Category Archives: Historical Sites

Allegedly Haunted Places in the Philippines

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Haunted locations are part of Philippine ghostlore which is a form of folklore.  One is located in La Union (Pindangan Church Ruins), four in Baguio City (Hyatt Terraces Hotel, SM City Baguio, Diplomat Hotel and Laperal White House) in Benguet, one in Pampanga (Clark Air Base), one in Mountain Province (Sagada), one off Cavite (Corregidor Island) and the rest in Metro Manila. Though I haven’t really experienced any paranormal activity in these sites, probably because I don’t have a third eye, many others have.

My wife Grace and I stayed in the 12-storey, 303 -room HYATT TERRACES HOTEL for three days in April 1986.   Located on a pine tree-clad hill along South Drive, near Camp John Hay, the Hyatt Terraces Hotel was said to be the grandest hotel outside Metro Manila. At 4:26 PM, on July 16, 1990, a little over 4 years after our stay, a magnitude 7.8 earthquake struck Luzon, killing 1,621 people.  Again, I happened to be in the city, with my family and some relatives, on the day of the devastating 1990 Luzon Earthquake but were lucky enough to have left the city before lunch. In Baguio City, 28 buildings collapsed during the earthquake.  One of the most prominent buildings destroyed was the Hyatt Terraces Hotel when the central wing’s terraced front collapsed, like an accordion, onto the hotel lobby, killing 98 employees and guests. In the aftermath of that tragic earthquake, many of those listed as “missing” were never found and many say that there are still bodies in the debris of the hotel site and the spirits of these victims have never moved on. Its tragic history has surely contributed to its terrifying reputation.

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Hyatt Terraces Hotel circa 1986 

Today, its old fountain and a gated fence are all that remains of the still undeveloped site of the Hyatt Terraces. Now said to be haunted, strange lights and ghostly apparitions are said to have been seen around the empty lot.  There was once a bus stop in front of the gate and motorists, driving along South Drive, have told stories of strange apparitions of the spirits of dead employees there. Some passersby in the area at night have also heard cries for help and seen figures against the spotlight that illuminates the area. In fact, for those driving along South Drive, the directed procedure is to honk your horn when passing beside the former Hyatt location, lest they run over a spirit crossing the street. Aromatic smells, coming out of nowhere, are also consistently reported.

SM CITY BAGUIO (a favorite shopping venue of mine while in the city), opened in 2003, was erected on the site where the former 4-storey, wood-framed, 423-room Pines Hotel used to overlook Session Road. On October 23, 1984, at about 11:30 PM, a 6-hour blaze gutted this government-owned hotel. To escape the thick smoke and flames, most of the dead (17 were killed, including 4 Americans) and 46 injured leaped from windows of this American Colonial-style, hillside hotel while others were seen slipping from rescue ropes.

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SM City Baguio

Today, mall visitors have reportedly seen faces in bathroom mirrors that would not be there a second later. One patron, in the ladies’ room, gave a photographic description of a bloodied fireman (The Baguio City Fire Department lost four firefighters in the blaze).

The MANILA FILM CENTER had its beginnings in 1981 when then First Lady Imelda R. Marcos started the Manila International Film Festival (MIFF). Slated to start on January 18, 1982, 4,000 laborers working, round the clock, in 3 shifts in the rush to complete the project  in time for the MIFF. Tragedy struck, on November 17, 1981, shortly before 3 AM, when scaffolding and wooden support for part of the second basement collapsed, causing at least 169 graveyard shift workers to fall to the orchestra below and be buried or trapped under wet, quick-drying cement.

Check out “The Urban Legend That is the Manila Film Center“

Manila Film Center

Rather than halt construction to rescue survivors and retrieve the bodies of dead workmen, cement ordered to be poured into the orchestra, entombing the fallen workmen, some of them still alive. The MIFF was to last another year but, instead of quality films, pornographic films were shown in an effort to gain a larger audience and, perhaps, to make up for the first festival’s financial losses. Later, in 1984, I would watch the premiere of Tikoy Aguiluz’ startling, controversial but highly-acclaimed first full-length film “Boatman” (Ang Bangkero), in its uncut version, at this very venue. Today, it is the venue of the Amazing Show, a Las Vegas-like song and dance extravaganza  where all the performers are transgenders.

The place, said to be haunted as well as cursed, is incredibly spooky. Various ghostly manifestations were reported within the building on the site, including poltergeist activity, apparitions; mysterious hearing of cries and moans; bleeding walls; and hands sticking out from under doors. The ghosts of those who died are said to roam the area, looking for live bodies to possess and take over as their own.

The UNIVERSITY OF THE PHILIPPINES Diliman Campus , where my wife  and I graduated (with a degree of B.S. Architecture) has had a long history of alleged haunting, with a lot of paranormal hot spots. The Wilfrido Ma. Guerrero Theater, at the second floor of Palma Hall, is the residence of a  ghost named “Marisa,”  said to be a famous star of the university’s theater productions back in the 1970s who was eventually overshadowed by younger, more talented newcomers. Overwhelmed by grief and jealousy, she killed herself, in the most dramatic way possible, by hanging herself onstage, in costume. She’s known for making her presence felt by haunting the stage, the rest room and her old dressing room, joining the chorus during performances and, sometimes, showing up onstage.

Benitez Hall

Benitez Hall, home to the College of Education and one of the oldest buildings on campus and, naturally, has gained the reputation as one of the most haunted. A ghost, with blood red eyes, is said to wanders the halls. Kalayaan Hall, a residence hall exclusively for freshmen, has a ghost of a woman who supposedly shows up in the mirror facing the stairs to the second floor of the girls’ wing.  Abelardo Hall, home of the College of Music, is said to be haunted by the ghost of a girl vocalizing, or playing the piano or the gamelan in the middle of the night.

Melchor Hall

The lights on the top floor of Melchor Hall, the College of Engineering Building, where our college was then housed (the college now has its own building), was, for some reason, never turned off, the reason being that, sometimes, the lights there inexplicably turn to red. Many of my classmates have also seen a “Lady in White” come in and out of the corridor walls

The PINDANGAN CHURCH RUINS, the picturesque, roofless remains of a small vine-covered brick and coral church (the first in City of San Fernando, La Union) which I visited way back in 2004, is located 500 m. off the National Highway, near Camp Oscar Florendo. The nuns of the Carmelite Monastery of the Holy Family are the caretakers of these church ruins.

