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Boston is a city in the state of Massachusetts and thereby in so-called New England, and it is not simply because it is located in the northeastern corner of the United States close to Europe. You feel British culture here more than anywhere else in the United States, but of course the many benefits of American culture are also part of daily life and the cityscape here.
Boston’s many quaint streets and neighborhoods also hold much of the American independence history in the years of struggle with England. It was in the northeastern United States that the cradle of the present United States was, and this is where the rebellion against the colonial power of England took place.
Boston is today a very cozy city with nice open spaces and a fine cultural atmosphere. The city is home to Harvard University, among others, and that is where former US President John F. Kennedy graduated. Museums, fine churches and stately houses are here as well, so Boston takes visitors through several highlights of U.S. history.
Massachusetts State House is a mansion that was built in 1798. The original owner was Massachusetts’ first elected governor, John Hancock. The building was designed by Charles Bulfinch, who was the leading architect of the time. Today, the expanded building serves as the state capitol, making it the seat of government for the state of Massachusetts.
Bulfinch’s mansion has been extended several times since the original construction from the 18th century, but it still stands beautifully in the so-called Federal style, which is a type of American classicism. The Massachusetts State House is the seat of both the Massachusetts legislature and the governor of the state. The building is also one of the oldest continuously used capitol buildings in the United States.
Bulfinch was architecturally inspired not least by Somerset House in London when he designed the Massachusetts State House, and when he later designed the Maine State House it was a kind of continuation with inspiration from Boston. The distinctive dome was covered with copper in 1802 and later gilded, and on top there is a pine cone as a symbol of Boston’s lumber industry and of Maine, which was then part of Massachusetts.
The Massachusetts State House is located on top of a hill in the Beacon Hill neighborhood and directly across from the large park Boston Common. John Hancock owned the plot of land at the time, and construction began on July 4, 1795, in a ceremony attended by Paul Revere, who was the Grand Master of the Massachusetts Masonic Lodge. Upon completion in 1798, the government moved here from the now former State Capitol.
Trinity Church is a church in Boston, and it is considered by many to be one of the most beautiful churches in the United States. The masterpiece was built by Henry Hobson Richardson in the years 1872-1877 and Trinity Church replaced the original parish church built in 1733 at the foundation of the congregation belonging to the Episcopal Church.
The church’s architecture is considered the birthplace of the Richardson Romanesque style, which is a neo-Romanesque design style named after Henry Hobson Richardson. The style is characterized by tiled roofs, polychromy, rough stone, heavy arches and a massive tower. These features are evident in Trinity Church’s design, and the style was subsequently applied to a number of public buildings throughout the United States.
The central tower is 64 meters high and the church interior has four wings from the central room under the tower. There are over 2,000 m2 of murals in the brightly colored church, which were created by various American painters. In addition, there are some beautifully crafted glass mosaics, which are also part of the fine experience you get from visiting Trinity Church.
The Old South Meeting House is a historic parish church and the place where Boston’s Tea Party started. It happened when more than 5,000 people crowded in 1773 in protest against new taxes on tea. The event was one of several steps towards American independence from England.
The church was built in 1729 with its 56 meter high tower. The church’s congregation had already been established in 1669 as breakaways from the First Church of Boston, and with the construction they had their own church. Before the construction, the piece of land had been donated by a widow of John Norton, who was pastor of First Church of Boston.
The church became a meeting place after the Boston Massacre, which had unfolded as a confrontation between British troops and local residents in 1770. Locals held annual meetings to commemorate the massacre, and at the meeting in 1773 approximately 5,000 people gathered to discuss the British taxation of the time.
As an outgrowth of the meeting in 1773, a group of opponents of the British Empire went to the port of Boston, and here they attacked the three British ships and threw 243 boxes of tea into the water. The action was a rebellion against a new English law that was supposed to make it easier for the British East India Company to sell tea in the United States and thereby compete against locals.
In 1775, British troops occupied the church, which they used for, among other things, horses. After the British use of the building, the Old South Meeting Hall had to be renovated, and the same was the case after the great fire that ravaged Boston in 1872. After the fire, the congregation built a new church and an association was established for the preservation of the Old South Meeting Hall .
The Old State House is a building that was constructed in 1712-1713, making it Boston’s oldest public building. Originally it was set up as a commodity exchange, warehouse, offices and court, and it played a major role for the United States. It was from the house’s balcony that the United States’ Declaration of Independence was proclaimed in Boston in July 1776.
You can clearly see that the beautiful building dates from the United States’ time as a British colony. On the corners of the main gable there are sculptures of a lion and a unicorn, and they were symbols of the British monarchy. In addition to the building’s role as a stock exchange, it was also where the royal governor of the colony had his offices.
On July 18, 1776, Thomas Crafts read the Declaration of Independence from the east balcony of the house. After this, the original lion and unicorn were taken down and burned on a pyre in King Street. After the American Revolution, the government of the state of Massachusetts got its seat in the building, and the house had that status until 1798, when the current Massachusetts State House was completed.
