The Freedom Trail is a red line marked on the sidewalk. It begins at Boston Common and ends at Bunker Hill in Charlestown. The trail was very easy to follow. In most places it's made of red bricks set right into the sidewalk. If you would like more information about the Freedom Trail check click
here or
here.
You can take a guided tour from one of these guys or do it yourself. We chose to buy a book and do a self guided tour.
Here we are in Boston Common, America's oldest public park. There's so much information about these places that I wouldn't have enough time to share it all, so I'll just give you the high points.
This 44 acres of open land has never been built upon. It was once the pasture of Boston's first white settler, William Blackstone. He came to the new world in 1622!!!
Tim walking the red line.
The Massachusetts "New" State House
Park Street Church
Headstones of Samuel Adams and Paul Revere
Granary Burying Ground:
Last resting place of the Patriots
Three signers of the Declaration of Independence, nine governors of Massachusetts, the victims of the Boston Massacre, Benjamin Franklin's parents and Paul Revere all lie buried here.
King's Chapel
Symbol of what the Puritans fled
This church has a really neat story read more about it
here.
Old South Meeting-House
Nursery and Sanctuary of Freedom
The Old South Meeting-House is one of the shrines of the American Revolution. In this simple brick church, Boston's citizens met time and again to demand their rights from British officials, and to hear the town's finest radical orators. Crucial events that led up to the Revolution too place at Old South.
This is where Samuel Adams said, "Gentlemen, this meeting can do nothing more to save the country." Adams was not accepting defeat; he was giving a signal. Nearly 100 men, disguised as Mohawk Indians, suddenly appeared outside the meeting house doors. The cry "To the wharves!" rang out. "Boston Harbour a tea-pot tonight!"
Inside Old South
Old State House
"Here the child Independence was born"
The Old State House is the oldest public building still standing in the eastern United States. The tiny "jewel box" now dwarfed by skyscrapers, was once the most imposing structure in Boston.
Inside Faneuil Hall
"The Cradle of Liberty"
Paul Revere's House
"Listen, my children, and you shall here Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere..."- Longfellow
This small wooden house in North Square is Boston's oldest building, a last relic of the medieval town of the 1600s. Its fame came nearly a hundred years after it was built. Late on the night of April 18, 1775, a middle-aged silversmith set out from this, his home, on a mission that would become legend.
Old North Church
"One if by land, and two if by sea"
The steeple of Old North Church is perhaps Boston's most famous landmark. Here, on the night of April 18, 1775, the signal lanterns of Paul Revere shone to warn the country of the British troops' march.
Great story!
Copps' Hill Burying Ground
This is a picture of Cap. Daniel Malcom, a member of the Sons of Liberty. When he died, he asked to be buried "in a Stone Grave 10 feet deep", safe from British bullets. All this is duly noted on his headstone. But while Malcom's body may have been safe from British bullets, his gravestone was not! You can still see the scars made by redcoat soldiers who singled out this patriot's grave marker for their target practice.
U. S. S. Constitution
Old Ironsides
The Constitution's hull is built partly of live oak, it's "durability being estimated at five times that of common white oak." This rare wood gave "Old Ironsides" her great strength. Cannonballs bounced off her nearly impenetrable hull and fell harmlessly into the sea.
Bunker Hill
"Don't fire `til you see the whites of their eyes!"- Col. Prescott's orders
On the night of June 16, 1775, "about a thousand" New England soldiers marched to Charlestown. "By the dawn of the day, they had thrown up a small fortification of earth and timber atop Breed's Hill- not Bunker Hill. A last-minute change in plans causes confusion even today about the battle's name.
And that is the Freedom Trail as we saw it.
Thanks to Charles Bahne and his very helpful book, "The Complete Guide to Boston's Freedom Trail"
