Attractions in Boston
Cambridge
Dominated by a pair of world-renowned institutions – Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology – Cambridge, just across the Charles, teems with cafes, bookstores, and boutiques, providing off-beat alternatives to comparatively staid Boston. Its squares – Central Square (a seat of government), Harvard Square (surrounding brick walls of the nation’s oldest university), Inman Square (brimming with shopping and dining), Kendall Square (home to M.I.T.), and Porter Square (with antique shops, boutiques, sidewalk cafes and a serious concentration of Japanese enterprises) are all treasure-troves of museums and historic sites. Porter Square was home of the late Tip O’Neill, former Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, who opined that “all politics is local.”
Cambridge Common
As a focal point for social, religious, and political activity for more than 360 years, Cambridge Common’s land – it was once four times larger – was staked out in 1631 for grazing cattle, training militia, and holding assemblies. Annual elections were conducted under the “Election Oak” and George Whitefield delivered controversial sermons under the Whitefield Elm. When Gen. George Washington arrived in Cambridge on July 2, 1775, the common was the Continental Army’s main camp and training ground. A trio of British cannons captured by the Patriots in 1775, a Civil War Monument, and a new memorial commemorating the Irish Famine are now on the Common.
Charles River Dam Visitor Information Center
Guided tours and a 12-minute presentation explain dam operations. The Charles River separates Cambridge from Boston.
250 Warren Avenue. (617) 727-5114
Charles Riverboat Tours
While cruising the Charles River, the captain notes historic sights of Boston and Cambridge including Beacon Hill, Esplanade Park, Back Bay, Boston University, M.I.T., and Harvard. Sunset cruises also are scheduled.
CambridgeSide Galleria, 100 CambridgeSide Drive, Cambridge. (617) 621-3001
Computer Museum
Next to the Children’s Museum, the Computer Museum has nearly 200 exhibits including two-story walk-through computer and a software gallery.
300 Congress Street. (617) 426-2800
Duck Tours
Explore Boston by land and sea on these remarkable amphibious vehicles, tour the historic areas, then dive into the Charles River to enjoy a breathtaking view of the Boston and Cambridge skylines.
Departs from the Prudential Center and Museum of Science. (617) 267-DUCK
Faneuil Hall
Erected in 1742 as a public market and place for town meetings, Faneuil – the Cradle of Democracy -- has witnessed impassioned political speeches from Revolutionary times through the present. The hall’s interior has Gilbert Stuart’s portrait of Washington at Dorchester Heights. On top floors are the headquarters of the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company of Massachusetts. Adjacent is Quincy Market, another colonial landmark.
Faneuil Hall Square. (617) 523-1300
Fenway Park
Generations come and go, yet the Boston Red Sox home remains, much like on opening day, April 20, 1912. Harking back to an era before so-called state-of-the-art parks began replacing fields steeped in hot dog and mustard lore, Fenway Park is the smallest major league ball park, its record attendance of 47,627 (for a Sept. 22, 1935 Yankees doubleheader) now reduced by fire laws to a capacity of 33,871. Even so, no player has ever hit a home run over its right field. Why Fenway? As the new park’s opening neared, Red Sox owner John I. Taylor (who already had changed the club’s name from Pilgrims to Red Sox) noted its location in an area known as the Fens, adding “It's in that section of Boston, isn't it? Then call it Fenway Park." From a pigeon’s perspective, Fenway has had up and down moments. In 1945, Athletics outfielder Hal Peck‘s throw hit a pigeon flying over. The ball then deflected to the A's second baseman, who tagged out Boston's Skeeter Newsome trying to stretch his hit into a double. The pigeon flew onward unharmed, sans only a few feathers. But in 1974, another low-flying pigeon was not so lucky when Willie Horton hit a foul ball into the air at Fenway, slamming the bird so hard it fell from the sky — dead — landing in front of home plate. Tours depart from Gate D on Yawkey Way hourly seven days a week from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. or until three hours before game time, whichever is earlier.
4 Yawkey Way. (617) 236-6666
Franklin Park Zoo
On 72 acres within historic Franklin Park and a crown jewel of Frederick Law Olmsted’s Emerald Necklace Park System, Franklin Park Zoo is operated by Zoo New England as a year around playground for animal lovers of all ages. More than 200 species roam within Butterfly Landing, Franklin Farm, Giraffe Savannah, Kalahari Kingdom, Serengeti Crossing, Tropical Forest, and on Australian Outback Trail. Changing exhibits such as Summer 2004's Dinosaur Kingdom showcase fresh aspects of zoo wonders.