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Pindangan Church Ruins

It is said to be the home of the sole ghost of a headless stabbed priest who prowls the night, either carrying his severed head or searching for his head. Some have also reported hearing his head calling out for his body to find it. The wind here is known to whisper strange malediction to those that disrespect the location.  My picture of the site was featured in an episode of “Ang Pinaka: Scary Places in the Philippines,” aired during the 6:30 PM GMA News TV last October 22, Sunday.

The University of Santo Tomas, where my daughter Cheska graduated (with a degree of B.S. Medical Technology), served as an internment camp during the World War II.  Many prisoners died here of starvation and illness, and is reported by believers to be haunted. An alleged mass grave is located near the UST Museum.  One of the restroom cubicles in the Main Building is also haunted by a female student who hung herself.

Main Building of the University of Sto. Tomas

Other paranormal hot spots are the UST Hospital (haunted by a ghost wearing a red tag, which only corpses in the morgue section wear), St. Raymund’s Building (the comfort rooms on the first floor are haunted by the ghost of a girl was said to have committed suicide because she was bullied for her physical appearance), the Albertus Magnus Building (the Conservatory of Music where the piano is heard playing by itself) and Benavides Park (a.k.a. Lover’s Lane) where, at past midnight, students are greeted by a man wearing a Dominican habit who would later disappear (Sometimes, unfortunate couples hanging out in the park’s benches at night, have also heard a disembodied voice singing mass songs).

  • CLARK AIR BASE, being an American military installation, experienced major bombing from the Japanese during World War II. There are a number of reminders of that bloody past that still exist today and these locations are some of the most haunted in the Philippines.

Clark Museum

The area around the abandoned Clark Air Base Hospital has been rendered off limits to everyone as inhabitants have witnessed apparitions of violent spirits and heard mysterious voices.

Clark Cemetery

Early morning joggers have also reported hearing party music and excited talk coming from inside the obviously empty Home Plate canteen.  At the Clark Museum, the ghost of a serviceman who committed suicide by hanging himself still haunts the place.

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  • SAGADA, in Mountain Province, has an authentic culture dealing with death, free of Western influence. The caves of the town, in particular, are rumored to be site of ghostly mischief. According to the locals, whispery voices are heard and wayward shadows or apparitions are seen among the Hanging Coffins as well as graves up in the Echo Valley.

Hanging Coffins

The Igorots, however, generally say that if you show some respect and leave the coffins alone, you’ll make it out of the valley unscathed. At Sumaguing Cave, locals believe that the cave is haunted by the spirits of their ancestors.  I have explored this cave twice and, each time, I always felt an otherworldly feeling as I entered.

Check out “Back to Sumaging Cave“

Historic CORREGIOR ISLAND, an island of history and heroism at the entrance of Manila Bay, has played a major role during World War II. Many Filipino and American soldiers died in its defense. During the liberation, the Japanese defenders here committed suicide via harakiri, jumping into the sea or blowing themselves up instead of capture or surrender. The ghosts of Corregidor’s World War II dead were also joined by Muslim soldiers who, in 1968,  were training in Corregidor for a  planned invasion of Sabah in Malaysia but were exterminated during the infamous March 18, 1968 Jabidah Massacre.

Hospital Ruins

At the Hospital Ruins. tourists who passed by have heard footsteps, rumblings of normal hospital activities, and wails of people.

One of the laterals of Malinta Tunnel. Notice the orbs?

Around the bunker area inside the Malinta Tunnel, shouts of people grimacing in pain can also be heard. Witnesses have also reported hearing eerie sounds and seeing a spirit near by. Manifestations would also appear in photos and videos. 

 

Check out “Ghost Hunting in Corregidor“

In INTRAMUROS,  where the historical and the supernatural intersect, the possibility of ghost sightings in the oldest part of Manila is real. It attracts ghosts and ghost hunters in search of kapres, white ladies, demonic spirits, and other entities. In the dying days of World War II, Japanese soldiers reportedly massacred men, women and children in Baluarte de Dilao.

Baluarte de San Diego

Baluarte de San Diego, known as the break-up park for being the site where many a relationship met their demise, is where a crying White Lady often makes appearances.

Manila Cathedral

The Aduana (Customs House) Building, which housed several government offices, is the most haunted building in Intramuros. Many people believe its demonic entities takes lives.  At Plaza Mexico, there have been sightings of reapers, or hooded figures who chase after wandering spirits. Many of the retail and commercial spaces along the wall of Puerta de Sta. Isabel have now been abandoned, supposedly because of numerous reports of hauntings. An ordinary-looking tree, along Arzobispo Street, has earned the gruesome nickname the Suicide Tree after a student, supposedly from Mapua Institute of Technology, killed herself by hanging.  Headless priests supposedly make regular appearances at the Manila Cathedral.

Fort Santiago

Fort Santiago, where National Hero Jose Rizal was jailed, was used by the Japanese as a prison and torture chamber during World War II.  It is imprinted with the agony and sufferings of its many prisoners and is now also extremely haunted with ghosts of prisoners who drowned in its underground dungeons.

 

Check out “Revisiting Fort Santiago“

 

According to believers, the LAPERAL WHITE HOUSE, in Baguio City, in Beguet, is haunted, with stories of sightings of a little girl (said to be the three-and-a-half year old child of the owner who was killed while running, across the street, towards her nanny) standing motionless on the third step of the staircase fronting the house; a woman (said to be the nanny who killed herself in one of the bedrooms) looking out the third floor glass windows; and a white figure coming down, from the attic, down to the front entrance.

During World War II, the basement of the house was used by the Japanese as a garrison where, if stories are to believed, many were brutally tortured and executed, including members of the Laperal family.  Don Roberto survived the war but accidentally slipped, and fell to his death, from the stairs in front of the house.  He, as well as ghosts of family members, the torture and execution victims, as well as Japanese soldiers (seen in the upper bedrooms), still haunt the house.  These spirits are believed to violently push and scratch visitors to the place.

If ghosts, spirits and the paranormal tickle your fancy, then the so famously haunted, eerie, bleak and abandoned DIPLOMAT HOTEL, considered as one of the most haunted places in Baguio City and the Philippines, is definitely for you.  Even since this hotel was open, employees and guests would report hearing strange and eerie noises coming from the building and seeing headless ghosts, with their heads on a platter, constantly roaming the hallways. 

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However, even after the hotel shut down, those sightings would continue.  The people living nearby were often disturbed at night by sounds coming from the Dominican Hill. They would hear banging of doors and windows, clattering of dishes, voices of screaming people who seem to be agonizing, as well as rattling and clanging sounds alternating with total silence.  Adding to the eerie atmosphere is the derelict condition of the hotel.

