Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
King's Chapel and Burying Ground
Architect Peter Harrison sent the plans for
this Georgian-style building from Newport, Rhode Island, in 1749. Rather than
replacing the existing wooden chapel, the granite edifice was constructed around it.
Completed in 1754, it was the first Anglican church in Boston. George III sent gifts,
as did Queen Anne and William and Mary, who presented the communion table and
chancel tablets (still in use today) before the church was even built. The Puritan
colonists had little use for the royal religion; after the Revolution, this became the first
Unitarian church in the new nation. Today, the church conducts Unitarian Universal-
ist services using the Anglican Book of Common Prayer and schedules public concerts
(p. 227) every Tuesday at 12:15pm and some Sundays at 5pm.
The
burying ground
, on Tremont Street, is the oldest in the city; it dates to
1630. Among the scary colonial headstones (winged skulls are a popular decoration)
are the graves of
John Winthrop,
the first governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony;
William Dawes,
who rode with Paul Revere;
Elizabeth Pain,
the model for Hester
Prynne in Nathaniel Hawthorne's novel
The Scarlet Letter;
and
Mary Chilton,
the
first female colonist to step ashore on Plymouth Rock.
To continue on the Freedom Trail:
Follow the trail back along Tremont Street and
turn left onto School Street.
58 Tremont St.
&
617/227-2155.
www.kings-chapel.org. Chapel: Year-round Sat 10am-4pm. Summer Sun 1:30-
4pm; Mon and Thurs-Sat 10am-4pm; Tues-Wed 10-11:15am and 1:30-4pm. Check website for up-to-date spring
and fall hours. Closed to visitors during religious services. $2 donation suggested. Services Wed 12:15pm, Sun 11am.
Burying ground: Daily 8am-5:30pm (until 3pm in winter). T: Green or Blue Line to Government Center.
First Public School/Benjamin Franklin Statue
A colorful folk-art mosaic in the
sidewalk marks the site of the first public school in the country. It was founded in 1634,
2 years before Harvard College. Samuel Adams, Benjamin Franklin, John Hancock,
and Cotton Mather studied there. The original building (1645) was demolished to
make way for the expansion of King's Chapel, and the school moved across the street.
Other alumni include Charles Bulfinch, Ralph Waldo Emerson, George Santayana,
Arthur Fiedler, and Leonard Bernstein. Now called Boston Latin School, the presti-
gious institution later moved to the Fenway neighborhood and started admitting girls.
Behind the fence in the courtyard to your left is the
Benjamin Franklin statue,
the
first portrait statue erected in Boston (1856). Franklin was born in Boston in 1706 and
was apprenticed to his half-brother James, a printer, but they got along so poorly that
in 1723 Benjamin ran away to Philadelphia. Plaques on the base of the statue describe
Franklin's numerous accomplishments. The lovely granite building behind the statue is
Old City Hall
(1865), designed in Second Empire style by Arthur Gilman (who laid
out the Back Bay) and Gridley J. F. Bryant. The administration moved to Government
Center in 1969, and the building now houses commercial tenants.
To continue on the Freedom Trail:
Follow School Street to Washington Street.
School St. at City Hall Ave. (between Tremont and Washington sts.). T: Blue or Orange Line to State.
Old Corner Bookstore Building
Built in 1718, this building stands on a plot of
land that was once home to the religious reformer Anne Hutchinson, who was excom-
municated and expelled from Boston in 1638 for heresy. In the middle of the 19th
century, the little brick building held the publishing house of Ticknor & Fields, which
effectively made this the literary center of America. Publisher James Fields, known as
“Jamie,” counted among his friends Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, James Russell
Lowell, Henry David Thoreau, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and