The Old State House was used for various purposes throughout the 19th century. Among other things, it was the town hall from 1830 to 1841, and then it was rented out for commercial purposes until 1881, when The Bostonian Society began a restoration of the historically important building, which was threatened with demolition. During the restoration, a new lion and unicorn were installed.
Today, the Old State House is a museum, and it is located in Boston’s financial district, where skyscrapers tower around the old building, which stands in huge contrast to the neighboring buildings. At the museum, you can learn more about historical events in and around the house, such as the so-called Boston Massacre, which was a confrontation between British troops and local residents in 1770.
The USS Constitution is a warship that was built in 1797 as one of six ships commissioned by President George Washington, who also named the ship after the US Constitution. The ships were supposed to protect the United States and help secure the country’s growing maritime interests on the seas. The ship was in active service until 1881, and it has been a museum ship since 1907.
The USS Constitution is a three-masted frigate, and it is the oldest vessel in the world still sailing. The ship was once launched from Edmund Hartt’s shipyard in Boston and made its maiden voyage in 1798. The ship and the five sister ships were heavy frigates that formed the American main fleet at the time.
In the United States, USS Constitution became particularly noted for her actions during the War of 1812 against Britain, where the ship’s crew defeated HMS Guerriere, HMS Java, HMS Pictou, HMS Cyane and HMS Levant in combat, and that performance was instrumental in the event of preventing the scrapping of the frigate.
Beacon Hill is Boston’s wealthy neighborhood, which was developed in the period 1790-1870. Here you can enjoy strolling along cobbled streets lined with traditional townhouses, and this is also where the state government district is located, with the Massachusetts State House at its center. As a result, Beacon Hill has almost become a metonymy for the government offices.
Englishman William Blaxton became the first settler on Beacon Hill. He built a house and landscaped a garden on the southern slope of the hill in 1625, and five years later Boston was settled by The Massachusetts Bay Company. In 1634, a signal station was established on top of the hill, and hence the name Beacon Hill.
It pays to spend time in Beacon Hill by taking a stroll through the cozy neighborhood, where classicist Federal-style townhouses are lit by gas lamps and overall a lovely atmosphere of historic Boston. You should go to the elegant Louisburg Square, which is a beautiful urban space, and you can also see the Beacon Hill Monument, which is a monument erected on the site of the 1634 signal mast.
The Boston Opera House is one of the city’s leading stages and a magnificent theater that opened in 1928 as the theater B.F. Keith Memorial Theatre. It was Thomas W. Lamb who designed the site for the Keith-Albee-Orpheum chain, which owned movie theaters and vaudeville theaters. The theater was named after one of the chain’s owners, Benjamin Franklin Keith, who was known as the man who developed the vaudeville genre.
When it opened, the theater had one of the most elegant rooms of the time, and it was redeveloped to showing only films as early as 1929. The cinema remained one of Boston’s leading until the 1950s. The theater continued showing movies until 1980, when it was then taken over by The Opera Company of Boston and reopened as the Boston Opera House.
The King’s Chapel is a church, but not the first on this site. The first church here was erected in 1688 as a small wooden meeting hall. It happened by the royal governor Edmund Andros, and King’s Chapel thereby became the first Anglican church in New England.
When the building fell into disrepair in the middle of the 18th century, a piece of adjacent land was bought, and then the current granite church was built in the years 1749-1754. It was according to Peter Harrison’s design, and the church was built around the first church, which was taken apart and moved through the windows of the new building. The old church was brought to Nova Scotia, where it was used to build St. John’s Anglican Church in Lunenburg.
During the American Revolution, King’s Chapel was closed and reopened in 1782 when Unitarians took it over. You can still visit the church and see its beautiful interior with impressive columns and boxes for the churchgoers. At the church you can see the King’s Chapel Burying Ground, which was established in 1630.
The Custom House Tower is one of Boston’s most distinctive high-rises from the beginning of the 20th century. The tall tower was completed in 1915 with a height of 151 meters and was built almost on the roof of Boston’s old and low customs house from 1849. Today there is a hotel here and the view from the top is excellent.
It was US President Andrew Jackson who gave permission for the establishment of a customs house in Boston. He did so in 1837, and subsequently Ammi Burnham Young won the published architectural competition with his neo-Greek design proposal. At the time of the construction and opening of the customs house, the harbor front was by the house, and thus it was easy to clear customs here.
The increasing shipping traffic made it necessary to expand the custom house, and the architectural firm designed the Custom House Tower, which was erected from 1913. At 151 meters, it became Boston’s tallest building, and it was exempt from the maximum building height of 38 meters because it was federally owned. The tower was only surpassed in height in 1964, when the Prudential Tower was built.
The Paul Revere House is an old house that stands in the middle of many of Boston’s newer buildings. The house was built around 1680 by a wealthy merchant. It is the oldest building in central Boston, and the house was the historic residence of Paul Revere, one of the famous figures of the American Revolutionary War.