St. Patrick’s Cathedral (New York City, U.S.A.)

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St. Patrick’s Cathedral

Our third, and final, mass in the U.S. was held at the decorated  Gothic Revival-style Cathedral of St. Patrick (commonly called St. Patrick’s Cathedral), the seat of the archbishop of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York (created in 1808 and made into an archdiocese by Pope Pius IX on July 19, 1850). Held on the first Friday of July, this was our second visit to the cathedral (the first was 13 days ago) and we attended this mass to pray for a safe journey back to Manila, our flight back being just 8 hours away.

The cathedral is located on the east side of Fifth Avenue, between 50th and 51st Streets in Midtown Manhattan. Directly across the street is the Rockefeller Center and it specifically faces the Atlas statue. A prominent landmark of New York City, the land on which the present cathedral sits was purchased in 1810 and it was designed by James Renwick, Jr.  In 1976, the cathedral and its associated buildings were declared a National Historic Landmark.

Here’s some interesting trivia regarding St. Patrick’s Cathedral:

The 100.6 m. high spire

St. Patrick’s Cathedral currently has two pipe organs, both built by the firm of George Kilgen & Son of St. Louis, Missouri. They consist of more than 9,000 pipes, 206 stops, 150 ranks and 10 divisions.

The cathedral interior

The Gallery Organ,  located in the Choir Gallery below the Rose Window over the Fifth Avenue entrance and in the Triforium, near the South Transept, was edicated on February 11, 1930. It took 3 years to build at a cost of US$250,000. Designed by Robert J. Reiley, consulting architect of the Cathedral, it has one of the nation’s most glorious wood facades and is adorned with angels and Latin inscriptions. Containing 7,855 pipes, ranging in length from 32 ft. to 1/2 inch, its longest pipes run horizontally across the North and South Triforia.

The pulpit

The Chancell Organ,  located in the North Ambulatory next to the Chapel of St. Joseph, was dedicated on January 30, 1928. It has 1,480 pipes; located on the opposite side of the Ambulatory, diagonally across from the console, and is encased in a carved oak screen ornamented with Gothic elements of design and symbolism.

Stained glass windows

Here is a timeline of the cathedral’s construction:

  • On August 15, 1858, the cornerstone was laid, just south of the diocese’s orphanage.
  • Work began that same year, was halted during the Civil War,and resumed in 1865.
  • In 1878, the cathedral was completed and was dedicated on May 25, 1879.
  • In 1879, the cathedral’s first organ, composed of 4 manuals with 51 stops and 56 ranks, was built by George Jardine & Son, one of New York’s most distinguished organ builders, and installed.
  • In 1880, the archbishop’s house and rectory were, both by James Renwick, Jr.
  • In 1880, an organ by J.H. & C.S. Odell (then also from New York City), composed of 2 manuals with 20 stops and 23 ranks, was installed in the chancel.
  • An adjacent school, no longer in existence, was opened in 1882.
  • The spires were added in 1888, and at 329 feet and 6 inches (100.4 meters) were the tallest structures in New York City and the second highest in the United States.
  • From 1901 to 1906, an addition on the east, including a Lady chapel (designed by Charles T. Matthews), was constructed.
  • Between 1912 and 1930, the Lady Chapel’s stained-glass windows were made by English stained glass artist and designer Paul Vincent Woodroffe.
  • In 1927 and 1931, the cathedral was renovated, the sanctuary was enlarged and two great organs were installed.
  • In the late 1930s and early 1940s, the cathedral’s main altar area was renovated under the guidance of Archbishop (and later cardinal) Francis Spellman. The previous high altar and reredoswere removed (now located in the University Church of Fordham University). New items include the sanctuary bronze baldachin and the rose stained glass window.
  • In the 1940s and 1950s tonal changes were made on the two organs.
  • In the 1970s and 1980s, additional renovations were made on the organs by Jack Steinkampf of Yonkers, New York, particularly in the revoicing of flutes and reeds, and the addition of the Trumpette en Chamade.
  • In the 1980s, the altar was further renovated, under the direction of Cardinal John Joseph O’Connor. To be more visible to the congregation, a stone altar was built from sections of the side altars and added to the middle of the sanctuary. However, in 2013, this altar was removed.
  • In 1993, the organs underwent major restoration. new consoles for both the Gallery and Chancel Organs to replace the original ones (which had deteriorated beyond repair) were acquired. Robert Turner (of Hacienda Heights, California) constructed twin, 5-manual consoles while Solid State Logic, Ltd. of England designed and engineered the combination action. Fiber-optic wiring were used to enable both consoles to control the Gallery, Chancel and Nave Organs at the same time. In 1993, the Gallery console was finished and installed in time for Christmas Midnight Mass. In early 1994, the Chancel console was installed. In 1995, the entire Chancel Organ was restored
  • On September 15, 2007, the 10th anniversary of the organ’s renovation, the organs were blessed. The Bicentennial Concert Series was also inaugurated with a performance James E. Goettsche, the Vatican Organist.
  • In 2012, an extensive US$177 million restoration of the cathedral was begun and lasted 3 years. The exterior marble was cleaned, the stained glass windows were repaired and the ceiling was painted, among many restorations. On September 17, 2015, the restoration was completed before Pope Francis visited the cathedral on September 24 and 25, 2015.

The cathedral ceiling

Beneath the high altar is a crypt in which the nine past deceased Archbishops of New York as well as notable Catholic figures that served the Archdiocese are entombed. They include:

Plaque commemorating Pope Paul VI’s October 4. 1965 visit

The galeros of Cardinals McCloskey, Farley, Hayes and Spellman (also worn by Pope Pius XII, as Cardinal Eugenio Pacelli, until the latter’s election to the papacy at the 1939 Papal conclave) are located high above the crypt at the back of the sanctuary. In 1965, the ceremony of the consistory was revised by Pope Paul VI and therefore no galero was presented to Cardinal Cooke or any of his successors.

