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Boston | |
Key Attractions |
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Boston,
Key Attractions This self‐guided, four‐kilometre (2.5‐mile) walking tour starts at the Boston Common Visitor Information Center and follows a red‐brick line on the pavement. Its historic sites are associated with the movement to free the colonies from British control and information is provided at every point. The trail weaves through North End, over the Charles River and onto the Bunker Hill Monument, passing that pertain to the American revolution. Many of its locations have their own admission conditions and opening hours. The trail’s highlights include the Park Street Church, an early 1800s, anti‐slavery venue, Granary Burying Ground, where revolutionaries Samuel Adams, John Hancock and Paul Revere and the original ‘Mother’ Elizabeth Goose are interred, the Old South Meeting House, the site of the decisive meeting regarding the Tea Party, Faneuil Hall, the Paul Revere House and the USS Constitution. A two‐hour Freedom Trail audio guide of the trail is available at the Boston Common Visitor Information Center (US$12). Freedom Trail Foundation 3 School Street Tel: (617) 227 8800. Fax: (617) 227 2498. or www.freedomtrail.org The National Park Service conducts free 90‐minute tours that begin at the Boston National Historic Park and covers Freedom Trail highlights from the Old South Meeting House to the Old North Church. The tours leave at regular intervals in the spring, summer and autumn, weather permitting. Boston National Historic Park 15 State Street Tel: (617) 242 5642. Transport: Subway Park Street station. Black Heritage Trail Celebrating 19th century African‐American history and contributions, this 2.5km (1.6‐mile) trail includes 14 historic sites, most in the Beacon Hill district. Some of its attractions include the Robert Gould Shaw and 54th Regiment Memorial, a commemoration to the first black regiment of the Civil War, the Phillips School, one of the first mixed‐race schools, and the home of the black abolitionist, John J Smith House, as well as part of the Underground Railroad, the Lewis and Harriet Hayden House. The trail’s last stop, the 1806 African Meeting House, 8 Smith Court, is the oldest existing church building in the USA dedicated to the black community. Tours of the Black Heritage Trail can be arranged by contacting the Boston African National Historic Site (tel: (617) 742 5415; fax (617) 742 5415; e‐mail: boaf@nps.gov; ) Transport: Subway Park Street. Opening hours: Guided trail tours depart from the Boston Common Visitor Information Center at 1000, 1200 and 1400. Museum of African History New England’s largest Afro‐American museum has in‐depth information on white abolitionists and free African Americans. 46 Joy Street Tel: (617) 725 0022. Fax: (617) 720 5225. Harvard University & Harvard Square A trip to Boston would be incomplete without crossing the river to visit one of the country’s oldest (1638) and most prestigious universities. Combined with the neighbouring and equally prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), there are over 30,000 students from all over the world enrolled here. Harvard Square is actually a triangle of brick pavement sitting above the Harvard subway station. In and around it are a couple of dozen cafés, bookshops, banks and restaurants, providing a backdrop to street performers, politically and religiously motivated campaigners and lots of ordinary pedestrian activity according to the season and the weather. Harvard University makes up one side of the triangle. The Out of Town newsagents is itself an institution – a good place to buy a local or foreign paper from before settling into a café and soaking up the student‐cum‐intellectual atmosphere. A focal point for visitors is the Harvard Yard (1636), which is the entrance into the quadrangle surrounded by ivy‐covered buildings and a cloistered, peaceful existence. The buildings chronicle American architecture from Colonial 18th century to the present day. The Harvard University Events and Information Center offers free tours of the Yard. Harvard also has six world‐class museums worth visiting. Fogg Art Museum covers the European Renaissance to the modern day, with notable works by Renoir, Monet, Van Gogh, Whistler and Klee. A second art museum is the Bush‐Reisinger Museum, the only museum in the country dedicated to the understanding of Central and North European art between 1880‐1980. The Arthur Sackler Museum focuses on Islamic and Asian exhibits, including Chinese jade, Japanese woodprints and Indian art. The fourth, the Museum of Natural History, is renowned for its display of 3,000 authentic‐looking types of flowers made from hand‐blown glass as well as its 745 kilogram (1,642‐pound) amethyst geode. The Semitic Museum has a collection of Middle Eastern art and archaeology with artefacts from Egypt, Mesopotamia and the Levant. Boston’s sixth museum, The Peabody Museum of Anthropology and Ethnology, is a collection of exhibits of archaeology and cultures from six continents. A US$6.50 ticket secures admission to the art museums (Fogg, Bush‐Reisinger and Arthur Sackler), which encapsulates a history of world art in over 80,000 exhibits. A Hot Ticket (US$10), valid for one year, provides admission to all six of them. Hot Tickets are sold at each of the museums. Check hours on holidays. Fogg Art Museum and Bush‐Reisinger Museum 32 Quincy Street Arthur Sackler Museum 485 Broadway Tel: (617) 495 9400. Fax: (617) 496 8576. Opening hours: Mon‐Sat 1000‐1700, Sun 