It is a mildly curious quirk of fate that I haven’t really been to Boston. While we were young and in the process of building our American Dream, we traveled sparingly and almost exclusively within the US. Boston was our “bad luck” destination. On two separate occasions in the 90s, we planned extended-weekend trips to Beantown, only to run into unforeseen health-related problems just days before each trip, necessitating cancellations. The third occasion never came around; we got the taste of overseas travel and started to prioritize it in most instances, with very rare exceptions.
College reconnaissance treks and short business trips offered me a few passing glimpses of Boston over the years. That I did not have a single photograph tagged with the city name in my archives is the most precise gauge of the amount of exploration I attempted on those brief visits. In late April and early June of this year, I found myself in Boston again on business for the first time in about a decade. Just as I did in Dallas a year ago, I used the after-work hours to wander around the Downtown and the Waterfront area a bit in the late-afternoon daylight. Below is a small selection of highlights.
The dome of the Massachusetts State House, as seen across the lawns of Boston Common.
The Old State House was the original seat of the colonial government and later the state capitol.
In the background on the left, the Custom House Tower – for most of the 20th century, the tallest building in Boston – remains an eye-catching presence. In the next shot, it is seen from the direction of Color Commons, a series of green lawns along Atlantic Avenue. The Grain Exchange, a striking late-19th-century architectural masterpiece, features prominently in the perspective as well.
The Park Street Church, a key stop on Boston’s Freedom Trail, played an outsized role in a number of historical events and social initiatives, from the abolitionist movement to prison reform.
Another National Historic Landmark, the 18th-century King’s Chapel.
The Cathedral Church of St Paul is a more conventionally Greek Revival building, built in the early part of the 19th century as the first parish church in Boston that did not predate the American Revolution.
Federal-style architecture is found in various parts of the city center.
Two different angles over Fort Point Channel towards the Congress Street bridge and the Boston Tea Party museum (the brown building in the center of the first frame).
Boston Common is the city’s version of Central Park on a more intimate scale – except it is older, established in 1634 as the very first city park in the US. The Parkman Bandstand and the Brewer Fountain are among its notable landmarks.
At the highest point of the Common, the Soldiers and Sailors Monument is dedicated to Massachusetts native sons who died fighting in the American Civil War.
In Parkman Plaza at the edge of the Boston Common, these three bronze figures represent Religion, Industry, and Learning. According to the Smithsonian art catalogue, the sculpture group, created in 1961, salutes Boston’s energy, scholarship, and spiritual life.
I came across a bunch of whimsical statues on various squares in Boston, such as these marine mammals…
… a giraffe…
… or this “Material Monument to Thomas Morton”, apparently representing a humorous critique of the controversial colonial figure. (This one may be a temporary installation, if I read the descriptions of it correctly.)
And this evocative piece is called The Embrace.
Although I am less reluctant than in the past to build a phone-camera photographic portfolio, I certainly remain much less prolific in that aspect. I can’t do justice to Boston with just a dozen and a half shots. But something is better than nothing.
This article is also featured on GPSmyCity. To download this article for offline reading or create a self-guided walking tour to visit the attractions highlighted in this article, go to Walking Tours and Articles in Boston.