Plaque commemorating Pope John Paul II’s second Papal visit

Requiem Masses were said at the cathedral for the following notable people:

Special memorial Masses were also held at the cathedral for the following:

The cathedral or parts of it were featured in a number of movies, TV shows, songs and literary works:

  • The climax of Beneath the Planet of the Apes (1970), where Taylor destroyed Earth with the Alpha–Omega bomb, were set in the cathedral’s underground ruins. Centuries earlier, mutant humans surviving a nuclear holocaust founded a religion on the bomb (later depicted in Battle for the Planet of the Apes). They reconsecrated the cathedral to their new religion and installed the bomb in front of the organ pipes in place of the crucifix.
  • The TV show Futurama, Fry, Leela, et al. are visiting the sewer mutants beneath the ruins of Old New York and Fry sticks his head in the cathedral, sees the bomb, and says, “So you guys worship an unexploded atomic bomb?” A mutant replies, “Not really, it’s mostly a Christmas and Easter thing.”
  • Nelson DeMille‘s 1981 novel, Cathedral, concerning a fictional seizure and threatened destruction of the cathedral by members of the Irish Republican Army on St. Patrick’s Day, is mostly set in and around the cathedral and details of the cathedral’s structure contribute important elements to the plot.
  • The cathedral is also featured in the 1990 film Gremlins 2: The New Batch.
  • In Giannina Braschi‘s novel, Empire of Dreams (1994), the ringing of the church bells at the cathedral marks a pastoral revolution in New York City.
  • The cathedral was referenced in the song Not A Love Story by musical-theatre songwriters Kait Kerrigan and Brian Lowdermilk. 

The author and son Jandy at St. Patrick’s Cathedral

St. Patrick’s Catheral: 5th Ave, New York, NY 10022, USA.

Bell in Hand Tavern (Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.A.)

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Bell in Hand Tavern

The Bell in Hand Tavern, located in the heart of Government Center, next to Faneuil Hall Marketplace, was established by Jimmy Wilson, Boston’s last known town crier who, for 50 years,  reported on everything from the Boston Tea Party to the birth of the nation.

The author (right) with son Jandy in front of the tavern

Upon retirement, Jimmy opened a tavern in 1795 at the Exchange Coffee House in Congress Square along Elm St. (where City Hall is now) and called it, appropriately enough, The Bell and Hand. Daniel Webster, Paul Revere, and William McKinley were known to have frequented the tavern.

The historical plaque posted outside the tavern

Though touted as “America’s oldest continuously operating pub,” this bar, currently managed by Eddie and Bryna Kaplan, is housed in two floors of a three-storey building that only dates back to 1844. The sculpture of hand holding the bell dominates the middle of the bar as you entered from either Marshall Street on the right or Union Street on the left.

The circa 1844 building housing the tavern

This watering hole features typical bar fare and has five bars, karaoke on Tuesday, and live music nightly.  The uniquely designed rooms, all having a character of its own, are used for private as well as corporate functions. The interiors consist of exposed brick and traditional wood.

The tavern’s interior

Bell in Hand Tavern: 45 Union St.,  Boston, Massachusetts 02108.  Open Sundays – Thursdays 11:30 AM – midnight, and Fridays and Saturdays, 11:30 AM – 2 AM. Tel: (617) 227-2098.  Website: www.bellinhand.com. E-mail: info@bellinhandtavern.com. Coordinates:   42°21’41″N   71°3’25″W.

How to Get There:  Green/Orange Line to Haymarket

Copp’s Hill Burying Ground (Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.A.)

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Copp’s Hill Burying Ground

The historic, 12,000 sq. m. (3 acre) Copp’s Hill Burying Ground, the second (and largest) cemetery in Boston (second only to the King’s Chapel Burying Ground founded in 1630), was founded on February 20, 1659. Originally named “North Burying Ground,” it is situated on land (where a wind-powered grinding mill once stood) on Copp’s Hill (named after early settler and local cobbler William Copp whose children were buried here in the 1660s) bought by the town from John Baker and Daniel Turell.

Now named “Copp’s Hill Burying Ground” (although often referred to as “Copp’s Hill Burial Ground”), it is the final resting place of over 10,000 people (buried between 1660 and 1968) and contains more than 2,200 marked graves (60% of which date to before the American Revolution), including the remains of various notable Bostonians (29 Boston Tea Party participants and 43 Revolutionary War veterans) from the Colonial Era into the 1850s.

On January 7, 1708, the cemetery was extended when the town bought additional land from Judge Samuel Sewall and his wife Hannah (part of a  pasture which she inherited from her father, John Hull, master of the mint).  On June 17, 1775, because of its height and panoramic vista, the British used this vantage point on the southwest side to establish earthworks and train their North Battery cannons on Charlestown during the Battle of Bunker Hill. Legend has it that British troops used gravestones for target practice (many have interpreted the round scars of the Capt. Daniel Malcolm grave marker to be the result of musket balls being shot at close range).

On December 18, 1809, it was further extended when the town bought, for US$10,000, additional land from Benjamin Weld and his wife Nabby after they had bought it from Jonathan Merry, who had used it as pasture.  Ten years later, Charles Wells (later mayor of Boston) bought a small parcel of land from John Bishop of Medford which he used as a cemetery. Later, this was merged with the adjacent North Burying Ground. It is no longer possible to discern the original boundaries of the cemetery because of this complicated history.

Along the Snow Hill Street side, in a potter’s field, are many unmarked graves of more than 1,000 free  African Americans who lived in the questionably named “New Guinea” community at the foot of the hill. In addition, there are 227 tombs, most of which bear inscriptions that are still legible. In addition, the grave markers and their epitaphs of thousands of artisans and tradesmen buried here reflect the nature of the 17th and 18th century economy of the North End.

Prince Hall Memorial

Reputedly, the oldest grave stone is that of Grace Berry, wife of Thomas Berry, who according to the inscription, died May 17, 1625 (5 years before Boston was settled). The well preserved stone is of old Welsh slate with quite distinct carving; the edges are ornamented with curves and at the top are carved two cherubs and the angel of death.

Grace Berry Tomb

The tomb erected by Isaac Dupee, perhaps the most ornate monument in the ground, bears a beautifully carved coat-of-arms, together with a tribute in verse.

Isaac Dupee Tomb

The town continued to maintain the site intermittently but, by 1840, the cemetery had fallen into near disuse and, by 1878, it was badly neglected. When the Freedom Trail  created in 1951, the cemetery was not an official stop but it has since been added and is now much-frequented by tourists and photographers. In 1974, the site was added to the National Register of Historic Places. Now owned by the City of Boston Parks and Recreation Department, it is part of the Historic Burying Grounds Initiative.

Check out “Freedom Trail“

Michael Malcom Grave stone

Notable persons buried here include:

Copp’s Hill Burying Ground: 21 Hull St. cor. Snowhill St., Boston, 02113 Massachusetts, U.S.A. Tel: 617-635-4505.  Open daily. 10 AM  – 5 PM.

