Bill's Aviation Log

We met our guide Alan -- lower left in light purpose sweatshirt and dark blue ballcap -- and the rest of the tour group. Boston was a little cool this morning.

Allan told us about all sorts of things. He pointed out this tall cement-only building. This is about as tall as a cement building can go, otherwise, to support the weight the walls at the bottom have to be very thick and with less useable space.

The Boston Irish Famine Memorial. The two groups of statues to contrast an Irish family suffering during the Great Famine of 1845–1852 -- on the right -- with a prosperous family that had emigrated to America -- on the left. During the Great Hunger, about 1 million people died and more than a million fled Ireland. Allan the guide told of how this really changed the city. Before the 1840's Boston was mostly Puritan stock. But the many Irish that came over in the 1840s completely changed the demographics -- and subsequently culture -- of the city.

Boston's Old City Hall. Built between 1862 and 1865, it was used by the city government until 1969. It now houses a number of businesses, organizations, and a Ruth's Chris Steak House!

The Omni Parker House, the longest continuously operating hotel in the United States. Ah, if only its walls could talk.

A good look at the King's Chapel. Founded in 1686 as Boston’s first Anglican church, King’s Chapel is home to over 330 years of history. The 1754 granite building still stands on the church’s original site: the corner of Boston’s oldest English burying ground. Notice the steeple is missing; they were never able to raise enough money to finish the Chapel.

The grave of John Hancock who was an American merchant, statesman, and prominent Patriot of the American Revolution. He served as president of the Second Continental Congress and was the first and third Governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. He is remembered for his large and stylish signature on the United States Declaration of Independence, so much so that the term John Hancock or Hancock has become a nickname in the United States for one's signature. He used his influence to ensure that Massachusetts ratified the United States Constitution in 1788. Before the American Revolution, Hancock was one of the wealthiest men in the Thirteen Colonies, having inherited a profitable mercantile business from his uncle.

Walking across The Common Frog Pond. The Frog Pond is home to a winter ice skating rink and learn-to-skate school, a reflecting pool in the spring and fall, and a summer spray pool and children's carousel. The ice skating rink at the Commons. It is so popular and large they have two Zaboni machines to maintain it.

Murals on the Commons walls.

Boston's early European settlers had first called the area Trimountaine (after its "three mountains", only traces of which remain today) but later renamed it Boston after Boston, Lincolnshire, England, the origin of several prominent colonists. The renaming on September 7, 1630 was by Puritan colonists from England who had moved over from Charlestown earlier that year in quest for fresh water.

it is estimated that more than 20,000 settlers had arrived in Massachusetts Bay Colony between 1630 and 1640 (a period known as the Great Migration).

Boston was the largest town in the Thirteen Colonies until Philadelphia outgrew it in the mid-18th century.

A sculpture honoring Robert McCloskey and his famous children's picture book Make Way For Ducklings he wrote and and illustrated. First published in 1941, the book tells the story of a pair of mallards who raise their brood of ducklings on an island in the lagoon in Boston Public Garden.

A statue of one of the founding fathers: Alexander Hamilton. When Lynnette and I visited Yorktown a few months ago, we saw the British Redoubt #10 that Hamilton's command took using bayonets in a night action. Hamilton was mortally wounded by Aaron Burr in a duel on July 11, 1804.

Across the street from Copley Square is the massive and ornate Boston Public Library (McKim Building). The Boston Public Library contains approximately 24 million items, making it the third-largest public library in the United States behind the federal Library of Congress and the New York Public Library.

The Boston Public Library McKim Building (built 1895) in Copley Square contains the library's research collection, exhibition rooms and administrative offices. When it opened in 1895, the new Boston Public Library was proclaimed a "palace for the people." The building includes lavish decorations, a children's room (the first in the nation), and a central courtyard surrounded by an arcaded gallery in the manner of a Renaissance cloister. The library regularly displays its rare works, often in exhibits that will combine works on paper, rare books, and works of art. Several galleries in the third floor of the McKim building are maintained for exhibits.

What can you say? They don't make them like this anymore.

Lynnette checking out the inner courtyard.

Cheers! We went down into the bar and looked around. The interior is not the same as in the TV show. But the beer probably tastes the same; sadly, we did not have the time to quaff down a few. There is an exact replica of the Cheers bar in the TV show in the second floor of this building but it was not open today.

We were walking towards Quincy Market and came across this statue of Bill Russell, the great Boston Celtic player. Bob is a big basketball fan and liked this statue a lot. Russell was a five-time NBA Most Valuable Player and a 12-time All-Star, he was the centerpiece of the Celtics dynasty that won an amazing eleven NBA championships during his 13-year career. He was also on two national championship seasons at the University of San Francisco.

