The Boston Freedom Trail

In Words and Pictures

Robert Wheeler

• Publisher: Skyhorse
• Year: 2019
• Print ISBN: 9781510743779
• eBook ISBN: 9781510743786
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Early American History
• Index: History

A Moving and Informative Guidebook and Keepsake Worthy of Coffee Table Display! Through lyrical paragraphs and poignant black and white images, The Boston Freedom Trail reveals the essence of each site along the Freedom Trail, thereby allowing the reader to be moved and to connect more intimately with the splendor of liberty itself. Said to be the soul of the city, Boston's Freedom Trail embodies the remarkable and courageous spirit of America's unyielding quest for Independence and makes Boston a popular and endearing tourist destination. Beginning within the elegantly manicured grounds of Boston's Common, this trail takes an estimated twenty million visitors a year on a fascinating 2.5-mile walk through its historic sites—sites enveloped within the city itself, and dotted with cafés, restaurants, bars, hotels, and commerce. In this book, each of these sites, and each name associated with America's independence, whispers endless stories and inspires great dreams. This city's captivating past—and that of the entire American experience—can be discovered on each page, making it an absorbing and everlasting book, one dedicated to the absolute beauty and the luminous tradition of freedom.

CONTENTS

Foreword

Preface

Introduction

Boston’s Common Ground

The Brewer Fountain

Shaw Monument

Black Heritage Trail

Massachusetts State House

Park Street Church

Granary Burying Ground

King’s Chapel

King’s Chapel Burying Ground

First Public School—Site of Boston Latin School

Benjamin Franklin Statue

Old Corner Bookstore

Boston Irish Famine Memorial

Old South Meeting House

Old State House

Boston Massacre Site—Incident on King Street

Boston Tea Party

Faneuil Hall

New England Holocaust Memorial

The North End

Paul Revere House

Old North Church

Copp’s Hill Burying Ground

USS Constitution “Old Ironsides”

Bunker Hill

Other Voices

Culinary

Overnight

The End

Acknowledgments

FOREWORD

By Jim Koch, founder of the Boston Beer Company and brewer of Samuel Adams Boston Lager

When you live in Boston, as I have since 1967, it’s easy to take The Freedom Trail for granted. It’s even easy to curse its small, circuitous streets and cobblestone paths. Locals often overlook the red brick line that guides curious visitors through the city. But as Bostonians, we all have our moments when we stop and pause in awe of the history that surrounds us.

I had one of those moments of awe when I was starting The Boston Beer Company and was searching for a name for my signature brew. Friends had given me sheaves of possible names when I recalled my high school history teacher’s favorite figure from the American Revolution, Samuel Adams. I clearly remembered why I became captivated with Adams: it was his unyielding fervor and his unwavering drive for independence; it was his progressive thinking and his determination to stay in the fight, even against overwhelming odds. For me, his name is synonymous with American pride and independence and freedom. And like me, Samuel Adams came from a family of brewers. I will always remember that spring morning when I gathered my courage and forced myself to take the elevator to the lobby, to walk down State Street, and to make my first terrifying sales call to introduce Samuel Adams Boston Lager.

If Boston is, as Oliver Wendell Holmes claimed in 1858, the “Hub of the Universe,” then Faneuil Hall is the hub of Samuel Adams’ life. I hope that both Bostonians and visitors alike who walk the Freedom Trail will enjoy this beautifully written book. I am honored that Robert Wheeler asked me to write this foreword. I feel that when reading these expressive paragraphs, and when gazing upon these evocative photographs, one will never again overlook the grand significance of historic Boston and its awe-inspiring Freedom Trail.

Cheers!

Jim Koch

PREFACE

By Dan McCole, Southie Watercolorist

As an Irish American having grown up in South Boston, I have much pride in the major role Boston, my City on the Hill, played in the fight for freedom from the British Crown. As a graduate of Boston’s Vesper George School of Art in 1952, I have spent a good part of my life painting those images of the city—its people, its architecture, its harbor, its traditions and celebrations—that inspire and resonate.

Through his new book, Robert Wheeler breaks with tradition by bringing to life the bravery, the hopes, the risks, and the edgy promise of a new country for a people who bet their lives on a free society. The words and images within this important book are based on his passion, and his keen observation, as he takes us behind and underneath the physical beauty of the bronze plaques, sculptures, and burial grounds, and fleshes out the lives of a people who were willing to die in order to live free.

As I step along with my life, moving into those more graceful and contemplative years, I am reminded that lasting art reaches into the heart of the observer, thereby keeping images and events fresh and alive. Boston’s rich and charismatic Trail, as seen through these lyrical vignettes and these moving pictures, keeps the torch lit, and reminds us of the precious cost, and the beauty, of true and lasting freedom.

Best and Always,

Dan McCole

INTRODUCTION

The beauty and allure of Boston’s Freedom Trail—a trail that winds itself through modern buildings, busy traffic, and hurried people—is endlessly captivating, forever surprising, and worthy of contemplation and celebration. There is simply no other city in America that exposes and reflects as much history, and it is the enduring presence of Boston’s historical past that makes it an essential destination. This city’s past, and that of the entire American experience, can be discovered on each corner and contains fascinating stories of both unanimity and rebellion in the lives of real people struggling to find liberation and dignity in the New World. Those who established a Republic and who envisioned a future governed by and for the people in those early years of the 1770s, were following the philosophy and spirit of the Age of Enlightenment, or Reason, that had first been conceived on the European continent by such writers as Locke, Hume, and Voltaire. These men during this Age believed in, and advanced through a rational and scientific approach, the ideals of liberty, of a constitutional government, and of the separation of church and state. The commitment to the ideals of Enlightenment can be seen in the founding documents of the new Republic, and in the great halls where the ideas of the Revolution were first debated and declared. Boston’s Freedom Trail is a constant reminder of the perils of confronting the powerful and, throughout its many twists and turns, one is constantly reminded of the predominance and tyranny of the British monarchy. Due to the power of King George III and his determination to subdue his American colony, colonial rebels—our Founding Fathers—were considered malicious and often referred to as extremists, even terrorists. Those men—Paine, Adams, Jefferson, Hancock, Franklin, Revere—backed by strong and resourceful women, were subject to being hanged for their treasonous denunciations. As a group of thinkers with very radical ideas a...

Table of contents

• Front Cover
• Half-Title Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Contents
• Foreword
• Preface
• Introduction
• Boston’s Common Ground
• The Brewer Fountain
• Shaw Monument
• Black Heritage Trail
• Massachusetts State House
• Park Street Church
• Granary Burying Ground
• King’s Chapel
• King’s Chapel Burying Ground
• First Public School—Site of Boston Latin School
• Benjamin Franklin Statue
• Old Corner Bookstore
• Boston Irish Famine Memorial
• Old South Meeting House
• Old State House
• Boston Massacre Site—Incident on King Street
• Boston Tea Party
• Faneuil Hall
• New England Holocaust Memorial
• The North End
• Paul Revere House
• Old North Church
• Copp’s Hill Burying Ground
• USS Constitution “Old Ironsides”
• Bunker Hill
• Other Voices
• Culinary
• Overnight
• The End
• Acknowledgments