Paul Revere House (Boston, Massachusetts, USA)

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Paul Revere House

The Paul Revere House, the colonial home (for about 20 years) of famous legendary American patriot, famous “Midnight Rider,” silversmith, businessman and entrepreneur Paul Revere during the time of the American Revolution, is the oldest remaining structure in downtown Boston and also the only official Freedom Trail historic site that is a home.

Check out “Freedom Trail“

It occupies the former site of the Second Church of Boston’s parsonage, home to Increase Mather and Cotton Mather, which was destroyed in the Great Fire of 1676. The original three-story house, built about 1680, was first owned by Robert Howard, a wealthy a wealthy Boston slave merchant. Howard’s L-shaped townhouse contained spacious rooms and its exterior would have been enhanced by features such as a second-floor overhang and casement windows.

From 1770 to 1800, Paul Revere owned this house.  Although he and his family may have lived elsewhere for periods in the 1780s and 1790s, they lived there during the American Revolution – the most transformative and uncertain era of their generation. The rear chimney (c. 1790) including the kitchen (that visitors see in the first room they enter) were believed to have been added during the Revere occupancy.

After Revere sold the house in 1800, the home became a sailor’s boarding house for many years in the nineteenth century and, by the turn of the twentieth century, the old house had become a tenement with the ground floor remodeled for use as shops. At various times, it became a candy store, cigar factory, bank and vegetable and fruit business. In 1902, to prevent demolition, John P. Reynolds Jr. (Revere’s great-grandson) purchased the building and its restoration took place under the guidance of Joseph Everett Chandler, an architect and historic preservationist. 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.

Around the middle of the eighteenth century, the Paul Revere House went through two major and substantial renovation processes.  First, to bring the house in line with the Georgian architectural style  becoming prevalent at that time, the roofline facing the street was raised substantially.   Second, a two-story lean-to was added in the ell between the two 17th-century portions of the house. In 1907–1908, restorers returned the roofline to its original pitch, albeit without a gable (giving rise to a commonly held misconception that the attic had been removed), and the lean-to was removed.

On January 20, 1961, it was designated as a National Historic Landmark and, on October 15, 1966, added to the National Register of Historic Places. It is now operated as a nonprofit museum by the Paul Revere Memorial Association.

The main block of the three-storey house consists of four structural bays demarcated by heavy framing posts and overhead beams, all typical of early Massachusetts Bay timber construction. Within this main block, the larger ground floor room is dominated by its chimney bay and adjoining lobby entrance. As the Revere House was set quite close to neighbors, its double casement windows were installed in the rear elevation rather than the more common placement in a gable.  The two-storey extension, behind the Revere House, was unlike some contemporary Boston houses which had separate kitchen buildings. Its heavy beams, large fireplaces, and absence of interior hallways are typical of colonial living arrangements. Several pieces of furniture, believed to have belonged to the Revere family, are found at the two upstairs chambers.

Despite the renovation (which returned the house to its conjectured appearance around 1700), 90% of the structure (including two doors, three window frames, and portions of the flooring, foundation, inner wall material and raftering) is original to 1680.  However, none of the window glass is original.

In December 2016, the Paul Revere Memorial Association opened, after a purchase in 2007 and US$4 million in renovations, the new, 3,500 sq. ft. Visitor and Education Center, connected to the house by an elevated walkway.  For the first time, the renovations permitted wheelchair access to the second floor of the house. The education center provided additional exhibit space on Revere’s Midnight Ride, his work as a silversmith and his industrial work after the American Revolution.  Classrooms and a library also allowed for expanded research and educational outreach.

Immediately adjacent and across the entry courtyard (the original site of the John Barnard House) is the brick Pierce–Hichborn House.  Built about 1711 as an early Georgian house, it is also operated as a nonprofit museum by the Paul Revere Memorial Association.

Paul Revere House: 19 North Square, Boston, Massachusetts 0213.  Tel: 617-523-2338. Fax: 617-523-1775. E-mail: staff@paulreverehouse.org. Website: www.paulreverehouse.org. Admission: Adults (US$5.00), Seniors and College Students (US$4.50) and Children – ages 5-17 (US$1.00). Open Daily – Summer: April 15 – October 31 (9:30 AM to 5:15 PM), Winter: November 1 – April 14 (9:30 AM to 4:15 PM). It is closed on Mondays during January, February and March as well as Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s Day. The first floor of house is accessible via the courtyard ramps while the second floor is accessed by taking the elevator in the visitor center and then connecting to the house via the walkway.

Massachusetts State House (Boston, U.S.A.)

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The Massachusetts State House (also known as the Massachusetts Statehouse or the New State House),  with its instantly recognizable golden dome, is situated on 27,000 sq. m. (6.7 acres), covering two city blocks, of land on top of the Beacon Hill neighborhood of Boston.  Located opposite the Boston Common, it is the state capitol and seat of government for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

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Massachusetts State House

Housing the Massachusetts General Court (state legislature) and the offices of the Governor of Massachusetts, the building was designed by architect Charles Bulfinch (for its design, he made use of two existing buildings in London: William Chambers‘s Somerset House, and James Wyatt‘s Pantheon).  Considered a masterpiece of Federal architecture and among Bulfinch’s finest works, the building, built on land once owned by John Hancock (Massachusetts’s first elected governor), has repeatedly been enlarged since.

The author at the Bullfinch Entrance

Here is the historical timeline of the building:

  • On July 4, 1795, the Masonic cornerstone ceremony, presided by Paul Revere (Deputy Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts) took place.
  • It was completed in January 1798 at a cost of $133,333 (more than five times the budget). Before its completion, Massachusetts’s government house was the Old State House on what is now Washington Street.
  • In 1802, the leaking original wood dome was covered with copper sheathing by Paul Revere‘s Revere Copper Company. Revere was the first American to roll copper successfully into sheets in a commercially viable manner.
  • In 1895, the original building was expanded with an annex designed in the Italian Renaissance Revival style by Bostonian architect Charles Brigham.
  • In 1917, the east and west wings, designed by architects Sturgis, Bryant, Chapman & Andrews, were completed.
  • In 1874, the dome was first painted gray and then light yellow before being gilded with 23 karat gold leaf.
  • 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.
  • On December 19, 1960, the building was designated as a National Historic Landmark for its architectural significance.
  • On October 15, 1966, it was added to the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP).
  • In 1997, at a cost of more than $300,000, the dome was re-gilded, in 23k gold.

