slightly different accounts of the same version…..history it really makes you wonder, it is all in the telling and retelling.

Faneuil Hall was built in 1742 and had shops on the first floor, the second floor were meeting rooms and Samuel Adams a leader of the Revolution gave his inspirational speeches here, the building soon became known as the ‘Cradle of Liberty’ as more people joined the cause. The statue in the front is of Samuel Adams.

On the top of Faneuil Hall sits a grasshopper weather vane.  During the war of 1812 British spies were found out by asking the question, ‘What is on top of Faneuil Hall?’…..Okay…..

Quincy Market was unassuming from the outside, buskers were in the front square singing and dancing on the ancient granite cobbles entertaining the lunch crowd.  It totally disguised the bedlam that was within! Enter if you dare….

  The Market is a giant food hall, you can buy anything on the planet if you can stand the rush of people.  The eateries are like stalls, you pick your delicacy and then you take it upstairs into a giant dining room or to the back of the market which has table set ups as well.                 

Union Street is the oldest commercial row of shops in town, get this ‘it was at the Oyster House est in 1826 (to the left) that a man for the first time used a piece of wood as a toothpick’….what the….I really thought the caveman would have a first on this one….come on Boston, you cant be the first at everything!  Apparently this was JFKs favourite restaurant when he was in Boston….

This is why Rosie never got her ice cream, The Operator had a more liquid libation in mind, so in we went to The Bell in Hand Tavern est 1795, for a swift cold one.                                                                         The place was built like a giant conservatory, big windows that opened up to the sunny day, it was light and breezy and the beer was cold.  We took a seat at the bar and Rosie picked a glass of Samuel Adams Lager and The Operator too went for a Samuel Adams Dark, we were well and truly caught up in the Revolutionary drama of the day.

 Well, me thinks Samuel Adams must have brewed that beer himself back in the 1750s….it was bad.  Rosie looked at The Operator, The Operator looked at Rosie, we were gonna be here awhile, lucky there were some good sounds on overhead and we had plenty of Revolutionary facts, figures and theories to mull over.

Paul Reveres house, he lived here during his famous midnight ride to Lexington to warn the countryside that the British Army were coming, he lived here for about 20 years. He had 9 children to his first wife who died shortly after the birth of their 9th child….he remarried within months (after all who was gonna look after the kids?) and had another 9 children with his second wife. True! The house was quite large inside and would have been very plush back in the day. It was been an inhabited house right up until 19th century, it was then bought by a relation of Reveres and given to the city.

 This is the Old North Church tower in the background, from this spire the lantern signal was given to give warning on how the British troops were advancing on the city.  ‘One if by land, two if by sea’….two lanterns were lit in the bell tower as the British advanced by boat across the Charles River….Paul Revere was waiting for this signal to make his famous midnight ride to warn the countryside.

In the courtyard of the church this shiny, sparkling area caught Rosies eye.  It is a local memorial to their fallen soldiers and the twinkling things are dog tags.  Sobering stuff alright

 Okay, so I know you are all yawning over your history lessons….Rosie has one more tale to tell, the most famous one of them all, you know what it is.  The Boston Tea Party.  The Old South Meeting House above is known for holding tea tax protest meetings that culminated in the Dec 16th 1773 Boston Tea Party.  The Bostonians were refusing to pay tax on the tea coming in by sea, all attempts to get the shipments of tea sent back to Britain failed, the rebels dressed as Mohawk indians with there faces covered and feathers in their hair went down to the harbour, boarded 3 ships and dumped 342 crates or 30 tonnes of tea into Boston Harbour.  Cool story eh!  You can wander around and look at all the buildings….but just remember its the story thats contained within the walls that makes it interesting.