Boston Massacre

 

 

 

 

Boston's Beautiful Skyline

 

 

 

 

One of the things I love most about Boston is the harmonious mix of old and new. It really makes it both interesting and beautiful!

Longfellow's House

 

I especially loved this painting of his daughters.

 

 

This is the beautiful home of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. He was one of the world’s foremost 19th century poets. The house also served as headquarters for General George Washington during the Siege of Boston, July 1775 - April 1776. I really loved the feel of his house. He was a family man who dearly loved his wife and children. It's a wonderful place to visit.

U.S.S. Constitution, Boston, Massachusetts

 

 

 

 

USS Constitution is a wooden-hulled, three-masted heavy frigate of the United States Navy. Named by President George Washington after the Constitution of the United States of America, she is the world's oldest floating commissioned naval vessel. Launched in 1797, Constitution was one of six original frigates authorized for construction by the Naval Act of 1794. Joshua Humphreys designed the frigates to be the young Navy's capital ships, and so Constitution and her sisters were larger and more heavily armed and built than standard frigates of the period. Built in Boston, Massachusetts at Edmund Hartt's shipyard, her first duties with the newly formed United States Navy were to provide protection for American merchant shipping during the Quasi War with France and to defeat the Barbary pirates in the First Barbary War.

Constitution is most famous for her actions during the War of 1812 against Great Britain, when she captured numerous merchant ships and defeated five British warships: HMS Guerriere, Java, Pictou, Cyane and Levant. The battle with Guerriere earned her the nickname of "Old Ironsides" and public adoration that has repeatedly saved her from scrapping. She continued to actively serve the nation as flagship in the Mediterranean and African squadrons, and circled the world in the 1840s. During the American Civil War she served as a training ship for the United States Naval Academy and carried artwork and industrial displays to the Paris Exposition of 1878. Retired from active service in 1881, she served as a receiving ship until designated a museum ship in 1907. In 1931 she started a three year 90-port tour of the nation, and in 1997 she finally sailed again under her own power for her 200th birthday.

Boston Ghost Tour

 

 

 

 

It wasn't scary, but it was loads of fun. I try to go on the local ghost tour whenever possible while traveling. It gives me a taste of the area lore, and you get to see some great cemeteries.

Peacefield, Quincey, Massachusetts

Peacefield was the home and farm of John Adams (1735–1826), author of the Constitution of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, contributing author of the United States Constitution, first Vice President of the United States, and second President of the United States. Peacefield was also home to Adams' wife Abigail Smith Adams (November 11, 1744 – October 28, 1818) who is famous for her independence of thought and her correspondence with John Adams while he attended the Continental Congress in Philadelphia. Peacefield was also home to John Quincy Adams (July 11, 1767 – February 23, 1848) and his wife Louisa Catherine Adams, their son Charles Francis Adams (ambassador to the United Kingdom during the American Civil War), and historians Henry Adams and Brooks Adams.

The oldest portion of the house was built in 1731 by Leonard Vassall, a sugar-planter from Jamaica, and acquired by John and Abigail Adams in 1787 after its loyalist owners had abandoned Massachusetts during the Revolutionary War. The Adams were at that time still resident in London, but returned in 1788 to occupy the house and its 40 acres (160,000 m2) of farmland and orchards. They were disagreeably surprised by the house, however, after their years in England. The house at that time consisted of only two low-ceilinged rooms on the ground floor, two bedrooms, and an attic. Abigail Adams wrote "it feels like a wren's nest."

During the subsequent 12 years, with Adams resident in Philadelphia first as Vice President and then as President, Abigail Adams attended to the house and farm. She greatly expanded it, adding what is now the right side of the front facade, with a fine hallway and large parlor on the ground floor and a large study above. The additions were built in the Georgian style with a gambrel roof creating a nearly full attic story. Adams returned to the house full-time in 1801 after his defeat for a second presidential term. His son John Quincy Adams also returned to the house at that time, after completing his ambassadorial term in Berlin. Further extensions to the house were made by his son, Charles Francis Adams.