The golden dome

The building’s red brick walls, white pillars and trim, and golden dome catch the sun in every season. The dome is topped with a gilded, wooden pine cone which symbolizes both the importance of Boston’s lumber industry, during Early Colonial times, and of the state of Maine, which was a district of the Commonwealth when the Bulfinch section of the building was completed.

General Hooker Entrance

In front of the building, on the grounds below the central colonnade,  are the equestrian statue of American Civil War General Joseph Hooker  (done by renowned Massachusetts sculptor Daniel Chester French) as well as those of orator Daniel Webster (sculpted in bronze by Hiram Powers in 1858) and educator and statesman Horace Mann (dating from 1865, it was sculpted by Emma Stebbins).

Equestrian statue of Gen. Joseph Hooker

On the west wing plaza is the statue of former US President John F. Kennedy (designed by Isabel McIlvain, it was dedicated on May 29, 1990) while on the lawns below the two State House wings are the somber statues of Anne Hutchinson (sculpted by Cyrus Edwin Dallin in 1922) and early Boston Quaker Mary Dyer, both religious martyrs of Colonial days,. Inside the building is a statue of William Francis Bartlett, an officer in the American Civil War.

Statue of Mary Dyer

Massachusetts State House: 24 Beacon Street, Boston, Massachusetts 02108. Tel: (617) 727-3676. Open Mondays to Fridays, 8 AM – 6 PM.  Coordinates: 42°21′29.4″N 71°3′49.3″W.

King’s Chapel (Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.A.)

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King’s Chapel

The King’s Chapel, proudly one of the 16 historic sites (the fifth stop) on Boston’s Freedom Trail, is housed in what was formerly called the “Stone Chapel,” an 18th-century structure. The chapel, an independent Christian unitarian congregation affiliated with the Unitarian Universalist Association and the first Anglican church in colonial New England and overwhelmingly Puritan Boston, was founded on June 15, 1686 by Royal Governor Sir Edmund Andros  during the reign of King James II. Notable members and attendees included George Washington, Paul Revere, Thomas Hutchinson, Charles Sumner, Charles Bulfinch, Oliver Wendell Holmes  and many more.

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The exterior columns of chapel colonnade

The chapel was originally a wooden church built in 1688. The present larger stone (made with Quincy granite) chapel building, started in 1749 (its cornerstone was laid on August 11) and completed in 1754, was built around the wooden church.

One of the finest designs of the noted colonial architect Peter Harrison (dubbed as “America’s first architect”) of Newport, when the stone church was completed, the wooden church was disassembled, removed through the windows of the new church and the  wood shipped to Lunenburg, Nova Scotia where it was used to construct St. John’s Anglican Church.

National Historic Landmark Plaque

During the American Revolution, the chapel sat vacant or a few short months as Loyalist families left for Nova Scotia and England, but reopened, following the loss of its minister (the Rev. Henry Caner), for the funeral of Gen. Joseph Warren who was killed at the Battle of Bunker Hill (June 17, 1775). In 1782, those who remained reopened the church. In 1960, the chapel was designated a National Historic Landmark  for its architectural significance. On Halloween night of 2001, the church was destroyed by fire but has since been rebuilt.

The chapel’s magnificent interior

The chapel bell, cast in England and hung in 1772, cracked in 1814 and was recast by Paul Revere (the largest bell cast by the Revere foundry and the last one cast by Paul Revere himself) and rehung. Ever since, it has been rung during Sunday morning services.

Plaque commemorating congregation members who died during the American Civil War

The exterior columns of the colonnade (completed after the American Revolution), which appear to be stone, are, in fact, wood painted in a cost-saving trompe-l’oeil.

Plaque commemorating congregation members who died during World War I and World War II

The magnificent interior, considered the finest example of Georgian church architecture in North America, features wooden columns which have Corinthian capitals hand-carved, in 1758, by William Burbeck and his apprentices.

The wooden columns with hand-carved Corinthian capitals

The current uniform appearance of the seating, in box pews, dates from the 1920s. The pews were mostly originally owned by the member families who paid pew rent and decorated the pews according to their personal tastes.

The box pews

The chapel first organ was acquired in 1723. The present organ, the chapel’s sixth, was built by C.B. Fisk in in 1964. Decorated with miters and carvings from the Bridge organ of 1756, it is slightly below average in size compared with most mid-1900s European chapel organs.

Within the King’s Chapel is a monument to London merchant Samuel Vassall, brother of the colonist William Vassall (who frequently clashed with John Winthrop, and eventually removed himself to Scituate, Massachusetts), a patentee of the Massachusetts Bay Company (also named a member of the company in its 1629 Royal Charter), an early deputy of the Massachusetts Bay Colony and a Member of Parliament (1640–1641) representing London.

Monument to London merchant Samuel Vassall

Kings Chapel: 58 Tremont Street cor. School Street, Boston, Massachusetts, MA 02108,  U.S.A. Open daily, 10 AM – 4:30 PM.  Tours: 10 AM to 5 PM, Mondays through Saturdays; and 1:30 PM to 5 PM on Sundays. Tel:+1 617-523-1749. Website: www.kings-chapel.org.

Boston Common (Massachusetts, USA)

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Boston Common

The 20-hectare (50-acre) Boston Common (also known as the Common), a central public park in downtown Boston, is bounded by Tremont Street (139 Tremont St.), Park Street, Beacon Street, Charles Street, and Boylston Street.  The Common is part of the Emerald Necklace of parks and parkways that extend from the Common south to Franklin Park in Jamaica Plain, Roxbury and Dorchester.

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The southern end of Boston’s Freedom Trail, a visitors’ center for all of Boston is located on the Tremont Street side of the park. This public park, forming the southern foot of Beacon Hill, is managed by the Boston Park Department and cared for by Friends of the Public Garden, a private advocacy group which also provides additional funding for maintenance and special events.

Here are some interesting trivia regarding this park:

Boston Common originally included the entire block northeast of where Park Street is now, bounded by Beacon Street and Tremont Street. In 1660, the Granary Burying Ground was established on this land as part of the Common but, in 1662, the land was separated from the Common.  The southwest portion of the block, including the Granary and a house of correction, was taken for public buildings and the north portion of the block was used for housing.

The Site of Fox Hill Plaque – erected in 1925 to the southern pillar of the Charles Street gate to mark the site of one of the most prominent features of the early Common.