Paul Revere owned the house at 19 North Square from 1770 to 1800, and after his sale, the building was remodeled with street-level shops. In 1902, John P. Reynolds Jr. acquired the House. He was a descendant of Paul Revere, and he wanted to secure the historic building from demolition. The house was then renovated and opened as a museum in 1908.
Today, the historic house museum can still be visited, and the museum has expanded to include other buildings located around the grounds of the Paul Revere House. Here you can see exhibits about Paul Revere and his famous ride on the night of April 18, 1775. It happens with the exhibition Lathrop Place.
Old North Church is a church that is also called Christ Church in the City of Boston. The church was built in 1723 in Georgian style and belongs to the Episcopal Church, which is the American variant of the Anglican Church. With its 58 meters, the tower is the tallest church tower in Boston.
The Old North Church is the oldest surviving church in Boston, and it was built with inspiration from Christopher Wren’s many buildings in London after the great fire that ravaged the English capital in 1666. The Old North Church was the city’s second Anglican church, and it was used by many younger merchants who did not belong to Boston’s elite.
The church played a role in American history on the night of April 18, 1775. It was a night when British troops were approaching and when Paul Revere, with lanterns in the steeple of the Old North Church, signaled where the British were coming from. Paul Revere then rode west to make sure the message reached more distant places.
The warnings of Paul Revere and many other horsemen made it possible for several militias to secure a defense of the areas around the cities of Lexington and Concord, where a number of weapons were stored. Ultimately, the events led to the first colonial victory over British troops.
Bunker Hill Monument is a 200-foot (67 m) tall memorial erected on the site of the Battle of Bunker Hill fought on June 17, 1775. It was one of the first battles in the process of American independence from Great Britain, and the battle was commemorated with its construction of the granite obelisk in the years 1825-1843.
The Battle of Bunker Hill took place as part of the Siege of Boston during the American Revolutionary War. Most of the fighting actually took place on Breed’s Hill, but over the years the site was increasingly referred to as Bunker Hill, located on the Charlestown Peninsula north of downtown Boston. At that time there was no reclaimed land, so it is difficult with today’s geography to see the areas from the battles.
On the night of June 17, 1775, rebels from the colony occupied the areas and built earthworks as a defensive line. It happened on the basis of intelligence that British troops would occupy the peninsula. The British attacked, and in the third attack wave they took the positions and thereby won the battle. However, this was done with significant losses, which gave the rebels renewed faith that they could defend themselves and win the war.
Harvard University is one of the world’s most famous and prestigious universities. It was founded in 1636, making it the oldest university in the United States. In its time, it was established as Harvard College, named after the institution’s first benefactor, the Englishman and Puritan minister John Harvard. Harvard’s founding was authorized by the colonial legislature of Massachusetts.
The university’s main campus is centered in Harvard Yard northwest of downtown Boston. During a trip in the area, you can see the place’s well-known and traditional buildings such as University Hall and Massachusetts Hall, which is the oldest preserved building. Massachusetts Hall was designed by John Leverett and Benjamin Wadsworth and built as a college during the colonial period in the years 1718-1720.
Continuing the tour around the campus, you can see Henry Hobson Richardson’s Sever Hall from 1878. It stands as an example of the Richardson Romanesque architecture, in which some of the contemporary public buildings were designed. You can also see the Memorial Church from 1932, which was built in memory of the fallen from Harvardn during World War I, and the Victorian Memorial Hall, which was built in memory of the fallen in the American Civil War.
Over time, many later celebrities and historically important people have studied at Harvard. These include, among others, presidents John F. Kennedy, John Adams, Rutherford B. Hayes, Theodore Roosevelt and George W. Bush. Julius Robert Oppenheimer, Leonard Bernstein, Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg are other alumni of the university.
John F. Kennedy Library & Museum is one of the so-called presidential libraries in the United States, which tells the story of a president’s term of office. In the library for John F. Kennedy, his 1,000 days as president are documented and displayed, and here you can see films, photographs, documents and many things that brilliantly illustrate the president’s work.
The library and museum were constructed 1977-1979 and opened by President Jimmy Carter and members of the Kennedy family. The location was chosen by John F. Kennedy himself during a visit to Boston in October 1963, which was the month before he was shot in an open car int the streets of Dallas. Kennedy chose a location on some of Boston’s educational sites to ensure that the institution would be close to such resources.
It was also John F. Kennedy who encouraged his administration to collect many personal and official effects, and thereby the library could also be opened as a museum with a comprehensive depiction of the president’s time. When the construction of the complex started, however, they had to move to another area, which still fulfilled the late president’s wish for the central location.
On a visit, you can see several permanent exhibitions such as the Campaign Trail about the 1960 election campaign and The Briefing Room about Kennedy’s famous speeches and press conferences. As in other presidential libraries, there is of course also a replica of The Oval Office in the White House, as the office looked in Kennedy’s time. In the room there is also a replica of the famous Resolute Desk.