One Franklin Park Road. (617) 541-LION
Freedom Trail
The Freedom Trail, a 2.5-mile-long route marked on sidewalks by a redbrick or painted red line, winds along some of Boston's --and the nation’s -- most noteworthy historical sites, including the Paul Revere House, Old North Church and its lanterns ("one if by land, two if by sea" to warn of British attack) and Old South Meeting House, where Colonists in 1773 orchestrated the less than genteel Boston Tea Party. Extending from the Boston Common to Charlestown Navy Yard, the Freedom Trail can be covered at a reasonable pace in an hour or so, with more time required for stops at any of the 16 sites along the way. Costumed characters at various points illuminate Colonial life. Rangers give free 90-minute Freedom Trail tours departing the National Park Service Visitors Center hourly from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., April through September.
Gibson House Museum
Preserved with all its Victorian fixtures, Gibson House is one of the first Back Bay residences, built in the mid-19th century and remaining as the unspoiled residence of a well-to-do Victorian Boston family. Kitchen, scullery, butler's pantry, and baths, as well as formal rooms and personal quarters are filled with the Gibsons' original furniture and personal possessions. This private, non-profit house museum, near the Arlington Street subway stop on the Green Line, is a favored film site and is available for group tours.
137 Beacon Street, between Arlington and Berkeley streets. (617) 267-6338
Granary Burying Ground
Massive Egyptian Revival-style gates lead to the Granary Burying Ground, final resting place of many Revolutionary-era patriots including Samuel Adams, Peter Faneuil, Paul Revere and John Hancock. Once called South Burial Ground, given its southerly locale, it was renamed Middle Burying Ground as Boston grew southward. The Granary name came from the grain storage building, which stood on the site of the Park Street Church.
Tremont Street. (617) 635-4505
Harrison Gray Otis House
The 1796 house constructed by Charles Bulfinch for Harrison Gray Otis and his wife Sally exemplifies the elegant life led by Boston's new aristocracy and governing class emerging in years immediately after the Revolution. As a developer of Beacon Hill, Otis made a fortune, and he later served as a Representative in Congress and Mayor of Boston. The Federal Style is emulated in the home’s classic architecture and elegant furnishings.
141 Cambridge Street. (617) 227-3956
John Hancock Tower
New England’s tallest building, designed by famed architect I.M. Pei, stands aloof in Copley Square, away from Boston’s downtown high-rise area. Despite its enormity, the structure’s presence is tempered by crystal-like geometry and reflecting glass skin. The dominant view when within close proximity is to see the reflection of nearby historic buildings with subtle distortions of color and shape. When first built, scores of windows fell out because of changing heat and wind conditions. The solution was to stick sensors on each of 10,000 windows to detect which might be the next to blow, and to monitor from a special control room. The 60th floor observatory, once drawing some 400,000 visitors per year – mostly unknown to security personnel -- closed following destruction of New York’s World Trade Center. The Observatory was not part of the tower's original design, and layout of lobby and elevator banks prevents adequate control of visitor access into or out of the 60th floor facility.
200 Clarendon Street, St. James Avenue and Trinity Place.
Harvard Museum of Natural History
The composite public-accessible portion of Harvard's on-campus Museum of Comparative Zoology, Herbaria, and Mineralogical and Geological Museum, and the university's most visited museum, the Harvard Museum of Natural History features interactive exhibits ranging from pre-historic animals and plants to crystals, gems and fossils found in the immediate area and throughout the United States.
26 Oxford Street, Harvard University. (617) 495-3045
Harvard University
Founded in 1636, Harvard is the oldest university in the United States, and among its graduates are six U.S. Presidents – John Adams, John Quincy Adams, Theodore and Franklin D. Roosevelt, Rutherford B. Hayes, and John F. Kennedy. Historic Harvard Yard has such noteworthy buildings as the circa 1726 Wadsworth House (headquarters for Gen. George Washington in 1775); Daniel Chester French’s 1884 statue of John Harvard (French also sculpted Abraham Lincoln in the Washington D.C. Memorial) and Widener Library, housing the world’s largest university book collection with more than 13 million volumes.
Harvard Square. (617) 495-1000