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41 Union Street.
Boston, MA 02554
Phone: 617-227-2750
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Granted, a visit to the local graveyard isn’t usually that high on visitors’ itineraries, but in this case, we simply have to make an exception. Some of early Boston’s most influential citizens were laid to rest here, including John Hancock, Sam Adams and Paul Revere. With a clientele like that, it’s no wonder that this cemetery often has more visitors than residents.
Harvard University
Cambridge, MA 02554
Phone: 617-495-1573
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Founded in 1636 and referred to simply as “the new college,” this institution was renamed in 1639 after John Harvard, an English clergyman who had come to Boston just a couple of years before. When Harvard died, he left half of his estate, some 779 pounds, to the college, and his name went on to become synonymous with quality education for centuries to come. For visitors, there’s a lot to see here on campus, including the venerable Holden Chapel, built in 1734, and the Fogg Art Museum, which, with the connected Busch-Reisinger Museum, comprises one of the most extensive university collections in the world.
House of Seven Gables
115 Derby Street
Salem, MA 01970
Phone: 978-441-2884
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Nathaniel Hawthorne fans will definitely want to make the drive northeast of Boston to the town of Salem, where they can tour the house of the Seven Gables, a Colonial Mansion made famous by the author’s 1851 novel of the same name. Although the link between this particular house and Hawthorne’s fictional setting is perhaps a bit tenuous, it’s nevertheless a fascinating peek into the past.
1 Faneuil Hall Market
Boston, MA 02109
Phone: 617-523-1300
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A statue of Samuel Adams stands out front of this meeting house and marketplace, and it’s an appropriate addition to the landscape because it was in the hall’s second floor meeting room that Adams was calling for Independence as early as 1772. Though the original structure has been rebuilt and refurbished a few times over the centuries, this venue has been in operation since 1742, when it was given to the city by Peter Faneuil, a wealthy local merchant. The meeting room is open to the public, and Park Rangers are on hand to give daily presentations and answer visitors’ questions.
Freedom Trail
Leaving from Boston Common & Faneuil Hall
Boston, MA, 02109
Phone: 617-357-8300
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From its beginning in Boston Common, the Freedom Trail snakes its way through two and a half miles of American History. Along the way, there are sixteen major sites, each with its own story to tell. In addition to free tours from the Park Service, the non-profit Freedom Trail Foundation gives several 90-minute tours a day, but if you’d rather walk it yourself, simply follow the red brick markings on the ground and move from site to site at your own pace. Each tour is led by a guide in a realistic 18th century costume, but for those of you who prefer digital interaction to that pesky human kind, there’s a two hour mp3 audio version of tour available for download at the foundation’s website.
Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum
280 The Fenway
Boston MA 02115
Phone: 617-566 –1401
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This museum’s namesake was an independent-minded New Yorker that came to Boston after marrying local bigwig Jack Gardner in 1860. When she wasn’t busy scandalizing polite Boston society, Isabella and her husband went about the business of amassing a remarkable collection of European and American art to decorate their home. After her husband’s death around the turn of the century, Mrs. Jack, as she was known around town, began to build this Venetian style palazzo, complete with an enclosed courtyard. She lived here at what she called Fenway Court until 1924, when she died at the age of 84. Mrs. Jack’s will at the time stipulated that the collection not be altered in any way, so here it lies, frozen in time, a monument to the will, tastes, and eccentricities of its collector.