Providence is the capital and largest city of the US state of Rhode Island. The town was founded in 1636 by Roger Williams, who founded America’s first Baptist church in the town two years later. Providence grew, and after the American War of Independence in the 18th century, it was one of the ten largest cities in the United States, with more than 7,500 inhabitants.
In a few decades the population doubled, and through much of the 19th century Market Square was the center of the city’s political and social life. Providence was industrialized as well, and around the year 1900 more than 175,000 citizens lived here, and the city was one of the most prosperous in the United States.
Newport is a city on Narragansett Bay in the state of Rhode Island. It was founded in 1639 by settlers from Portsmouth, which is a few kilometers north of Newport. The city grew to become the largest city in the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, and the city’s port became important in the triangular trade with slaves from Africa. Throughout the 19th century, many wealthy people built summer residences in Newport, which developed as a fashionable place.
Today, Newport is known as one of New England’s resort towns. In the city you can see many beautiful mansions with The Breakers being the most famous. The Breakers was built 1893-1895 in Neo-Renaissance style as a summer residence for Cornelius Vanderbilt. You can visit The Breakers, which is open as a museum, and on a visit you can see one magnificent room after another such as The Great Hall and The Music Room.
You should also go for a walk in Newport, which is very charming. The historic center was built in the area around Washington Square. Here you can see the Old Colony House, built in 1741 in Georgian architecture. The Old Colony House was a historically important meeting place, and from 1776 to the early 1900s, the building served as one of the meeting places for the Rhode Island Legislature.
There are also sights from past centuries in Newport. The White Horse Tavern is a house from 1652, which was converted into an inn in 1673, and it is considered the oldest inn building in the United States. A little south of the inn, you can take a walk in Truro Park, where the Newport Tower stands. The tower is the preserved remains of a mill from the 17th century. Newport is also home to America’s oldest preserved synagogue. It is the Touro Synagogue, which dates from 1763.
With the location by the water, you can of course enjoy Newport’s maritime surroundings as well. You can take a walk in the city’s harbour, and you can also go for a swim to one of the beaches south and south-east of the center. And you can also choose to enjoy a nice walk along the Newport Cliff Walk, a path along the water between Bailey’s Beach and First Beach.
Cape Cod is a peninsula located in the eastern part of the state of Massachusetts. In reality, however, Cape Cod has become an island after the excavation of the Cape Cod Canal, which connects Buzzards Bay in the west with Cape Cod Bay in the east. The approximately 28 kilometer long canal was dug in the years 1909-1914, and you can see it from the towns of Bourne and Sandwich, both located on the southern bank.
You can drive to Cape Cod via bridges over the canal, and it is also possible to sail here with, for example, the connection from Boston to Provincetown on the northern tip of the peninsula. In Provincetown, you can take some lovely walks in the Provincetown Historic District, which is the town’s old center with houses that historically range from the time as a fishing lodge to the resort town that arose in the late 1800s. In the neighborhood there are several fine churches and the 77 meter high Pilgrim Monument, which was erected in memory of the pilgrims’ landing in 1620.
From Provincetown, you can drive south to the peninsula’s southeasternmost town of Chatham, and all along the way is the Cape Cod National Seashore, a protected natural area that includes the entire Atlantic coast and its characteristic landscape. In addition to nature’s beaches and trails, you can stop at Marconi Station, where Italian Guglielmo Marconi erected antennas that received the first wireless communication from Europe. It happened on January 18, 1803.
At Chatham, you can visit the Chatham Lighthouse, which was established as the second lighthouse on Cape Cod. The first was Highland Light on the northern part of the peninsula. In the area there are also good opportunities for hiking, and you can also continue along the south coast of Cape Cod. On this stretch there are several ferry connections to the popular holiday islands of Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard.
Martha’s Vineyard is an island located south of the Cape Cod peninsula in Massachusetts. The background for the island’s name is not known for sure, but it is believed to have been named after the daughter or mother-in-law of the English explorer Bartholomew Gosnold. Both named Martha, Gosnold led the first known expedition to Cape Cod, which took place in 1602.
Like the nearby island of Nantucket, Martha’s Vineyard also developed with whaling. The hunting of the whales provided a good economy until the occupation almost disappeared with the transition to petroleum products around 1870. After this, Martha’s Vineyard became a popular summer travel destination, which started when the railroad reached Woods Hole on the American mainland in 1872. From here you could sail to the island with its nature and beaches.
Today you can still sail to Martha’s Vineyard from Woods Hole and from many other ports as well. Trips to the island are popular in the summer, when the population of Martha’s Vineyard multiplies. You can experience many traditional New England houses on a tour of one or more of the island’s villages. The island is especially known for the so-called Gingerbread Houses. You can notice more than 300 of them with a concentration in Oak Bluff.
