#1 of 30 Things To Do in Boston
Old State House
Boston MA
~0.05 miles from Boston city center
Hotels Close to Old State House
|
#2 of 30 Things To Do in Boston
Boston City Hall
Boston MA
~0.12 miles from Boston city center
Hotels Close to Boston City Hall
Boston City Hall is the home of the municipal government of Boston, Massachusetts.
City Hall is a 9-level, horizontally-oriented brutalist building designed by Kallmann McKinnell & Knowles and located at the heart of a brick-paved Government Center plaza in downtown Boston, Massachusetts. It is rectangular in plan, but is an inverted pyramid in elevation. Although critically acclaimed upon its completion, it is widely regarded by Bostonians as an ugly building.
City Hall is located in Government Center in downtown Boston. The adjoining 8-acre (32,000 m2) City Hall Plaza is often used for parades and rallies; most memorably, the region's championship sports teams, the Boston Celtics, Boston Bruins, New England Patriots and the Boston Red Sox, have been feted in front of City Hall. A huge crowd in the plaza also greeted Queen Elizabeth II during her 1976 Bicentennial visit, as she walked from the Old State House to City Hall to have lunch with the Mayor.
|
#3 of 30 Things To Do in Boston
Faneuil Hall
Boston MA
~0.13 miles from Boston city center
Hotels Close to Faneuil Hall
|
#4 of 30 Things To Do in Boston
New England Holocaust Memorial
Boston
~0.16 miles from Boston city center
Hotels Close to New England Holocaust Memorial
|
#5 of 30 Things To Do in Boston
Old South Meeting House
Boston MA
~0.18 miles from Boston city center
Hotels Close to Old South Meeting House
|
#6 of 30 Things To Do in Boston
Downtown (Neighborhood)
Boston MA
~0.19 miles from Boston city center
Hotels Close to Downtown
|
#7 of 30 Things To Do in Boston
Financial District (Neighborhood)
Boston MA
~0.22 miles from Boston city center
Hotels Close to Financial District
|
#8 of 30 Things To Do in Boston
Boston Athenaeum
Boston MA
~0.26 miles from Boston city center
Hotels Close to Boston Athenaeum
Boston Athenæum is one of the oldest independent libraries in the United States. It is also one of only sixteen extant membership libraries, meaning that patrons pay a yearly subscription fee to use the Athenaeum's services. The institution was founded in 1807 by the Anthology Club of Boston, Massachusetts.
The Oxford English Dictionary defines “athenaeum” as:
1. An association of persons interested in scientific and literary pursuits, meeting for the purpose of mutual improvement; a literary or scientific club;
2. A building or institution in which books, periodicals, and newspapers are provided for use; a literary club-room, reading-room, library.
Just as a museum is a place for the muses who inspire art, so an athenaeum is a place for Athena, the goddess of wisdom who inspires intellectual pursuits.
|
#9 of 30 Things To Do in Boston
Old Granary Burying Ground
Boston MA
~0.27 miles from Boston city center
Hotels Close to Old Granary Burying Ground
|
#10 of 30 Things To Do in Boston
Orpheum Theater
Boston MA
~0.28 miles from Boston city center
Hotels Close to Orpheum Theater
|
#11 of 30 Things To Do in Boston
King's Chapel
Boston MA
~0.29 miles from Boston city center
Hotels Close to King's Chapel
|
#12 of 30 Things To Do in Boston
Suffolk University
8 Ashburton Place Boston MA - 617-573-8000
~0.30 miles from Boston city center
Hotels Close to Suffolk University
http://www.suffolk.edu
|
#13 of 30 Things To Do in Boston
Park Street Church
Boston MA
~0.31 miles from Boston city center
Hotels Close to Park Street Church
|
#14 of 30 Things To Do in Boston
New England Aquarium
Boston MA
~0.31 miles from Boston city center
Hotels Close to New England Aquarium
|
#15 of 30 Things To Do in Boston
Freedom Trail
Boston
~0.32 miles from Boston city center
Hotels Close to Freedom Trail
|
#16 of 30 Things To Do in Boston
Massachusetts State House
Boston MA
~0.36 miles from Boston city center
Hotels Close to Massachusetts State House
|
#17 of 30 Things To Do in Boston
Long Wharf
Boston MA
~0.37 miles from Boston city center
Hotels Close to Long Wharf
|
#18 of 30 Things To Do in Boston
North End
Boston MA
~0.39 miles from Boston city center
Hotels Close to North End
|
#19 of 30 Things To Do in Boston
Paul Revere's House
Boston MA
~0.40 miles from Boston city center
Hotels Close to Paul Revere's House
|
#20 of 30 Things To Do in Boston
Boston Opera House
Boston MA
~0.42 miles from Boston city center
Hotels Close to Boston Opera House
Two Boston, Massachusetts theaters have been known as the Boston Opera House. The first was a purpose-built opera house opened in 1909 and demolished in 1958. The second, a former movie palace, was operated by the Opera Company of Boston from 1980 to 1991. After suffering severe damage while closed, the theater was completely renovated and reopened in 2004.
The first Boston Opera House was built in 1909 on Huntington Ave. in Boston, Massachusetts. It was described as a "perfect jewel-box of an opera house" and despite its smallish size, was the venue for many of the local opera companies, as well as regular visits by the Metropolitan Opera. It was just two blocks from Boston Symphony Hall, and one block from the New England Conservatory of Music.
