Boston Historic Sites

This Tour Comes From...

An image of the book: America's Historic Places

National Geographic Guide to America's Historic Places

For more National Geographic travel guides—from Europe to Antarctica and everywhere in between—visit National Geographic Books >>

When John Winthrop and the Puritan settlers arrived here aboard the Arbella in 1630, they found an irregular peninsula inhabited only by English hermit William Blackstone. The colonial era saw Boston rise to prominence as a major seaport and New England’s de facto political capital, as well as a lightning rod for the frustrations that culminated in the American Revolution. (Convention & Visitors Bureau, 147 Tremont St. +1 617 536 4100 or 800 888 5515)

Nineteenth-century Bostonians nurtured their city’s reputation as the “Athens of America,” but with the 20th century came a long commercial decline in Boston’s fortunes. Today, Bostonians cling to their traditions and proudly preserve the downtown area where the city’s colonial life was centered. CONTINUED

- Beacon Hill Historic District
- Back Bay Historic District

(Continued From Top)

Beacon Hill Historic District

Acorn Street, Beacon Hill Historic District

Photograph © Walter Bibikow/The Image Bank

Beacon Hill is the gaslit, redbrick haunt of real Boston Brahmins and such fictional stereotypes as John P. Marquand’s George Apley. Bounded by Boston Common on the south, the statehouse complex on the northeast, Cambridge Street on the north, and the Charles River on the west, the “Hill” was once three steep summits, named after a colonial beacon. Just before 1800 the burgeoning city engulfed Beacon Hill, the tops of the three summits were leveled, and Charles Bulfinch erected his magnificent statehouse on the northeast slope. New streets were lined with elegant brick row houses, designed by Bulfinch and other adherents of his federal-style architecture.
For a primer on that period, visit the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities, quartered in the superbly furnished Harrison Gray Otis House (141 Cambridge St. +1 617 227 3956. Tues.-Sat.; Adm. fee). It is the first of three Beacon Hill mansions designed by Bulfinch for Otis, an influential Boston lawyer. Elsewhere on Beacon Hill, stroll through Louisburg Square, between Mount Vernon and Pinckney Streets; its bow-fronted 1840s Greek Revival row houses face each other across a small private park. Along Beacon Street, look for the purple windowpanes that were part of an early 19th-century glass shipment and are now a sign of Beacon Hill distinction.

Back Bay Historic District
Long before it was a desirable residential quarter, the Back Bay was in fact a baylike backwater of the Charles River. Beginning in 1857 and continuing for 30 years, landfill reclaimed the marshes, transforming them into a 450-acre [182.1-hectare] tract laid out with broad, straight avenues quite unlike those in the older parts of town.
The Back Bay neighborhood is a rectangle tucked between the Charles River and Boylston Street on the north and south, and the Public Garden and Massachusetts Avenue on the east and west. With the exception of Boylston and Newbury Streets, which are now given over to upscale shops, the Back Bay remains residential, with Victorian homes, mostly brownstones, that look much as they did in the 19th century. For a glimpse of a virtual time capsule of domestic Victoriana, visit the 1859 Gibson House Museum (137 Beacon St. +1 617 267 6338. May-Oct. Wed.-Sun., Nov.-April Sat.-Sun.; Adm. fee).