I arrived in Boston without a plan, but once I saw the red line in the street, I found my path along Boston’s Freedom Trail.
Boston’s 2.5-mile-Freedom Trail connects historically important churches, meeting houses, burying grounds, parks, ships, and other places to tell a story. That story is one you know well – but probably not as well as you think you do – it’s the American Revolution. The Freedom Trail is easy to find and follow because the path is bricked into the road.
I visited during my nearly two-year solo road trip around the United States, Canada and Mexico.
I’d been to Boston before and toured Fenway Park, the Museum of Fine Arts, the Isabella Stewart Garden Museum, and other prominent attractions, so this time, I wasn’t sure how I’d spend my day. Then, while walking in Boston Common, eating an empanada I bought from a street vendor, I saw the plan before me. It was a red dotted line embedded in the street promising to take me to 16 nationally significant historic sites. So, I followed it.
Boston is famous as the place where the acts of the America Revolution began. It’s where most of the major players in that pivotal time of history lived. So many well-known names like Benjamin Franklin, John Hancock, Samuel Adams and Paul Revere all lived or frequently visited Boston during that period.
Boston’s Freedom Trail is unique because it preserves and showcases many significant places and people critical to the making of the American Revolution. It’s a real-life walking museum in just 2.5 short miles. These historical places are the number one tourist attraction in Boston. Even if you don’t see the entire trail, you will likely see part of it – and that’s why you’re visiting. It’s an encapsulation of America’s past you won’t find anywhere else.
Boston Common
I began my tour at Boston Common. It’s the big 44-acre green space at the city center and America’s oldest public park – established in 1634. Back then, it was a public gathering place where they watched various punishments or hangings of murderers, pirates and witches (it’s not far from Salem). Times were different back then.
Fun fact: Officials created Boston Common for residents to have a place to graze their livestock in the middle of the city.
Historians sometimes refer to Boston Common as a “training field” because the British “redcoats” camped there on their way to Concord, Massachusetts, in 1775 – thus ending or beginning with the “shot heard around the world.”
Sites on the Freedom Trail:
Massachusetts State House
The Massachusetts State House across from Boston Common has held the legislative and executive branches since 1798. It’s next to the former site of John Hancock’s mansion, which overlooked Boston Common.
Guides give free tours inside the building from 10 – 3:30 pm weekdays.
Park Street Church
On the corner of Park and Tremont Street, the Park Street Church has been ringing its bells since 1809. Just imagine you can hear the same bells that Benjamin Franklin once heard.
Fun fact: The 217-foot steeple was the first landmark in Boston.
Granary Burying Ground
As a taphophile, I love cemeteries and that makes Boston especially delightful because there are several very old, historic cemeteries in the city. There’s even a “Historic Burying Grounds Initiative” that manages sixteen cemeteries around Boston.
The Granary Burying Ground has been around since the 1660s and has many notable residents, including Paul Revere. Take time to look at the unique inscriptions on the stones; they were more creative and long-winded back then.
Fun fact: Its name comes from the grain storage building that used to be next door. Keeping things simple along Boston’s Freedom Trail.
King’s Chapel
This is Boston’s first Anglican church with over 330 years of history and the oldest American pulpit still in use. Next door on Tremont Street is the city’s oldest and first burying ground. It’s so old it holds the body of Mary Chilton, reported to be the first woman to step off the Mayflower.
Fun fact: Once, in the 1770s, the church bell cracked, and Paul Revere repaired it. It’s still there today.
You can go inside for $5 – $10 per adult and see the bell and an 18th-century crypt beneath the chapel. Funds go to preserve the building.
Boston Latin School
You read that right; this town is so old they had a Latin school and yes, it’s still there. Do you want to know how old it is? Well, Ben Franklin was a student, if that’s any indication. It began in the 1630s and is the oldest public school in America. Education there was free for the rich or poor – if you were a boy – sorry, girls.
Stop by the Benjamin Franklin statue outside. It marks the location of the original schoolhouse since replaced.
Fun fact: Our pal Ben never bothered to graduate. He’s one of America’s famous dropouts.
The Old Corner Bookstore
Ah, finally, a place after my own heart. The Old Corner Bookstore was the first commercial building in the city. Dr. Thomas Crease built it as his home and apothecary shop in the 1710s. It was later home to a book publishing company with titles like, “Walden,” “The Scarlet Letter,” and “Midnight Ride of Paul Revere.” It published many of the other great early American writers too. I’m swooning.
Stop by Commonwealth Books if you’re interested in really old manuscripts, first edition books and some new things too.
Old South Meeting House
This is where the men came to debate and discuss important topics. It’s where patriots and loyalists argued for or against British rule and, famously, the tea tax. It was 1773 when those debates turned to action, and over 5,000 men argued the tax. It ended with Samuel Adams and the “Sons of Liberty” heading to Griffin’s Wharf, and dumping hundreds of chests of tea into the harbor. Take that, monarchy.