Here is a historical timeline of the park:

  • In 1634, the Puritan founders of the Massachusetts Bay Colony bought the land from William Blaxton (often given the modernized spelling “Blackstone”), the first European settler of Boston.
  • During the 1630s, it was used by many families as a cow pasture.
  • Before the American Revolutionary War, the Common was used as a camp by the British.  From here they left for the Battle of Lexington and Concord.
  • Up until 1817, it was used for public hangings(most of which were from a large oak which was replaced with a gallows in 1769).
  • On June 1, 1660, for repeatedly defying a law that banned Quakers from the Colony, Quaker Mary Dyer (one of the four Quakers, known as the Boston martyrs, executed on the Common) was hanged there by the Puritans.
  • On May 19, 1713, in reaction to a food shortage in the city, 200 citizens rioted on the Common, later attacking ships and warehouses of wealthy merchant Andrew Belcher, who was exporting grain to the Caribbean for higher profits. During the riot, the lieutenant governor was shot.
  • Since 1728, Tremont Mall, the first recreational promenade (an imitation of  James’s Park in London), had been in place.
  • In 1804, the bordering Sentry Street was renamed Park Place (later to be called Park Street), acknowledging the reality of its becoming a park (renaming the Common as Washington Park was also proposed).
  • In 1830, Mayor Harrison Gray Otis formally banned cows from grazing on it. True park status seems to have emerged during that time.
  • By 1836, an ornamental iron fence fully enclosed the Common and its five perimeter malls or recreational promenades.
  • In 1913 and 1986, prehistoric sites were discovered on the Common indicating Native American presence in the area as far back as 8,500 years ago
  • In 1977, the Common was designated as a Boston Landmark by the Boston Landmarks Commission.
  • On February 27, 1987, it was declared a U.S. National Historic Landmark.
  • On August 27, 2007, two teenagers were shot on the Common (one of the bullets fired during the shooting struck the Massachusetts State House). A strict curfew has since been enforced, which has been protested by the homeless population of Boston.

Blackstone Memorial Tablet, near the corner of Park Street and Tremont Street, was designed and erected in 1913 by R. Clipston Sturgis. It recalls the founding of Boston Common in 1634.

Today, the Common serves as a public park for all to use for formal or informal gatherings. Events such as concerts, protests, softball games, and ice skating (on Frog Pond) often take place in the park. Notable formal or informal gatherings that took place here include:

  • In early 1965, a hundred people gathered on the Common to protest the Vietnam War.
  • On April 23, 1965, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered a speech here to protest racial imbalance in schools and housing.
  • On October 15, 1969, a second Vietnam War protest happened here, this time with 100,000 people protesting.
  • On August 31, 1967, Judy Garland gave her largest concert ever (100,000+) on the Common.
  • On October 1, 1979, Pope John Paul II said mass to an estimated 400,000 people.
  • On May 31, 1990, on his way to Washington D.C. to sign agreements with U.S. President George H.W. Bush, Mikhail Gorbachev gave a speech in the Common.
  • On October 21, 2006, 30,128 Jack-o’-lanterns were lit simultaneously around the park at the Life is good Pumpkin Festival, setting a new world record. The previous record, held by Keene, New Hampshire since 2003, was 28,952.
  • On January 21, 2017, approximately 175,000 people marched from the Common to the Back Bay vicinity to profess resistance to the perceived anti-women viewpoints held by president Donald Trump.
  • On August 19, 2017, in the wake of events in Charlottesville, VA the week before, approximately 40,000 people marched from Roxbury Crossing to Boston Common to protest hate speech and white supremacy. A right-wing “Free Speech” rally had been planned on Boston Common, which some feared would draw members of the KKK, Neo Nazis and other hate groups. Boston Mayor Marty Walsh deemed the “Fight Supremacy” counter protest a great success.

Boston Common Frog Pond, renowned for its winter skating program and skating activities, features public skating, skating lessons, and skating programs for students.

The Boston Common Frog Pond, sitting at the heart of Boston Common, is managed by The Skating Club of Boston in partnership with the City of Boston.  It 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. At the southwest corner of the Common lie softball fields.

John Paul II Plaque

A grassy area, forming the western part of the park, is most commonly used for the park’s largest events. Under this part of the Common lies a parking garage.  A granite slab there commemorates Pope John Paul II‘s October 1, 1979 visit to Boston.

Robert Gould Shaw Memorial

The Robert Gould Shaw Memorial, a bronze relief sculpture unveiled on May 31, 1897 by Augustus Saint-Gaudens, stands at 24 Beacon cor. Park Street, the northeast corner of the Common, opposite the State House It depicts Col.  Robert Gould Shaw leading the Afro-American 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry as it marched down Beacon Street on May 28, 1863.

The 126-ft. high, Neo-Classical Soldiers and Sailors Monument, a victory column on Flag Staff Hill in the Common, was designed by Martin Milmore.  Erected in memory of Massachusetts soldiers and sailors who died in the American Civil War, its construction began in 1874 and the monument was dedicated on September 17, 1877.

Soldiers & Sailors Monument

The Boston Massacre Memorial, dedicated November 14, 1888, was designed by Robert Kraus.  The bas relief depicts the events before the Old State House on March 5, 1770, featuring Crispus Attucks, the first to fall. The bronze figure represents Revolution breaking the chains of tyranny.

One of four 8 foot high carved granite figures, at the Soldiers and Sailors Monument, representing the northern, southern, eastern and western sections of the reunited nation

The Oneida Football Monument memorializes the Common as the site of the first organized football games in the United States, played by the Oneida Football Club in 1862.  Plaque to the Great Elm tree celebrates the legacy and importance of the Great Elm Tree to the Boston Common.  A major storm that included heavy winds toppled it on February 15, 1876.

Brewer Fountain

The 6.7-m. (22-ft.) tall, 6,800-kg. (15,000-pound) Brewer Fountain, standing near the corner of Park and Tremont Streets, by Park Street Station, is a bronze fountain cast in Paris and gifted to the city by Gardner Brewer. It began to function for the first time on June 3, 1868.

Memorial to the Nurses of the Armed Services

The Boylston and Park Street stations, the first two subway stations in the Western Hemisphere, lie underneath the southern and eastern corners of the park, respectively.  Both stations have been in near-continuous operation since the opening of the first portion of the Tremont Street Subway (now part of the MBTA‘s Green Line) on September 1, 1897.

Royal Navy Plaque, installed on the western entrance to Boston Common, bordering the Public Garden, is a token of gratitude from the Royal Navy to the people of Boston, for their hospitality during World War II.