The history of the distinctive Gingerbread Houses began with religious camps held by Methodists in Oak Bluff from 1835. The camps grew in size, and over the years a tent camp spread in the area. From 1864, the tents were replaced with houses that sort of resembled overgrown tents, and they can still be seen in their pastel colors and beautiful wood carvings.
There are also many beautiful places in nature on Martha’s Vineyard, where you can, for example, take a trip to South Beach or the many other beautiful places along the sea. At the western tip of the island, you can visit the Aquinnah Cliffs, a natural area where steep cliffs created by glaciers rise dramatically from the sea and local beaches.
Nantucket is an island located in the Atlantic Ocean south of the Cape Cod peninsula. The island was colonized in 1641, but it took until 1659 before an actual settlement arose. At that time, about 3,000 Indians lived on the island, and they sold rights over the island to the settlers who could then develop the settlement. There was whaling from Nantucket, but it experienced declines from the 1800s before the island was developed into a summer destination for the wealthy from the mid-1900s.
Today you can sail to Nantucket, and on the island you immediately come to a lovely atmosphere in the Nantucket Historic District, which encompasses the entire island. The ferries sail to the town of Nantucket in the middle of the island, and together with the smaller town of Siaconset on the east coast, it forms the nicest and most interesting urban environment. The port of Nantucket was built in the 1700s and 1800s, and rich whaling made the town prosperous, and this can be seen in some of the buildings along Main Street.
You can see The Old Mill from 1746, the Old Gaol from 1806, the Unitarian Universalist Church from 1809 and the Nantucket Atheneum from 1847 as some of the town’s older buildings, while you can experience many historic smaller houses in Siaconset, which, despite the short distance, stand in great contrast to the town of Nantucket. You can also go to some of the island’s beautiful sandy beaches or hike to some of Nantucket’s lighthouses when you are on the island.
Salem is a coastal town in the state of Massachusetts. It sits on a site where European settlement began with English colonists in 1626. The town grew as a trading town and fishing port, but was perhaps best known for the witch trials that took place in 1692-1693 during a time of Indian Wars and where Puritans considered more events to be the work of the devil. The result was hearings, trials and death sentences for witchcraft.
Today, Salem is a city with several attractions. Salem Maritime National Historic Site is one of the most visited sites, and it consists of an area along the waterfront. The historic site tells the city’s maritime history, the former triangular trade between England, Africa and America and trade with Asia. This happens through buildings such as the Salem Custom House from 1819 and a replica of the historic ship Friendship, which in its original version was a ship from 1797.
You can also see houses from the 17th century, such as the Pickman House from 1664 and the Gedney House, which was built in 1665. The Jonathan Corwin House is also located in Salem, and it is also called The Witch House. The house is a beautiful example of 17th century New England architecture and was for decades the home of Jonathan Corwin. Corwin was the judge who investigated the diabolical activities associated with the witch trials of the city.
Newburyport is a small town in the northernmost part of the state of Massachusetts. Its history dates back to settlement in the 17th century, before Newburyport formally became a city in 1764. Back then, there were several shipyards in the city, which also had ferry service across the Merrimack River. Later, a larger fishing fleet was established in the city, from which there was also whaling.
Today, Newburyport is a well-visited city due to its waterfront location and cozy downtown. Shops and restaurants are not least found around Market Square and along State Street. From here you can easily walk through Waterfront Park to the promenade along the Merrimack River, where you will find the city’s marinas. This is also where the Custom House Maritime Museum is located.
Portland is the largest city in the US state of Maine. The city’s history dates back to 1632, when the area was settled, and Casco was established as a trading post and fishing village. In 1658, the Massachusetts Bay Colony took over the area, and on that occasion the town’s name was changed to Falmouth.
Over the next hundred years, Falmouth was attacked and destroyed several times, but after the American War of Independence, a harbor was built in Falmouth Neck, and it created great growth and development. In 1786, the townspeople decided to change Falmouth Neck’s name to Portland, after an English island. Maine became a state in the United States in 1820, and Portland became the state capital. However, that status only lasted until 1851, when Augusta took over as Maine’s government town.
100 Cambridgeside Place
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165 Newbury Street
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2 Copley Place
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199 Boylston Street
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800 Boylston Street
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Chatham Street/Clinton Street
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Newbury Street, Washington Street, Charles Street, Beacon Hill
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186 Brookline Avenue
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New England Aquarium
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Salem Witch Museum
Washington Square, Salem
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Six Flags New England
1623 Main Street, Agawam
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The earliest remains of housing in the Boston area date back 7,500 years. Around the year 1,000, the first Europeans came to North America and possibly the coasts of present-day Boston, when Leif Erikson came to Vinland, which the Scandinavian Vikings called the new place. However, the Vikings’ settlement was not of permanent duration.
In 1497, a British expedition led by John Cabot reached the coasts of the area, and in the following centuries the fishing waters became popular with fishermen and explorers from several of Europe’s great powers.