City officials nearly demolished the meeting house, but a group of women recruited famous Bostonians to raise funds and save it for its historical significance. They turned it into the first public museum, thus starting a trend that, thankfully, continues today.
Fun fact: The Paul Revere & Sons Bell & Cannon Foundry made the building’s massive clock tower bell. Revere was well-known around town for bells, lanterns, and midnight rides, but more on that in a minute.
It costs $15 to go inside.
Boston Massacre
They’ve marked a location in the road where the infamous Boston Massacre occurred or close to it. It was in 1770 when the taxation situation between the British and Bostonians came to a boil, causing a fight in the streets where five people died. There is a marker at the State and Congress Streets intersection.
Fun fact: City officials moved the massacre site twice to keep it out of the center of the intersection. History, it turns out, can be flexible.
Faneuil Hall
If you need a break, this is an excellent place to take one. There’s so much shopping and activity in and around the hall, you’ll have difficulty choosing what to do. Faneuil Hall appears entirely modern for being almost 300 years old. It’s the first official city hall since it held America’s first town meeting. There, they debated many important political mandates, including “no taxation with representation.” Outside, there are vendors, food trucks, street performers, and crowds. No place in Boston says tourist area more than this one, but we tourists must do what we do.
Fun fact: “What is on top of Faneuil Hall?” was a question posed to suspected spies because it’s unusual: Its weathervane top is a giant golden grasshopper.
Paul Revere House
Heading several blocks away, the streets become narrower, less about modern shopping and entertainment and more about living. Paul Revere’s old stomping grounds are charming. Though his is the only house still in the business district, plenty of little cafes and picturesque buildings are nearby.
Crowds here are thick, and parking will be difficult, so avoid trying and just walk. Still, it’s the oldest structure downtown and the only Freedom Trail historic home, so it’s worth visiting. Revere lived here just 10 years, in the middle of which he took that famed midnight ride from Boston to Lexington re: “The redcoats are coming!” Shout out to William Dawes, who made the same trip, but he didn’t get as much publicity.
The house is now a museum open for tours showcasing 18th-century family life. Admission is $6.
Old North Church
I spotted this church steeple from a distance as I trudged up a steep incline towards Copp’s Hill, aptly named, it turns out. Little did I know that it was the most famous church in Boston. It’s where two men climbed the steep steps to the steeple top holding two lanterns to signal that the British were approaching Lexington and Concord by sea, not land. You can still see those lanterns there today.
Visitors can take a self-guided tour or one of many themed tours in the crypts, the steeple and others for $10.
Copp’s Hill
Now it’s an old cemetery, but once, it was just a hill where the British pointed their cannons on the city during the Battle of Bunker Hill. A detailed map will point you to the graves of Old North Church sexton Robert Newman, who hung the lanterns for Paul Revere, and Edmund Hartt, builder of the USS Constitution ship, among others.
USS Constitution
Speaking of the USS Constitution, it’s the oldest commissioned warship still afloat. Hard to believe, I know, but Boston is serious about historic preservation. The walk is a bit further than the other sites but manageable and includes a few shady urban parks.
Seeing the ship floating in the harbor with its massive masts swaying in the breeze is worth it. I can’t imagine the effort it must have taken to sail such big boats. It sits in the harbor alongside the USS Constitution Museum – all about, you guessed it, the ship. There’s plenty to discuss when a ship lasts as long as this one. They call her “Old Ironside,” not ironically because her sides are iron.
Today, the ship promotes America’s naval heritage and takes visitors through a tour of the past on the boat and in an adjacent museum. It’s a Navy ship, and tours are free from 10 am to 4 pm, Wednesday – Sunday.
Bunker Hill
This is a short distance from the USS Constitution and the Battle of Bunker Hill site, where the famous phrase, “Don’t fire until you see the whites of their eyes,” was first said. The Battle of Bunker Hill Museum includes dioramas, murals, and artifacts from the battle. Visitors can also go inside the 221-foot granite obelisk that marks the site of the battle. You must take 294 stairs in a tight spiral stairway to the top, but it and the museum are free to enter.
Fun fact: Revolutionary War hero Marquis De Lafayette laid the cornerstone for the monument on the 50th anniversary of the battle.
If you visit Boston’s Freedom Trail
Following Boston’s Freedom Trail is an excellent way to see downtown purposefully. The trail is free unless you hire a guide to walk or drive you around. Some sites are privately funded and charge small fees or request donations upon entry. Depending on how long you stop at each location, you can walk it in about two hours, or, like me, you can spend an entire day going from sight to sight and stopping to shop, eat and relax.
Following Boston’s Freedom Trail yourself, with a brochure from the visitor’s center and a bit of sign reading, will be as fulfilling as a guided tour at cost savings. However, those duck boats are especially intriguing. They look like tanks that go in and out of the water and land with people sitting on top.
Pro tip: Make sure you’re wearing your most comfortable walking shoes.
Read more stories about Massachusetts here.
