Boston is a city of firsts - the first public library, the first public schools, the first subway system. As a result it sees itself as a pioneer in culture - both popular and rarefied. There are few places in America that display their history so lovingly as Boston.
When to Go
It's best to visit Boston in late spring and in September and October. Like other American cities of the northeast, Boston can be uncomfortably hot and humid in summer and freezing in winter. Yet the city is not without its pleasures in these seasons. In summer, there are concerts on the Esplanade, harbor cruises, and sidewalk cafés. In winter, Christmas shopping, First Night festivities on New Year's Eve, and the active music season are worth your time. And much can be said for afternoon winter light on red brick.
Each September, Boston and Cambridge welcome thousands of returning students. University life is a big part of the local atmosphere, and it enlivens things considerably in the fall, as does the start of the football season.
What to See
Beacon Street: Here are some of the most important buildings of Charles Bulfinch, the ultimate designer of the Federal style in America: dozens of bowfront row houses, the Somerset Club, and the glorious Harrison Gray Otis House.
Harvard University: The shade-dappled expanse of Harvard Yard - the very center of Harvard University - exudes peace and gentility. Named in 1639 for John Harvard, a young Charlestown clergyman who died in 1638, leaving the college his entire library and half his estate, Harvard remained the only college in the New World until 1693, by which time it was firmly established as a respected center of learning. Today the country's finest university encompasses various schools or "faculties," including the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, the Medical School, the Law School, and the John F. Kennedy School of Government.
Although the college dates from the 17th century, the oldest buildings in Harvard Yard are of the 18th century; together the buildings chronicle American architecture from the colonial era to the present. Many of Harvard's cultural and scholarly facilities are important sights in themselves, including the Arthur M. Sackler Museum, the Fogg Art Museum, the Harvard Museum of Natural History, the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, and the Widener Library.
Go see a game! Whether it be the Boston Red Sox or The Boston Bruins, Boston has some of the best teams in the country.
Find a Boston ticket broker to get your tickets now.
Freedom Trail: A 3-mile tour of the sites of the American Revolution, the Freedom Trail is a crash course in history. There are 16 sites beginning at the Boston Common and ending at the Bunker Hill Monument in Charlestown.
Paul Revere House: It's an interesting coincidence that the oldest house standing in downtown Boston should also have been the home of Paul Revere, patriot activist and silversmith, as many homes of famous Bostonians have burned or been demolished over the years. It was saved from oblivion in 1902 and restored to an approximation of its original 17th-century appearance.
Revere owned the house from 1770 until 1800, although he lived there for only 10 years, and rented it out for the next two decades. Pre-1900 photographs show it as a shabby warren of storefronts and apartments. The clapboard sheathing is a replacement, but 90% of the framework is original; note the Elizabethan-style overhang and leaded windowpanes. A few Revere furnishings are on display here.
Fenway Park: Fenway may be one of the smallest parks in the major leagues (capacity almost 34,000), but it's one of the most loved, despite its oddball dimensions and the looming left-field wall, otherwise known as the Green Monster. It was built in 1912 and it still has a real-grass field.