We walked through Quincy Market. Lots of good food is to be had in here!

September 30, 2021 - Boston Freedom Trail
I had signed up for a Guided Tour of the Boston Freedom Trail. We met our Guide near the Old State House. Here, Jayne, Bob and Lynnette are excited about starting the tour with the Old State House in the background.

We met our guide Alan -- lower left in light purpose sweatshirt and dark blue ballcap -- and the rest of the tour group. Boston was a little cool this morning.

The eastern end of the Old State House. This is where the Boston Massacre took place on March 5, 1770. "Amid tense relations between the civilians and the soldiers, a mob formed around a British sentry and verbally abused him. He was eventually supported by seven additional soldiers, led by Captain Thomas Preston, who were hit by clubs, stones, and snowballs. Eventually, one soldier fired, prompting the others to fire without an order by Preston. The gunfire instantly killed three people and wounded eight others, two of whom later died of their wounds. Eight soldiers, one officer, and four civilians were arrested and charged with murder, and they were defended by future U.S. President John Adams. Six of the soldiers were acquitted; the other two were convicted of manslaughter and given reduced sentences. The two found guilty of manslaughter were sentenced to branding on their hand." The Boston Massacre is considered one of the most significant events that turned colonial sentiment against King George III and British Parliamentary authority. John Adams wrote that the "foundation of American independence was laid" on March 5, 1770, and Samuel Adams and other Patriots used annual commemorations (Massacre Day) to encourage public sentiment toward independence. -- Wikipedia

Allan told us about all sorts of things. He pointed out this tall cement-only building. This is about as tall as a cement building can go, otherwise, to support the weight the walls at the bottom have to be very thick and with less useable space.

I think this is one of the first examples of using iron in buildings, which allowed them to keep the walls thinner and go higher.

There used to be a spring on this spot that was known for its great drinking water, popular with ship captains who could fill up their ship's caskets with the sweetwater. It was one of the reasons Boston became a big port. Now it is long gone but they did name this little street after it.

The Freedom Trail is outlined by these parallel lines of grey bricks. It's similar to how the old Berlin Wall is outlined in Berlin. Our tour didn't follow the bricks all the time.

The Boston Irish Famine Memorial. The two groups of statues to contrast an Irish family suffering during the Great Famine of 1845–1852 -- on the right -- with a prosperous family that had emigrated to America -- on the left. During the Great Hunger, about 1 million people died and more than a million fled Ireland. Allan the guide told of how this really changed the city. Before the 1840's Boston was mostly Puritan stock. But the many Irish that came over in the 1840s completely changed the demographics -- and subsequently culture -- of the city.

The Old South Meeting House is a historic Congregational church building located at the corner of Milk and Washington Streets in the Downtown Crossing area of Boston, built in 1729. It gained fame as the organizing point for the Boston Tea Party on December 16, 1773. Five thousand or more colonists gathered at the Meeting House, the largest building in Boston at the time.

Boston's Old City Hall. Built between 1862 and 1865, it was used by the city government until 1969. It now houses a number of businesses, organizations, and a Ruth's Chris Steak House!

Allan said that Boston is a Democrat party city, hence the Donkey sculpture on the left. But they wanted to give the Republican party recognition too so the two bronze footprints are on the right, with the inscription "Stand in Opposition".

A statue of the great Benjamin Franklin. Everyone knows Benjamin Franklin as a Philadelphian, but he was born in Boston and lived in Boston until age 17, when he ran away to Philadelphia, seeking a new life. He attended school on the Latin School on this site. Scenes of Franklin's accomplishments appear in bas-relief on the square pedestal of the statue.

A sidewalk mosaic honors the Latin School. Boston Latin School, founded on April 23, 1635, is the oldest public school in America. It offered free education to boys - rich or poor - while girls attended private schools at home. Until the completion of the schoolhouse in 1645, classes were held in the home of the first headmaster, Philemon Pormont. A mosaic and a statue of former student Benjamin Franklin currently marks the location of the original schoolhouse.

The Omni Parker House, the longest continuously operating hotel in the United States. Ah, if only its walls could talk.

Passing by the King's Chapel.

A good look at the King's Chapel. Founded in 1686 as Boston’s first Anglican church, King’s Chapel is home to over 330 years of history. The 1754 granite building still stands on the church’s original site: the corner of Boston’s oldest English burying ground. Notice the steeple is missing; they were never able to raise enough money to finish the Chapel.