During the Great Depression and World War II, the Opera House fell into disuse and disrepair. In 1957, the Boston Redevelopment Authority, acting on behalf of the Northeastern University Trustees, declared the Opera House unsafe, and scheduled it for demolition. The local opera community demonstrated and petitioned the BRA to spare their only venue, but the order stood. The solidly built building was gutted in 1958, but proved difficult to demolish. Two demolition companies gave up in frustration, as the opera house resisted their efforts. Only after a new and larger wrecking derrick arrived, did the walls fall. A brick rescued from the demolished theater by noted WGBH-FM announcer Ron Della Chiesa is preserved in the theater's archives at Northeastern University. Speare Hall, a Northeastern University dormitory, now stands on the site at the corner of Opera Place and Huntington Ave.
|
#21 of 30 Things To Do in Boston
Boston Harbor Islands State Park
Boston MA
~0.42 miles from Boston city center
Hotels Close to Boston Harbor Islands State Park
This 17-island state park is part of the 34-island Boston Harbor Islands National Park Area. They are a wonderful natural resource, only 45 minutes by ferry from downtown Boston. Seventeen of the islands are managed the Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR). Six of the 17 islands, and Webb State Park, a 36-acre peninsula in Weymouth, are staffed and open for public use daily during the summer and weekends in the spring and fall.
Visitors to the park enjoy shell and slate beaches, easy hiking paths, old hay fields gone wild with bayberry, raspberry and elderberry, and old roadways to historic foundations and forts. Shade is found at picnic sites, trailside benches, and on wooded trails. There are many historic and scenic harbor vistas such as Dorchester, Quincy, Hull and Hingham Bays, the Blue Hills, Boston's skyline, 34 islands, and outward to Massachusetts Bay. Resident Park Managers/ Interpreters live on-island during the visiting season. They provide island supervision, give island tours, and. offer ongoing educational programs and special events. Check Boston Harbor Islands for schedules of island openings and special event listings.
|
#22 of 30 Things To Do in Boston
Museum of African American History
Boston MA
~0.43 miles from Boston city center
Hotels Close to Museum of African American History
|
#23 of 30 Things To Do in Boston
Harrison Gray Otis House
Boston MA
~0.43 miles from Boston city center
Hotels Close to Harrison Gray Otis House
|
#24 of 30 Things To Do in Boston
Nichols House Museum
Boston MA
~0.45 miles from Boston city center
Hotels Close to Nichols House Museum
|
#25 of 30 Things To Do in Boston
TD Banknorth Garden - Boston Celtics - Boston Bruins
Boston MA
~0.53 miles from Boston city center
Hotels Close to TD Banknorth Garden - Boston Celtics - Boston Bruins
|
#26 of 30 Things To Do in Boston
Old North Church
Boston MA
~0.53 miles from Boston city center
Hotels Close to Old North Church
|
#27 of 30 Things To Do in Boston
Copp's Hill Burying Ground
Boston MA
~0.55 miles from Boston city center
Hotels Close to Copp's Hill Burying Ground
Founded by the town of Boston in 1659, Copp's Hill Burying Ground is the second oldest burying ground in the city. The cemetery's boundaries were extended several times, and the grounds contain the remains of many notable Bostonians in the thousands of graves and 272 tombs.
Among the Bostonians buried here are the original owner, William Copp's, children, also Increase Mather, Cotton Mather, Robert Newman (the patriot who placed the signal lanterns in the steeple of Old North Church for Paul Revere's midnight ride to Lexington and Concord), Prince Hall (the father of Black Freemasonry) and many unmarked graves of the African Americans who lived in the "New Guinea" community at the foot of the hill. The cemetery was not an official stop on the Freedom Trail when it was created in 1951, but it has since been added and is much-frequented by tourists and photographers.
|
#28 of 30 Things To Do in Boston
Leather District (Neighborhood)
Boston MA
~0.56 miles from Boston city center
Hotels Close to Leather District
|
#29 of 30 Things To Do in Boston
Beacon Hill (Neighborhood)
Boston MA
~0.60 miles from Boston city center
Hotels Close to Beacon Hill
Beacon Hill is a historic neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts that along with neighboring Back Bay is home to about 26,000 people. It is a neighborhood of Federal-style rowhouses and is known for its narrow, gas-lit streets and brick sidewalks. Today, Beacon Hill is regarded as one of the most desirable and expensive neighborhoods in Boston.
The Beacon Hill area is located just north of the Boston Common and the Boston Public Garden and is bounded generally by Beacon Street on the south, Somerset Street on the east, Cambridge Street to the north and Storrow Drive along the riverfront of the Charles River Esplanade to the west. The block bounded by Beacon, Tremont and Park Streets is included as well, as is the Boston Common itself. The level section of the neighborhood west of Charles Street, on landfill, is known locally as the "Flat of the Hill."
Because the Massachusetts State House is in a prominent location at the top of the hill, the term "Beacon Hill" is also often used as a metonym in the local news media to refer to the state government or the legislature.
|
#30 of 30 Things To Do in Boston
Boston Tea Party Ship
Boston MA
~0.62 miles from Boston city center
Hotels Close to Boston Tea Party Ship
|