The Parkman Bandstand, in the eastern part of the park, is used in musical and theatrical productions, concerts, rallies, and speeches. Recent notable gatherings include the Boston Freedom Rally and a 2007 Presidential Primary rally in which both Barack Obama and Deval Patrick gave speeches from the bandstand. It was built in 1912 from a design by Derby, Robinson & Shephard at a cost of $1 million on the site of the Cow Pond (also known as the Horse Pond).  It was restored in 1996. 

Parkman Bandstand

Boston Common: 139 Tremont St, Boston, Massachusetts 02111. 

Park Street Church (Boston, Massachusetts)

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Park Street Church

The Park Street Church, an active, thriving missionary-centered Conservative Congregational church with 2,000 in Sunday attendance and around 1,000 members, is a historical stop on the Freedom Trail located next to the historic Granary Burying Ground.

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Its cornerstone was laid on May 1, 1809 and its construction, under the guidance of architect Peter Banner (his design is reminiscent of St. Bride’s Church in London by famous British architect Christopher Wren), chief mason Benajah Young  and woodcarver Solomon Willard, was completed by the end of the year. On January 10, 1810, it had its first worship service.

The church became known as “Brimstone Corner,” in part because of the fervent missionary character of its preaching and, in part, because of the gunpowder stored in its crypt (which gave off a ferocious smell of sulfur) during the War of 1812.

The church’s beautiful white steeple, a landmark visible from several Boston neighborhoods, rises to 66 m. (217 ft.), making the church the tallest building in the United States from 1810 to 1828. The red brick façade has white accents.  There is a little museum on the first floor.

The church is the site of a number of historical events:

Park Street Church: 1 Park St. cor. Tremont St., Boston, Massachusetts 02108. Tel: (617) 523-3383.  Website: www.parkstreet.org. Open Wednesdays – Fridays, 9:30 AM -3 PM. Worship services: Sundays 8:30 AM, 11 AM and 4 PM. Admission is free.

How to Get There: The church located right across from the Park Street subway stop (Red Line) at the edge of Boston Common.

Freedom Trail (Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.A.)

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Bunker Hill Monument

The iconic Freedom Trail, a unique collection of explanatory ground markers, museums, notable churches, meeting houses, burying grounds, parks, a historic naval frigate, and historic markers that tell the story of the American Revolution and beyond, is a 2.5-mile (4-km.) long path through downtown Boston, Massachusetts, that passes by 16 locations significant to the history of the United States. Marked largely with brick, it winds between Boston Common to the Bunker Hill Monument in Charlestown.

Old State House

Old North Church

Park Street Church

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Overseen by the City of Boston’s Freedom Trail Commission, the Freedom Trail is supported, in part, by grants from various nonprofits and foundations, private philanthropy, and Boston National Historical Park.

Copp’s Hill Burying Ground

Granary Burying Ground

Check out “Copp’s Hill Burying Ground” and “Granary Burying Ground” 

While most of the sites are free or suggest donations, the Old South Meeting House, the Old State House, and the Paul Revere House charge an admission fee.

Boston Common

Author and son Jandy at Boston Massacre Site

In 1951, local journalist William Schofield suggested building a pedestrian trail to link important local landmarks and Boston mayor John Hynes decided to put Schofield’s idea into action.

Faneuil Hall

Massachusetts State House

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The official trail sites are (generally from south-to-north):

  1. Boston Common (139 Tremont St.) – dating from 1634, it is the oldest city park in the city.
  2. Massachusetts State House – designed by noted architect Charles Bulfinch and completed in 1798, it the state capitol and seat of government for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
  3. Park Street Church – built in 1809, it is an active Conservative Congregational church in Downtown Boston
  4. Granary Burying Ground – Boston’s third-oldest cemetery, founded in 1660,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.
  5. King’s Chapel and Burying Ground – completed in 1754, the chapel is one of the finest designs of the noted colonial architect Peter Harrison.  The Burying Ground is the oldest cemetery in the city.
  6. Benjamin Franklin statue and former site of Boston Latin School
  7. Old Corner Bookstore
  8. Old South Meeting House (where the Boston Tea Party began in 1773) – 310 Washington St, Boston, MA 02108, USA. Open 9:30 AM – 5 PM. Admission: adults (US$5), children under 5 years are free.
  9. Old State House (the original seat of colonial government & later state capitol, today housing historical exhibits) – 206 Washington St, Boston, MA 02109, USA. Open 9 AM – 5 PM. Admission: adults (US$10), children 6-18 years are free.
  10. Site of the Boston Massacre – site of a confrontation, on March 5, 1770, in which British soldiers shot and killed several people while being harassed by a mob
  11. Faneuil Hall – a marketplace (open 11AM -7PM) and a meeting hall since 1743, it was the site of several speeches by Samuel Adams, James Otis, and others encouraging independence from Great Britain.
  12. Paul Revere House – the colonial home (for about 20 years) of famous legendary American patriot, famous “Midnight Rider,” silversmith, businessman and entrepreneur Paul Revere during the time of the American Revolution
  13. Old North Church – built in December 1723, itis the location from which the famous “One if by land, and two if by sea” signal is said to have been sent.
  14. Copp’s Hill Burying Ground – established in 1659, it is the city’s second cemetery.
  15. USS Constitution (interactive museum near the 1797 wooden frigate made famous as “Old Ironsides” in the War of 1812) – Building 22, Charlestown Navy Yard, Charlestown, MA 02129, USA. Open 9 AM – 6 PM. Admission: suggested donation of US$5-$10 for adults, US$3-$5 for children.
  16. Bunker Hill Monument – erected between 1825 and 1843,commemorate the Battle of Bunker Hill, which was among the first major battles between British and Patriot forces in the American Revolutionary War, fought there June 17, 1775.

The Black Heritage Trail crosses the Freedom Trail between the Massachusetts State House and Park Street Church. The Boston Irish Famine Memorial is also located along the Freedom Trail.

King’s Chapel

Paul Revere House

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The National Park Service, via a visitor’s center, offer tours, provide free maps of the Freedom Trail and other historic sites, and sell books about Boston and United States history.

USS Constitution

Check out “The USS Constitution – Old Ironsides“

Boston Common Visitor’s Center: 139 Tremont St., Boston, Massachusetts 02111.  Website: www.thefreedomtrail.org. Open Mondays –Fridays, 8:30 AM – 5PM, and Saturdays & Sundays,
9AM – 5PM.

The Copley Place Visitor Information Center: Copley Place Mall (center court), 100 Huntington Ave., Boston, Massachusetts  02116.  Open Mondays – Saturdays, 9AM – 8PM, and Sundays, 9AM – 6PM.