Entering the Granary Burial Ground. Boton's third-oldest cemetery, founded in 1660 and located on Tremont Street, it is the final resting place for many notable Revolutionary War-era patriots, including Paul Revere, the five victims of the Boston Massacre, and three signers of the Declaration of Independence: Samuel Adams, John Hancock, and Robert Treat Paine.

One of the founding fathers of the United States: Samuel Adams. A member of both Continental Congresses, Samuel Adams was a signer of the Declaration of Independance.

The grave of silversmith and patriot Paul Revere. He is best known for his midnight ride to alert the colonial militia in April 1775 to the approach of British forces before the battles of Lexington and Concord, as dramatized in Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's poem, "Paul Revere's Ride" (1861).

The grave of John Hancock who was an American merchant, statesman, and prominent Patriot of the American Revolution. He served as president of the Second Continental Congress and was the first and third Governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. He is remembered for his large and stylish signature on the United States Declaration of Independence, so much so that the term John Hancock or Hancock has become a nickname in the United States for one's signature. He used his influence to ensure that Massachusetts ratified the United States Constitution in 1788. Before the American Revolution, Hancock was one of the wealthiest men in the Thirteen Colonies, having inherited a profitable mercantile business from his uncle.

A good look at the Massachusetts State House's and its golden dome. It is the state capitol and seat of government for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. They cut the top off of Beacon Hill for the building's location. The building houses the Massachusetts General Court (state legislature) and the offices of the Governor of Massachusetts. The building, designed by architect Charles Bulfinch, was completed in January 1798 . The original wood dome, which leaked, was covered with copper in 1802 by Paul Revere's Revere Copper Company. Revere was the first American to roll copper successfully into sheets (for copper sheathing) in a commercially viable manner. The dome was first painted gray and then light yellow before being gilded with gold leaf in 1874. During World War II, the dome was painted gray once again, to prevent reflection during blackouts and to protect the city and building from bombing attacks. In 1997, at a cost of more than $300,000, the dome was re-gilded, in 23k gold. We are now in the Boston Common which is a central public park in downtown Boston. Established in 1634, Boston Common is America’s oldest public park. Puritan colonists purchased the land rights to the Common’s 44 acres from the first European settler of the area, Anglican minister William Blackstone.

Walking across The Common Frog Pond. The Frog Pond is home to a winter ice skating rink and learn-to-skate school, a reflecting pool in the spring and fall, and a summer spray pool and children's carousel. The ice skating rink at the Commons. It is so popular and large they have two Zaboni machines to maintain it.

Looking up at Beacon Hill. Some of those windows have original "purple" glass panes dating back to the Revolutionary days.

Murals on the Commons walls. Boston's early European settlers had first called the area Trimountaine (after its "three mountains", only traces of which remain today) but later renamed it Boston after Boston, Lincolnshire, England, the origin of several prominent colonists. The renaming on September 7, 1630 was by Puritan colonists from England who had moved over from Charlestown earlier that year in quest for fresh water. it is estimated that more than 20,000 settlers had arrived in Massachusetts Bay Colony between 1630 and 1640 (a period known as the Great Migration). Boston was the largest town in the Thirteen Colonies until Philadelphia outgrew it in the mid-18th century.

A huge underground parking garage lies underneath this part of the Common.

Aproaching Charles Street running left to right. Charles Street used to mark the southern end of what essentially was an the island. The area of mudflats known as the Back Bay is all filled in now. On the other side of Charles Street is the Public Garden.

Entering the Public Garden.

A sculpture honoring Robert McCloskey and his famous children's picture book Make Way For Ducklings he wrote and and illustrated. First published in 1941, the book tells the story of a pair of mallards who raise their brood of ducklings on an island in the lagoon in Boston Public Garden.

The Public Garden was the first public botanical garden in America.

Nice.

An impressive statue of the great George Washington in the Public Garden.

Looking down Commonwealth Avenue or "Comm Ave". It was designed to be like the wide Paris boulevards.

A statue of one of the founding fathers: Alexander Hamilton. When Lynnette and I visited Yorktown a few months ago, we saw the British Redoubt #10 that Hamilton's command took using bayonets in a night action. Hamilton was mortally wounded by Aaron Burr in a duel on July 11, 1804.

Newbury Street is known for its expensive stores.

Like Ralph Lauren.

Downtown Boston.

In Copley Square is this in-ground map of the Boston Marathon, which will be run here in a little over a week. The top portion shows the altitude. The race runs from left to right and is mostly downhill except for one incline towards the end. The bottom map shows the route. The finish line is very close to here.