Honestly, the presence of the family can be felt everywhere you walk, through the house, in the gardens, everywhere. I loved it!

 

The property contains a historic orchard of heirloom apples, and formal eighteenth century flower gardens.

 

 

The bottom picture is of the 1870 Gothic Revival Stone Library, housing 14,000 volumes. Wouldn't I love a library like this!

Birthplace of the Adams

 

The John Adams Birthplace, in Quincy, Massachusetts, is the home in which United States President John Adams was born on October 30, 1735. This saltbox house, seen above, is now part of the Adams National Historical Park operated by the National Park Service. The birthplace of Adams' son John Quincy Adams is only a few feet away, and is seen below. Because of the Patriot Act, no pictures can be taken inside the homes for security reasons.

 

Sleepy Hollow Cemetery,Concord, Massachusetts

 

 

 

 

Up a short stretch of road lies a hollow, on the far side of which is Authors Ridge. Perched on the top-most glacial hill in the cemetery, Authors Ridge gathers together, among others, the graves of Henry Thoreau (1862), Nathaniel Hawthorne (1864), Ralph Waldo Emerson (1882), Louisa May Alcott (1888) and her father, Bronson Alcott (1888). Each is buried in a family plot and marked with modest stones. Hawthorne's marker, in keeping with his personal reserve, bears only his last name, while Emerson created his own epitaph: "The passive master lent his hand to the vast soul which o'er him planned." (from his poem, The Problem). At the Alcott plot, Louisa May is surrounded by her father, mother, and sisters, whom she made famous in Little Women. Except for Louisa May, the Alcott stones bear only the occupants’ initials. Tragedy hovers here. Bronson Alcott died on March 4, 1888, and Louisa May, gravely ill with pneumonia and shaken by his passage, died two days later. Both were buried on the same day later in the spring when the ground had thawed sufficiently.

This is definitely worth a visit, but plan more time than I had- to wander and reflect. Even though my time was short, I loved the experience.

Plimoth Plantation and Wampanoag Homesite

 

 

 

Plimoth Plantation is a living museum in Plymouth, Massachusetts, that reconstructs the original settlement of the Plymouth Colony established in the 17th century by English colonists. Some of those colonists later became known as Pilgrims, being among the first to emigrate to America to avoid religious persecution and to seek religious separation from the Church of England. Alongside the settlement is a re-creation of a Wampanoag home site, where modern Native People from a variety of nations (not in period character, but in traditional dress) explain and demonstrate how the Wampanoag's ancestors lived and interacted with the settlers.

Plymouth, Massachusettes

 

 

 

 

Plymouth is best known for being the site of the colony established by the Pilgrims, passengers of the Mayflower. Founded in 1620, Plymouth is the oldest municipality in New England and one of the oldest in the United States. It also is the oldest continually inhabited English settlement in the United States. The town has served as the location of several prominent events, the most notable being the First Thanksgiving feast. Plymouth served as the capital of Plymouth Colony from its founding in 1620 until the colony's dissolution in 1691.

Boston Public Garden

 

 

 

 

The Public Garden was created in 1837, Boston Common in 1634. From its inception, the Public Garden was decorative and flowery, the Common pastoral and practical. The Common's walkways were for crosstown travel, the Public Garden's paths for meandering. The Common was America's first park, the Public Garden its first public botanical garden. This style of park, featuring the gardener's art, was ushered in by Victorians who had new techniques readily available to collect, hybridize and propagate plants. They had access to showy annuals. Greenhouse-grown plants could assure that displays would be seen at their peak. With such abilities, they bedded-out the Garden in intricate floral patterns of blazing color and planted exotic imported trees. The Victorian traditions for the most part are maintained. The Garden are one of Boston's great attractions.