Boston Minutemen Campground, Littleton, Massachusetts
A righteous man cares for the needs of his animal, but the kindest acts of the wicked are cruel. ~ Proverbs 12:10
THIS JUST IN . . . . . During my Paul Revere research, I discovered that Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s poem about him was written on the eve of the Civil War. Coincidence? Or was Henry trying to say something?
What do you know about Paul Revere? Some guy who road a horse yelling, “The British are coming!”? Well, you’re about to learn a whole lot more! As well as a ton of other information! In fact, we’ve uncovered so much information about the famous rider, I’ve chosen to put together a “Special Edition” on him.
We saw Boston by train, by bus, by sea and by foot today. Well, no wonder we were tired when we got home!
Driving into Boston is an absolute no-no. Our son told us this, and watching the morning news confirmed it. And the staff in the campground office also. We talked to them last evening about the best way to get into town and they were helpful with information about either the transit train, or the subway. They even provided a map.
Blaine did all his research and concluded that at least for Saturday and Sunday the train was the ticket. 😊 It was only $10/person for unlimited travel for the entire weekend, and the station is only about a 5 minute drive from us. And he actually paid our parking fee of $2 from the Jeep. Modern technology!
It was pretty empty this morning as only about 5-6 of us wanted on, but we were told the parking lot’s overfilled during the week. We collected more and more people the further along we went on the 36-mile, 54-minute commute.
This is one of those things that give sci-fi writers inspiration! : )
And yes, I put my awful hair up as soon as it warmed up a bit. : )
Should be easy enough to find when we return tonight. : )
It’s directly across the street from Paul’s statue.
All that, and we haven’t even begun our tours yet!
We’d decided to take the City Tour bus first in order to get the lay of the land and garner some information. It’s a hop-on-hop-off bus and our pass allowed us free passage for two days. The problem with getting on and off is that maybe enough people don’t get off for you to get on. Yes, they have buses about every 10 minutes, but how long would you have to wait? We just rode around the entire tour at once, which took about 1 ½ hours. Fortunately, we went first thing at 9:30am because at noon, there was going to be the “Straight Pride” parade and the newscasters and police were expecting trouble from protestors attending the parade. It seemed like hundreds of police were out and about, setting up barricades, etc. The bus driver had no clue. We made note of the location and planned our schedule to avoid it the rest of the day. (in the end, we learned that 36 people who were there in protest of the parade were arrested – one of the spectators even threw urine on an officer!)
On the bus, we learned quite a few interesting facts about Boston:
- The city was founded in 1630
- There are over 100 Italian restaurants in Little Italy
- There are over 300 Dunkin Donuts
- There are 56 colleges and universities
- From 1991-2007, Boston underwent what they call “The Big Dig”. It was a street renovation project – roads were torn up and Route 95 was tunneled for 1 ½ miles under the city with a total cost over $26B. The project was supposed to run just 4 years at an estimated cost of $24M.
- Boston hosts the largest Irish population in the world after Ireland itself
- The city began as 800 acres of land. Today, it’s about 89 square miles, and all of the additional footage was man made with pickax, shovel and horse-drawn wagons. And it took about 100 years. Many of the structures are sitting atop wooden pilings about the size of telephone poles, that are susceptible to rot if the air gets to them, so they worry when there are drought conditions. Seems weird, huh? But apparently, it’s the air that holds the microbes that rot wood, not the water. There are entire articles on how and why this all happened, and where the material came from to do this. You’ll have more than enough other history to learn about, so if you want more information, you’ll have to Google it just like I did. 😊 But here are two points of information – – in 1877, Trinity church was built on top of 4,500 of those pilings! We saw this church later in the week from on top a skyscraper. It sure didn’t seem large enough to have 4,500 pilings underneath it. Point two – Bunker Hill is 60’ shorter than it was originally, and two other hills on either side of it are gone.
At the time it was built, it was the tallest building in town. Just look at it now!
The buildings around it are so tall, the sun can’t get in!
We’ll talk more about the importance of this building and what’s inside
on another day when we actually go in.
Looks more like the way we actually saw it. : )
And as you can see, so were the ambulances.
(my personal favorite cake!)
Quite a bit more character than our North Side entrance!
And there was a very tall skyscraper sitting on top of it!
Next, we toured the city by boat. The cruise itself lasts for 45 minutes and takes you around the harbor area.
- The battleship USS Constitution fought 32 battles and never lost. (more on that the day we actually visit it)
- An apartment on the harbor goes for an average price of $3.5M.
- There’s a sailboat called the “Nantucket”. It’s one of only two of its kind in the world. (I don’t remember what kind for sure, but maybe a portable light station?) It can be yours for $5.2M.
All the boats look different. I liked this one because it’s the same color as a rubber ducky. : )
Lots of people took tours on these today.
We discovered later that this sail boat actually gives harbor tours.
Wonder what that costs?!?