English pilgrims arrived in Cape Cod in 1620 with the ship Mayflower. They had previously agreed to govern their new colony with respect for democracy and equality between people. The colony was called Plymouth after the pilgrims’ hometown, and after a peace deal between Governor John Carver and the Indian chief Massasoit, the first Thanksgiving was celebrated in 1621.
A few years later, King Charles I gave a tract of land to a group of Puritans who sailed to Massachusetts and settled at the mouth of the Charles River, where in 1630 they founded the town of Trimountain, quickly named Boston after the town in England, where many were taken from to the new country.
In the new city, the first school was founded in 1635, and the following year Harvard University was established. In the following years, the city developed steadily and quietly. There were ongoing disputes between various faith groups, and in 1692 a number of hangings came after a witch hunt.
Boston developed into the most important city in the 13 British colonies on the East Coast, and a British taxation of the colony was introduced from the British, causing great local resistance. Samuel Adams was the main force behind the opposition to the Stamp Act of 1765, which introduced, among other things, import duties. British soldiers were sent to Boston to protect the authorities, and in 1770 came the firing of killing shots against five local citizens at the so-called Boston Massacre.
The massacre was the start of the process of independence and independence from Britain. 1773 was the year for Boston Tea Company, where citizens boarded three British ships and threw their cargo of tea in the harbor in protest of the taxation. In 1775, the Battle of Bunker Hill took place. The British forces won the battle with heavy losses, and it instilled optimism in the American separatists. A few months before, Paul Revere had made his famous ride from Boston to Lexington to warn Samuel Adams and John Hancock of British plans to arrest the two leaders of the detachment movement.
In 1776, the United States Declaration of Independence was proclaimed from Boston, marking the end of the British era as colonial power in the United States.
In the new United States, Boston quickly became known as the nation’s intellectual capital, and the city also became a very wealthy port city, with a significant portion of the country’s shipping taking place. The city grew steadily, and new neighborhoods such as Back Bay and the South End were constructed. Industrialization also clearly marked Boston, which in the mid-1800s was one of the US centers for the production of machinery, leather and clothing.
Throughout the first half of the nineteenth century, one experienced how Puritanism slipped into the background, and Boston became one of the country’s Catholic strongholds. This was done by immigration of mainly Irish and Italians. The Irish in particular came to dominate political life in the future; best known by the election of John F. Kennedy to the President of the United States.
In 1831, Boston’s William Garrison published the first issue of the magazine The Liberator, advocating unconditional cessation of American slavery. Speaking in the Faneuil Hall building inspired others all over the United States, and Boston in many ways became the voice of African Americans. Thus, during the American Civil War, Boston and Massachusetts were the first place to send soldiers to the front at Abraham Lincoln’s request.
After the Civil War, Boston flourished due to a well-developed industry that processed cotton, among other things. The time was good for the city until 1872, when a major fire destroyed more than 700 significant buildings. A rebuilding effort was underway and Boston regained its former momentum within a few years. Many cultural institutions were founded, and the first US subway opened in 1897.
In 1905, John F. Fitzgerald became mayor, he was John F. Kennedy’s grandfather. In 1912, the popular Fenway Park, home of the Boston Red Sox, opened before 1918 winning the national championship four times. The decade was not only positive, however, because in 1919 a major police strike broke out in the city with a wave of crime as a result. Police officers wanted improved pay and working conditions, and this has marked itself as one of the significant events in American trade union history.
In 1960, John F. Kennedy of Boston was elected as the youngest of the United States to date and also the first Catholic president in the country. Kennedy was killed by an attack in Dallas in 1963, and Boston’s well-known citizen has ever fascinated an entire world.
In recent decades, high-tech companies, educational establishments, research and the pharmaceutical industry have invested heavily. It has modernized the city and revitalized the city’s active, cultural life.
Overview of Boston
The city of Boston and the state of Massachusetts are located in so-called New England, and it is not simply because it is located in the northeastern corner of the United States close to Europe. You feel British culture here more than anywhere else in the United States, but of course the many benefits of American culture are also part of daily life and the cityscape here.
Boston’s many quaint streets and neighborhoods also hold much of the American independence history in the years of struggle with England. It was in the northeastern United States that the cradle of the present United States was, and this is where the rebellion against the colonial power of England took place.
About the upcoming Boston travel guide
About the travel guide
The Boston travel guide gives you an overview of the sights and activities of the American city. Read about top sights and other sights, and get a tour guide with tour suggestions and detailed descriptions of all the city’s most important churches, monuments, mansions, museums, etc.
Boston is waiting for you, and at vamados.com you can also find cheap flights and great deals on hotels for your trip. You just select your travel dates and then you get flight and accommodation suggestions in and around the city.
