Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Listen Up: The Audio Freedom Trail
A 2-hour tour narrative commissioned by the
Freedom Trail Foundation
(
&
617/357-8300;
www.thefreedomtrail.org) includes interviews, sound effects,
and music that help bring the sites to life. It costs $15 (credit cards only); buy it
as an mp3 download, or rent a handheld digital audio player, for use with or
without headphones, that can be picked up at the Boston Common Visitor Cen-
ter, 146 Tremont St. (and dropped off there or at several other locations).
Finds
To continue on the Freedom Trail:
Walk down Park Street (which Bulfinch laid
out in 1804) to Tremont Street.
Beacon St. at Park St.
&
617/727-3676.
www.mass.gov/statehouse. Mon-Fri 9am-5pm. Free tours Mon-Fri 10am-
3:30pm. T: Green or Red Line to Park St., or Blue Line to Bowdoin (weekdays only).
Park Street Church
Henry James described this 1809 structure with a 217-foot
steeple as “the most interesting mass of bricks and mortar in America.” The church
has accumulated an impressive number of firsts: The first Protestant missionaries to
Hawaii left from here in 1819; the prominent abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison
gave his first antislavery speech here on July 4, 1829; and “America” (“My Country
'Tis of Thee”) was first sung here on July 4, 1831. You're standing on
“Brimstone
Corner,”
named either for the passion of the Congregational ministers who declaimed
from the pulpit or for the fact that gunpowder (made from brimstone) was stored in
the basement during the War of 1812. This was part of the site of a huge granary that
became a public building after the Revolutionary War. In the 1790s, the sails for USS
Constitution
(“Old Ironsides”) were manufactured in that building.
In 2009, Park Street Church will celebrate its bicentennial. Visit
www.parkstreet
200.org
for information about concerts, lectures, exhibits, children's activities, and
more, starting February 27 and continuing all year.
To continue on the Freedom Trail:
Walk away from the Common on Tremont
Street.
1 Park St.
&
617/523-3383.
www.parkstreet.org. Tours mid-June to Aug Tues-Sat 9am-3pm. Sun services year-
round 8:30 and 11am, 4 and 6pm. T: Green or Red Line to Park St.
Old Granary Burying Ground
This cemetery, established in 1660, was once
part of Boston Common. You'll see the graves of patriots
Samuel Adams, Paul
Revere, John Hancock,
and
James Otis;
merchant
Peter Faneuil
(spelled “Funal”);
and Benjamin Franklin's parents. Also buried here are the victims of the
Boston Mas-
sacre
(see below) and the wife of Isaac Vergoose, who is believed to be
“Mother
Goose”
of nursery rhyme fame. Note that gravestone rubbing, however tempting, is
illegal in Boston's historic cemeteries.
To continue on the Freedom Trail:
Turn left as you leave the cemetery and con-
tinue 1
1
⁄
2
blocks on Tremont Street. En route to King's Chapel, you'll pass a 21st-cen-
tury phenomenon:
Studio 73,
in the lobby of 73 Tremont St. and visible from the
sidewalk. Suffolk University broadcast journalism and communications students staff
the high-def TV studio.
Tremont St. at Bromfield St. Daily 9am-5pm (until 3pm in winter). T: Green or Red Line to Park St.