The captain had to back out.
They leave there about every 2 minutes!
We saw quite a few sailors around town. But this ship is on display, so I don’t know what they were all doing here. We chose not to explore this ship since we’ve been on many battle ships in the past.
Love this picture becuase it looks like it’s out of focus.
If you look closely though, you’ll see it’s the alignment of the rigging in the picture
that makes it look that way. : )
Then it was time to hit the pavement. Boston has this great designated 2.5-mile walking trail called the “Freedom Trail” that runs all over the city taking you to historic points of interest, and it’s pretty terrific how they’ve done this. They’ve installed or painted bricks in the middle of the sidewalks and across streets to mark the way and they tell you that it takes about 1 ½ hours. They also, for a nominal fee ($14), provide costumed interpreters to walk the trail in groups. We didn’t want to do that, and therefore, it took us about 4 hours instead, after we picked up a guide from Faneuil Hall Visitor Center. 😊
And now’s when the real history kicks in. Enjoy! We sure did!
The Carousel isn’t really on the Freedom Trail, but we walked right by it, and the tour bus driver had mentioned it, so we walked around it to take a look. It was built in 1947 from hand-carved wood and features critters native to Boston. Besides what we took pictures of, there was also a whale and a skunk. 😊
A reproduction of the bar from “Cheers” was also left off the Freedom Trail stops. Wonder why? It’s part of American history is it not? 😊 The one we saw was only a fabrication of the set used in the TV series that ran from 1982-1993. “Where everybody knows your name” and “Norm!” We had intended to get to the bar that was the original inspiration, but never made it. The way wasn’t paved with red bricks. . . 😊
Diane, Norm, Carla and Frazier!
Sam, Cliff, and Woody were elsewhere.
Across the street from Cheers was Faneuil Hall, but I don’t have pictures because they’re working on renovations and the entire building was covered in blue plastic and scaffolding. Why we didn’t take a picture of that is anyone’s guess. You could still go inside and check it out, and of course the gift shop was open during construction. 😊 This is also where we picked up our free Freedom Trail map. The Hall is an old market building that was first built in 1742, and at the time, was right at the old town dock (before they started making the city larger). They had lots of town meetings here between 1764 and 1774, where the likes of Samuel Adams and others protested against the imposition of taxes on the colonies. The building was enlarged in 1806 and in the 1800s people like Frederick Douglass (an escaped slave who became a national leader in the abolitionist movement), William Lloyd Garrison (a Massachusetts native, he’s best known as the editor of an anti-slavery newspaper) and Lucy Stone (a notable abolitionist and suffragist) discussed their own struggles for freedom here.
Our trail took us past the oldest tavern in America, but we didn’t go in. It was packed full of people though!
1795
But so was the farmers market we stumbled upon. Mostly normal stuff, in addition to several Middle Eastern manned booths selling huge amounts of “store packaged” blueberries and red raspberries. And just as we were leaving, we found some unusual things!
If they’d had samples sitting out, I would’ve tried it.
Looking at the size of those seeds, I can’t imagine you get much to eat out of these.
We can’t remember what we called them. When you open them up, the inside looks like a peeled white grape, and about the same consistency. Good sized seed though.
Ah ha! Now we know what they are!
Continuing on our journey, it was time for lunch. We stopped at a nice park area and watched a little boy and his dad playing in the fountain while we ate our packed lunch.
we presume keeping an eye on things for the parade.
Every so often another would come and take over.
Again, we presume so they could get refuled.
We walked through Little Italy. They were apparently fresh off a huge celebration. The decorations were still hanging, but for some reason, we didn’t take any pictures. Gotta wonder what we’re thinking sometimes! ☹
And then we found ourselves at Paul Revere’s former residence. Even though I’m working on a separate piece on him, I still have to tell you about the house he lived in for 30 years. The house where they wouldn’t let us take any pictures. ☹ We have no idea why. We know about no flash photography, but none at all? Maybe they felt that was the best way to curtail the flash people. If you don’t allow any, there are no “Ooops!”.
which believe it or not is about 5’9″! So where’d all those tall guys come from I see everywhere??
I always knew my hubby was an above average speciman of a man!
The house was built in 1680, and Revere and his family owned and occupied it from 1770-1800.
After Revere sold the house, it became a tenement with its ground floor remodeled for use as shops, including at various times a candy store, cigar factory, bank and vegetable and fruit business. In 1902, Revere’s great-grandson, John P. Reynolds Jr. purchased the building to prevent demolition, and restoration took place under the guidance of architect and historic preservationist Joseph Everett Chandler. In April 1908, the Paul Revere House opened its doors to the public as one of the earliest historic house museums in the United States.
Despite the substantial renovation process which returned the house to its conjectured appearance around 1700, ninety percent of the structure (including two doors, three window frames, and portions of the flooring, foundation, inner wall material and raftering) is original to 1680.