Across the street from Copley Square is the massive and ornate Boston Public Library (McKim Building). The Boston Public Library contains approximately 24 million items, making it the third-largest public library in the United States behind the federal Library of Congress and the New York Public Library. The Boston Public Library McKim Building (built 1895) in Copley Square contains the library's research collection, exhibition rooms and administrative offices. When it opened in 1895, the new Boston Public Library was proclaimed a "palace for the people." The building includes lavish decorations, a children's room (the first in the nation), and a central courtyard surrounded by an arcaded gallery in the manner of a Renaissance cloister. The library regularly displays its rare works, often in exhibits that will combine works on paper, rare books, and works of art. Several galleries in the third floor of the McKim building are maintained for exhibits.

The main entrance area is amazing. All marble dominated by two Lion sculptures honoring the soldiers of the Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry in the Civil War. This Lion honors the Second Infantry Regiment which as you can see fought in many of the major Civil War battles.

What can you say? They don't make them like this anymore.

The Lion on the right honors the 1st Massachusetts Infantry Regiment, which also participated in many of the major Civil War battles.

The famous Bates Hall, named for the library's first great benefactor, Joshua Bates. Boston Globe writer Sam Allis described "Bates Hall, the great reading room of the BPL, vast and hushed and illuminated with a profusion of green lampshades like fireflies" as one of Boston's "secular spots that are sacred." The form of Bates Hall, rectilinear but terminated with a semi-circular apse on each end, recalls a Roman basilica. A series of robust double coffers in the ceiling provide a sculptural canopy to the room. The east side has a rhythmic series of arched windows with light buffered by wide overhanging hood on the exterior. Heavy deep green silk velvet drapery installed in 1888, and again in the 1920s and 1950s, was not recreated in the 1993 restoration of the room. The drapery helped to muffle sound and lower light levels.

Now this is an awesome place to study.

Lynnette checking out the inner courtyard.

The thinkers.

Cheers! We went down into the bar and looked around. The interior is not the same as in the TV show. But the beer probably tastes the same; sadly, we did not have the time to quaff down a few. There is an exact replica of the Cheers bar in the TV show in the second floor of this building but it was not open today.

A close-up of the Massachusetts State House. Designed by Charles Bulfinch, the ‘new’ and current State House has served as the seat of Massachusetts government since its opening in 1798. Holding the legislative and executive branches, it sits adjacent to the former site of the historic Hancock mansion. It was built on the top of Beacon Hill, after they had levelled the top off it. Between 1807 and 1832 Beacon Hill was reduced from 138 feet in elevation to 80 feet. They used the fill to fill in the shoreline and bodies of water such as the Mill Pond, increasing Boston's land mass by 150%. The term "Beacon Hill" is used locally as a metonym to refer to the state government or the legislature itself, much like Washington, D.C.'s "Capitol Hill" does at the federal level. Federal-style rowhouses, narrow gaslit streets and brick sidewalks adorn the neighborhood, which is generally regarded as one of the more desirable and expensive in Boston.

Checking out the Kings Chapel Burying Ground.

The big name here is John Winthrop, first governer of Massachusetts. Winthrop led the first large wave of colonists from England in 1630 -- 11 ships that carried about 700 migrants , 10 years after the Mayflower and Plymouth. The fleet arrived at Salem in June, 1630. Winthrop and his deputy Thomas Dudley found the Salem area inadequate for a settlement suitable for all of the arriving colonists, and they embarked on surveying expeditions of the area. They first decided to base the colony at Charlestown, but a lack of good water there prompted them to move to the Shawmut Peninsula where they founded what is now the city of Boston. The colonists decided to establish dispersed settlements along the coast and the banks of the Charles River in order to avoid presenting a single point that hostile forces might attack. These settlements became Boston, Cambridge, Roxbury, Dorchester, Watertown, Medford, and Charlestown. Winthrop served as governor for 12 of the colony's first 20 years.

We were walking towards Quincy Market and came across this statue of Bill Russell, the great Boston Celtic player. Bob is a big basketball fan and liked this statue a lot. Russell was a five-time NBA Most Valuable Player and a 12-time All-Star, he was the centerpiece of the Celtics dynasty that won an amazing eleven NBA championships during his 13-year career. He was also on two national championship seasons at the University of San Francisco.

Looking at Fanheuil Hall, which was a clandestine Patriot meeting place prior to the Revolutionary War. In front is a sculpture of Sam Adams, who spoke here.

We walked through Quincy Market. Lots of good food is to be had in here!


	Previous	Home	Next

September 30, 2021 - Boston Freedom Trail