1300‐1700. Admission: US$6.50 combined ticket; concessions available; free Sat 1000‐1200. Museum of Natural History 26 Oxford Street Tel: (617) 495 3045. Fax: (617) 496 8206. Opening hours: Daily 0900‐1700. Admission: $US7.50; concessions available; free Sun 0900‐1200. The Peabody Museum of Anthropology and Ethnology 11 Divinity Avenue Tel: (617) 496 1027. E‐mail: Peabody@fas.harvard.edu Opening hours: Daily 0900‐1700. Admission: US$7.50; concessions available. Semitic Museum 6 Divinity Ave Tel: (617) 495 4631 Transport: Subway Harvard station. Opening hours: Mon‐Fri 1000‐1600, Sun 1300‐1600 Admission: Free. Boston Tea Party Ship & Museum This is actually part of a larger complex on Museum Wharf where the Children’s Museum and the Computer Museum are also to be found. The ‘Tea Party’ was an act of rebellion against British rule and in particular against new taxes, imposed on, among other commodities, tea. The protest took place on 16 December 1773. A group of Bostonians, disguised as Mohawk Indians, boarded the tea‐clipper Beaver and threw all of its cargo into the harbour waters. Visitors can discover the full story on‐board a full‐size replica ship, Beaver II. Following a fire, the museum is temporarily closed. Check to see if it has reopened. Congress Street Bridge Tel: (617) 338 1773. Fax: (617) 338 1974. Transport: Subway South Station. Opening hours: Mar‐Nov daily 0900‐1700 (until 1800 in summer). Admission: US$8. The Children’s Museum Considered one of the top three children’s museums in the country, The Children’s Museum is a wonderland for kids 0‐10 years old, and the place where they are encouraged to touch everything. One of its most popular exhibits, Arthur’s World, patterned after Marc Brown’s books and the Public Broadcasting series, encourages role‐playing, fantasy exploration, reading and writing in the child’s favourite Arthur setting. 300 Congress Street Tel: (617) 426 8855. Transport: Subway South Station. Opening hours: Sat‐Thurs 1000‐1700, Fri 1000‐2100. Admission: Adults US$8, children US$7 (US$1 for all on Fri 1700‐2100). JFK Library and Museum Designed by famous architect I M Pei, and located on the UMass campus, the JFK Museum chronicles the life of Jack Kennedy until his assassination on 23 November 1963. The exhibition begins with an 18‐minute documentary of Kennedy’s life from birth until his presidential nomination in 1960. The rest of the museum brings alive his last years with products of the times, like kitchen appliances, 1960s TV commercials, magazines and newspapers. TV monitors broadcast his speeches, and there is a reproduction of the TV studio where the Kennedy‐Nixon debates took place. His presidential accomplishments are displayed in a reproduction of the White House. Columbia Point Tel: (617) 514 1600. Fax: (617) 514 1652. Transport: The T Red Line JFK/Umass station. Opening hours: Daily 0900‐1700 (except Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s Day). Admission: US$8; concessions available. The Mary Baker Eddy Library for the Betterment of Humanity Situated behind the Renaissance Revival basilica which serves as the headquarters of the First Church of Christ Science is The Mary Baker Eddy Library for the Betterment of Humanity. Ms Baker founded both the church and the Christian Science Monitor. Though the library is a plethora of works and information about the movement, the most striking attraction is the three‐story Mapparium. Measuring over 9 metres (30 feet) in diameter, the structure is an inverted stained‐glass globe with incredible acoustics. Visitors enter the globe, via a glass bridge and are treated to a view of the world borders as they were in the early 1930s. 200 Massachusetts Avenue Tel: (617) 450 7000. Fax: (617) 450 7048. Opening hours: Tues‐Fri 1000‐2100, Sat 1000‐1800, Sun 1100‐1700. Admission: US$5; concessions available. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston Truly a treasure, it is easy to idle away a day at the MFA. Its impressive worldwide collection spans from 6,000 BC to the contemporary works of such artists as Andy Warhol and Rineke Dijkstra. Of note is the museum’s Asian collection. Its Temple Room has the finest Buddhist collection outside of Japan, and its collection of Netsuke (Japanese fine art of miniature sculpture used as purses, tobacco cases or medicine containers) is fascinating. The Chinese collection includes stone sculptures and furniture. The MFA’s Impressionism gallery is small but significant, displaying works of Renoir, Monet, Cassatt, Degas, Pissaro and Cezanne. 465 Huntington Avenue Tel: (617) 267 9300. Opening hours: Sat‐Tues 1000‐1645, Wed‐Fri 1000‐2145. Admission: US$15; concessions available. New England Aquarium Step inside and discover the underwater world and its inhabitants. A spiral ramp ascends four floors while circling a giant tank and passing a critical care ward for sick animals, a touch tank, penguins, a coral reef, sharks, eels, turtles and lots of other creatures of the deep which serve to awe and educate visitors. The frogs dwell on the lower level near the ecosystem exhibit. There is also an IMAX theatre, a kids’ activity centre and an outdoor sea lion show. Touch, feed and get kissed by a sea lion when participating in the Trainer for a Morning program (US$85). Central Wharf Tel: (617) 973 5200 or 5277, recorded information. Opening hours: From 1 Jul to early Sept, Mon, Tues, Fri 0900‐1800, Wed‐Thurs 0900‐2000, Sat‐Sun 0900‐1900; early Sept to 30 Jun, Mon‐Fri 0900‐1700, Sat‐Sun 0900‐1800. Admission: US$15.50: IMAX theatre US$8.50, combo ticket US$19; concessions available. |