Boston National Historical Park - The Freedom Trail Part I

None of us had been to Boston before, but we had done some research.  We knew that we wanted to visit as many National Park sites as possible and to experience the history of the city.  We didn't have enough time to explore everything, and with the kids who we knew would get tired we didn't want to pay for museum after museum (though I would have enjoyed that if it had just been me).  So we decided to tour the city by following the Freedom Trail.  The trail can be followed throughout the city by looking for the red brick path.

As one of the oldest cities in the United States and the birthplace of the American Revolution, Boston is home to many sites of national significance. In the decades that followed the Revolution, Boston underwent a period of industrialization and growth during which several buildings were demolished....  By the mid-twentieth century these well-preserved buildings were dwarfed among the skyscrapers, major highways, and modern architecture that came to dominate Boston's skyline. As home to these places of national importance, a group of Bostonians came together to make these sites more accessible to both residents and visitors alike.  The result of their work was the Freedom Trail.
--from the Freedom Trail website

We ended up doing quite a bit of walking around the city as you can see in this snapshot of some of our walking around downtown as we followed the Freedom Trail.

The Freedom Trail starts at the Boston Commons Visitor Center.  If you're inclined you can pay for a guided tour along the trail, but we decided to just walk it for ourselves, relying on a guidebook and other resources.

The girls were wearing colonial-style dresses made by my mother-in-law.  They enjoyed them and many people made comments about them throughout the day.

 Our first stop was the Massachusetts State House (technically we first saw the Shaw/Massachusetts 54th regiment, but I covered that in my post on the Boston Common).  The building actually dates back to 1798 and houses the legislative and executive branches of the state government.

The Park Street Church was the next stop, but somehow I forgot to take a photo of the church itself and just photographed this informational sign.  The church itself was closed to visitors itself anyway as its hours for tours start later in June.

The first spot that we actually got to tour was the Granary Burying Ground.  The start of the cemetery dates back to 1660 and includes the graves of a number of prominent Americans.

Paul Revere is one of the people buried in the bounds of the cemetery as this sign on the fence proudly proclaims.

One of the most interesting things we learned was that the current arrangement of the stones doesn't match the actual burials.
There is a discrepancy between the number of headstones and the number of people buried in the Granary - it is estimated there are over 5,000 Bostonians who have made the Granary their final resting place. ​At one time the Granary was part of Boston Common, and the livestock that grazed the Common handled landscaping at the burial ground as well. During the Victorian era, the headstones were reorganized into neat rows to make way for a modern innovation of the time, the lawn mower.
--from the Freedom Trail website

Helpful signs have been placed throughout the burial ground to help you identify different graves, or at least the grave markers since the location of the original graves isn't always known.

This is the grave marker for Samuel Adams,

There were many carvings on the headstones.  I thought it was particularly amazing to look at some of the dates and realized how many decades the carvings had lasted.

"Death's head," a non-religious symbol, is a skull often with wings and/or crossed bones.  It was the earliest symbol employed in this graveyard...
--from cemetery signage

 This cenotaph in the center of the graveyard marks the grave of the parents of Benjamin Franklin

It is apparently tradition (though I don't know how old) to put coins on the top of Paul Revere's grave.

John Hancock's grave had a very large marker and stayed quite busy with groups during the time we were there.

The King's Chapel was built in 1686 and was the first Unitarian church in America.
The church houses the oldest American pulpit still in continuous use. The existing stone structure, designed by Rhode Island architect Peter Harrison, was completed in 1754 and built around the original wooden structure in order to continue holding worship during construction. The magnificent interior is considered the finest example of Georgian architecture in North America.
--from the Freedom Trail website

The next stop on the tour was the Benjamin Franklin statute at the former site of the Boston Latin School.

The statue includes four different scenes on the base that cover famous periods in Franklin's life.

Behind the Franklin statue is the Boston's Old City Hall.  While it is a beautiful building it technically isn't a stop on the tour.  It was actually Boston's third city hall, replaced in 1969 by the current building.

In front of the building is a statue of a donkey, representing the predominance of Democrats in local government.  You can pose for a picture in front of the equine by standing in the footprints that say "in opposition" and have symbols of an elephant upon them.

I enjoyed the architecture of the Boston Five Cents Savings Bank Building and found it interesting to reflect how many buildings with names etched into the stone have been repurposed for other companies after the original company is either long gone or has moved to another location.

 Again, while not part of the Freedom Trail this small plaza had some interesting history.  These statues represent the plight of the Irish during the Irish Potato Famine and also the aid that Boston set to Ireland in 1847.

The Old Corner Bookstore was the next site we saw, though we did just walk by.  The building, while quite historic, is leased out to different companies and the revenue helps fund preservation in nearby neighborhoods.

While the Freedom Trail continues well beyond this point I think this blog post has gone on long enough.  Come back tomorrow to read about the rest of our travels downtown along the Freedom Trail (which is only part of the actual trail, albeit the original portion before it was expanded to Charlestown).

~Matt