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State House • Trinity Church • Tea Party • Paul Revere • Clam Chowder
Overview of Boston
The city of Boston and the state of Massachusetts are located in so-called New England, and it is not simply because it is located in the northeastern corner of the United States close to Europe. You feel British culture here more than anywhere else in the United States, but of course the many benefits of American culture are also part of daily life and the cityscape here.
Boston’s many quaint streets and neighborhoods also hold much of the American independence history in the years of struggle with England. It was in the northeastern United States that the cradle of the present United States was, and this is where the rebellion against the colonial power of England took place.
About the upcoming Boston travel guide
About the travel guide
The Boston travel guide gives you an overview of the sights and activities of the American city. Read about top sights and other sights, and get a tour guide with tour suggestions and detailed descriptions of all the city’s most important churches, monuments, mansions, museums, etc.
Boston is waiting for you, and at vamados.com you can also find cheap flights and great deals on hotels for your trip. You just select your travel dates and then you get flight and accommodation suggestions in and around the city.
Read more about Boston and the USA
Buy the travel guide
Click the “Add to Cart” button to purchase the travel guide. After that you will come to the payment, where you enter the purchase and payment information. Upon payment of the travel guide, you will immediately receive a receipt with a link to download your purchase. You can download the travel guide immediately or use the download link in the email later.
Use the travel guide
When you buy the travel guide to Boston you get the book online so you can have it on your phone, tablet or computer – and of course you can choose to print it. Use the maps and tour suggestions and you will have a good and content-rich journey.
Beacon Hill is Boston’s wealthy neighborhood, which was developed in the period 1790-1870. Here you can enjoy strolling along cobbled streets lined with traditional townhouses, and this is also where the state government district is located, with the Massachusetts State House at its center. As a result, Beacon Hill has almost become a metonymy for the government offices.
Englishman William Blaxton became the first settler on Beacon Hill. He built a house and landscaped a garden on the southern slope of the hill in 1625, and five years later Boston was settled by The Massachusetts Bay Company. In 1634, a signal station was established on top of the hill, and hence the name Beacon Hill.
It pays to spend time in Beacon Hill by taking a stroll through the cozy neighborhood, where classicist Federal-style townhouses are lit by gas lamps and overall a lovely atmosphere of historic Boston. You should go to the elegant Louisburg Square, which is a beautiful urban space, and you can also see the Beacon Hill Monument, which is a monument erected on the site of the 1634 signal mast.
The Boston Opera House is one of the city’s leading stages and a magnificent theater that opened in 1928 as the theater B.F. Keith Memorial Theatre. It was Thomas W. Lamb who designed the site for the Keith-Albee-Orpheum chain, which owned movie theaters and vaudeville theaters. The theater was named after one of the chain’s owners, Benjamin Franklin Keith, who was known as the man who developed the vaudeville genre.
When it opened, the theater had one of the most elegant rooms of the time, and it was redeveloped to showing only films as early as 1929. The cinema remained one of Boston’s leading until the 1950s. The theater continued showing movies until 1980, when it was then taken over by The Opera Company of Boston and reopened as the Boston Opera House.
The King’s Chapel is a church, but not the first on this site. The first church here was erected in 1688 as a small wooden meeting hall. It happened by the royal governor Edmund Andros, and King’s Chapel thereby became the first Anglican church in New England.
When the building fell into disrepair in the middle of the 18th century, a piece of adjacent land was bought, and then the current granite church was built in the years 1749-1754. It was according to Peter Harrison’s design, and the church was built around the first church, which was taken apart and moved through the windows of the new building. The old church was brought to Nova Scotia, where it was used to build St. John’s Anglican Church in Lunenburg.
During the American Revolution, King’s Chapel was closed and reopened in 1782 when Unitarians took it over. You can still visit the church and see its beautiful interior with impressive columns and boxes for the churchgoers. At the church you can see the King’s Chapel Burying Ground, which was established in 1630.
The Custom House Tower is one of Boston’s most distinctive high-rises from the beginning of the 20th century. The tall tower was completed in 1915 with a height of 151 meters and was built almost on the roof of Boston’s old and low customs house from 1849. Today there is a hotel here and the view from the top is excellent.
It was US President Andrew Jackson who gave permission for the establishment of a customs house in Boston. He did so in 1837, and subsequently Ammi Burnham Young won the published architectural competition with his neo-Greek design proposal. At the time of the construction and opening of the customs house, the harbor front was by the house, and thus it was easy to clear customs here.
The increasing shipping traffic made it necessary to expand the custom house, and the architectural firm designed the Custom House Tower, which was erected from 1913. At 151 meters, it became Boston’s tallest building, and it was exempt from the maximum building height of 38 meters because it was federally owned. The tower was only surpassed in height in 1964, when the Prudential Tower was built.
The Paul Revere House is an old house that stands in the middle of many of Boston’s newer buildings. The house was built around 1680 by a wealthy merchant. It is the oldest building in central Boston, and the house was the historic residence of Paul Revere, one of the famous figures of the American Revolutionary War.
