Boston, MA 6/30/14

We bought “Charlie Tickets” (commuter rail tickets) and then rode the “T” (subway, aka MBTA, aka MTA) to downtown Boston.

 

Boston was a hotbed of dissent in the years leading up to the American Revolution, and many of the locations and buildings in which heated discussions, arguments, and bloody confrontations occurred have been preserved. 

1) A small section of the Boston Common where people gathered to discuss the issues of the day--and intermingle with cows, chickens and pigs.

2) The Granary Burying Ground, where some of the most famous colonial dissenters are buried, such as the victims of the Boston Massacre,...

Sam Adams,...

 John Hancock,...

Paul Revere,...

and Ben Franklin’s parents.

3) In 1686, despite the protests of the citizens of Boston, King James II ordered that an Anglican Church (a symbol of his power and authority) be built in Boston on land set aside by colonists for a burial ground.  Following its destruction by fire, the original wooden King's Chapel was replaced by...

4) King’s Chapel Burying Ground contains the graves of numerous patriots such as:

William Dawes who rode with Paul Revere to sound the alarm, and

John Winthrop the founder of Boston described as a "religious, prudent, conscientious, and pious" man who strictly punished religious dissent.   

5) Many colonial tombstones were carved with intricate allegorical symbols and themes.

 6) Old South Meeting Hall:

This former Puritan Meeting House was the scene of a tumultuous meeting of  thousands of outraged Boston citizens following the Boston Massacre, and became a focal point of heated debates between separatists and Loyalists.  In 1773, following a fiery debate here about the British tax on tea, the colonial Sons of Liberty left the meeting, headed to the Boston wharf and dumped 342 chests of tea into Boston Harbor.

In the winter of 1775-1776, so that his soldiers could have a proper riding stable and he could impress upon the Boston citizenry exactly who was in charge, British General John Burgoyne:  a) ordered the pulpit and pews from Old South removed and burned for firewood, b) installed a bar in the upper galleries, and c) hauled in loads of dirt for equestrian antics.

A sketch of the British riding stable in Old South, artist unknown, c 1875.

7) A sketch of Ben Franklin’s birthplace on Milk Street.

The original house burned in the late 1800s.  The site today of Franklin’s birthplace.

8) The Old State House:

On March 5, 1770, the Boston Massacre occurred in the plaza in front of the balcony of the Old State House, as recreated in the following engraving by Paul Revere.

The main staircase inside the Old State House.

9) The first floor of Fanueil Hall, built in 1742, housed stalls which were leased to vendors.  That custom continues today.

The second floor of the Hall contained a massive meeting room which eventually became Boston's official town hall.  As the revolution heated up, protest meetings held here spilled over into violent incidents in the streets of Boston.

The gilded grasshopper sitting atop the weather vane on Faneuil Hall is the only part of the Hall which remains totally unchanged from the original 1742 structure.

10) Street scenes:

Supporting arches for the stunning Zakim Bunker Hill Bridge.