Across the street was a building that housed information and artifacts about Paul’s life, but I’ll wait and include them in the “Special Edition” piece.
Further along, we happened upon a “Wall of Fame” that included information on many people important to the founding of our nation. It was near The Old North Church.
We didn’t see it the first time we came by early this morning.
The Old North Church wasn’t open for tours when we were in town, but here’s the history from their website:
The enduring fame of the Old North began on the evening of April 18, 1775, when the church sexton, Robert Newman, and Vestryman Capt. John Pulling, Jr. climbed the steeple and held high two lanterns as a signal from Paul Revere that the British were advancing on the cities of Lexington and Concord by sea, across the Charles River, and not by land. This fateful event ignited the American Revolution.
Built in 1723, Christ Church in the City of Boston, known to all as the Old North Church, is Boston’s oldest surviving church building and most visited historical site. In 1775, on the eve of Revolution, the majority of the congregation were loyal to the British King and many held official positions in the royal government, including the Royal Governor of Massachusetts, making Robert Newman’s loyalty to the Patriot cause even more extraordinary. The King gave the Old North its silver that was used at services and a Bible.
To this day, it remains an active Episcopal church.
No historical visit would be complete without a visit to at least one cemetery, and Boston has a couple, but we only actually went in two. Up first, Copp’s Hill. From this burial site, British soldiers bombarded Breed’s Hill (which stood between Copp’s Hill and Bunker Hill) with cannon fire on June 17, 1775. (This took place about two months after Paul Revere’s ride.) This cemetery has tombstones dating to 1660, although we didn’t find one that old. Still, 1666 is pretty old, if you think a 353-year-old readable marker is pretty good! The markers from the late 1600s and early to mid-1700s seem to be made of slate. Maybe we should go back to that, because these certainly hold up well!
We’re not sure why because they weren’t at all the “stops”. . . .
We eventually ended up back at the USS Constitution aka ‘Old Ironsides’. You can visit for free, but you have to go through security first. Come October, we’ll have to have our passports with us in order to do something like this, because we don’t have the special driver’s license you’ll need since we can’t come up with enough acceptable documentation. Living on the road has it’s disadvantages . . . .
He told us only about 15% of it’s original.
That kinda burst the amazement bubble. . .
Our walk continued to the momument built to remember the battle at Bunker Hill. Bunker Hill was also involved in the battle that took place on June 17th. I’m not sure why they put the memorial at Bunker Hill. The signs say because the colonists lost this battle, but it fueled them to continue fighting because the Redcoats won the battle but lost half their men. There were a total of about 1,000 colonists vs about 2,200 Redcoats. The Redcoat’s lost over 1,000 men – – more than 200 dead, and more than 800 wounded. The colonists? 100 perished, 300 wounded. By the way, our fight for independence lasted eight years! Did you know that?
I don’t understand the mechanics of war and battles, but I tried to take enough pictures to capture the essence of what happened. One article I snapped, states that ‘every school boy is familiar with the detail of that day…’, but I’ll bet that’s not the case today. Girls either.
They must’ve used very long tweezers! The entire thing was huge!
You can climb the monument’s 294 steps to the top of the 221-foot monument that looks an awful lot like the Washington Monument in Washington, DC. This one was completed in 1843, DC’s in 1848. Same designer? I have no idea, and I’ve done enough research for this post. 😊
And yes. We climbed to the top. It was very crowded and very hot and I had a little trouble going up the steps because there was no handrail, and my side of the staircase was much more narrow. We were surrounded by the walls, tight up against the steps. I don’t know why it was so difficult for me, but it was. I made it to the top, but it was so crowded in that tiny space that one could hardly move. I tried to stay out of the way while Blaine took pictures. Then we sort of forced our way over to the steps and back down we went. No trouble this time! Wider step and a handrail! I was good to go!
They have another monument here that you’d think would have some significance, but we don’t know what exactly. There’s a marble statue in it of Dr. Joseph Warren, the principle player who sent Paul Revere and William Dawes off on their famous ride. You didn’t know there were two riders, did you? Poor Mr. Dawes has been forgotten for his part, and Paul may have been too, if not for Longfellow’s poem! There was actually a third rider who took over for Revere when he was captured, but we’ll get to that either in the ‘Paul Revere Special Edition’ – or maybe in a later post. We have four days of history touring to cover!
All this walking and learning made us tired and hungry! After some research, we settled on this little café-type place in Little Italy. There were 3 tables for two and 2 tables for four. That’s it. And no bathroom to even wash your hands. When I enquired, the owner (Dino himself), squirted something on paper towels for Blaine and I wipe our hands with. Smelled like Windex, but he said he keeps it to comply with the health code. 😊
The food was fabulous! And made by Dino himself. Hope he washed his hands . . . . 😊
By the time we made it back home, it was about 8pm. We were bushed! Tomorrow we tackle some different sights in the city, including a 4-hour whale watching cruise!