Paul Revere owned the house at 19 North Square from 1770 to 1800, and after his sale, the building was remodeled with street-level shops. In 1902, John P. Reynolds Jr. acquired the House. He was a descendant of Paul Revere, and he wanted to secure the historic building from demolition. The house was then renovated and opened as a museum in 1908.
Today, the historic house museum can still be visited, and the museum has expanded to include other buildings located around the grounds of the Paul Revere House. Here you can see exhibits about Paul Revere and his famous ride on the night of April 18, 1775. It happens with the exhibition Lathrop Place.
Old North Church is a church that is also called Christ Church in the City of Boston. The church was built in 1723 in Georgian style and belongs to the Episcopal Church, which is the American variant of the Anglican Church. With its 58 meters, the tower is the tallest church tower in Boston.
The Old North Church is the oldest surviving church in Boston, and it was built with inspiration from Christopher Wren’s many buildings in London after the great fire that ravaged the English capital in 1666. The Old North Church was the city’s second Anglican church, and it was used by many younger merchants who did not belong to Boston’s elite.
The church played a role in American history on the night of April 18, 1775. It was a night when British troops were approaching and when Paul Revere, with lanterns in the steeple of the Old North Church, signaled where the British were coming from. Paul Revere then rode west to make sure the message reached more distant places.
The warnings of Paul Revere and many other horsemen made it possible for several militias to secure a defense of the areas around the cities of Lexington and Concord, where a number of weapons were stored. Ultimately, the events led to the first colonial victory over British troops.
Bunker Hill Monument is a 200-foot (67 m) tall memorial erected on the site of the Battle of Bunker Hill fought on June 17, 1775. It was one of the first battles in the process of American independence from Great Britain, and the battle was commemorated with its construction of the granite obelisk in the years 1825-1843.
The Battle of Bunker Hill took place as part of the Siege of Boston during the American Revolutionary War. Most of the fighting actually took place on Breed’s Hill, but over the years the site was increasingly referred to as Bunker Hill, located on the Charlestown Peninsula north of downtown Boston. At that time there was no reclaimed land, so it is difficult with today’s geography to see the areas from the battles.
On the night of June 17, 1775, rebels from the colony occupied the areas and built earthworks as a defensive line. It happened on the basis of intelligence that British troops would occupy the peninsula. The British attacked, and in the third attack wave they took the positions and thereby won the battle. However, this was done with significant losses, which gave the rebels renewed faith that they could defend themselves and win the war.
Harvard University is one of the world’s most famous and prestigious universities. It was founded in 1636, making it the oldest university in the United States. In its time, it was established as Harvard College, named after the institution’s first benefactor, the Englishman and Puritan minister John Harvard. Harvard’s founding was authorized by the colonial legislature of Massachusetts.
The university’s main campus is centered in Harvard Yard northwest of downtown Boston. During a trip in the area, you can see the place’s well-known and traditional buildings such as University Hall and Massachusetts Hall, which is the oldest preserved building. Massachusetts Hall was designed by John Leverett and Benjamin Wadsworth and built as a college during the colonial period in the years 1718-1720.
Continuing the tour around the campus, you can see Henry Hobson Richardson’s Sever Hall from 1878. It stands as an example of the Richardson Romanesque architecture, in which some of the contemporary public buildings were designed. You can also see the Memorial Church from 1932, which was built in memory of the fallen from Harvardn during World War I, and the Victorian Memorial Hall, which was built in memory of the fallen in the American Civil War.
Over time, many later celebrities and historically important people have studied at Harvard. These include, among others, presidents John F. Kennedy, John Adams, Rutherford B. Hayes, Theodore Roosevelt and George W. Bush. Julius Robert Oppenheimer, Leonard Bernstein, Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg are other alumni of the university.
John F. Kennedy Library & Museum is one of the so-called presidential libraries in the United States, which tells the story of a president’s term of office. In the library for John F. Kennedy, his 1,000 days as president are documented and displayed, and here you can see films, photographs, documents and many things that brilliantly illustrate the president’s work.
The library and museum were constructed 1977-1979 and opened by President Jimmy Carter and members of the Kennedy family. The location was chosen by John F. Kennedy himself during a visit to Boston in October 1963, which was the month before he was shot in an open car int the streets of Dallas. Kennedy chose a location on some of Boston’s educational sites to ensure that the institution would be close to such resources.
It was also John F. Kennedy who encouraged his administration to collect many personal and official effects, and thereby the library could also be opened as a museum with a comprehensive depiction of the president’s time. When the construction of the complex started, however, they had to move to another area, which still fulfilled the late president’s wish for the central location.
On a visit, you can see several permanent exhibitions such as the Campaign Trail about the 1960 election campaign and The Briefing Room about Kennedy’s famous speeches and press conferences. As in other presidential libraries, there is of course also a replica of The Oval Office in the White House, as the office looked in Kennedy’s time. In the room there is also a replica of the famous Resolute Desk.
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