Boston embodies contrasts and contradictions -- blueblood and blue collar, Yankee and Irish, Brahmin banker and budget-conscious graduate student. It's home to the country's first public school and to a problematic educational system. A onetime hotbed of abolitionism, it retains an intractable reputation for racism. It's a proud seaport that faces a harbor just recently reclaimed from crippling pollution. Boston is a famously parochial, insular city whose traditional obsessions are "sports, politics, and revenge," but it's also a magnet for students and intellectuals from all over the world, and the capital of the only U.S. state where same-sex marriage is legal.
Compact in size yet boasting a virtually inexhaustible supply of interesting activities and diversions, Boston is a magnet for history buffs, art lovers, sports fans, shoppers, families, and convention-goers. Whether you fit into one or more or none of those categories, you're still in for an enjoyable time. The interests that draw you here can monopolize your schedule, but you'll have a better experience if you make some room for serendipity -- on your schedule and in your attitude.
The fact that you're reading this means that you have the chance to become one of the countless visitors who arrive in Boston planning to concentrate on one thing and wind up dipping into something completely unexpected that becomes a highlight of their visit. They come for a convention and linger at the Museum of Fine Arts, come for a college tour and can't get enough of the fresh seafood, come for the Revolutionary history and detour for the great shopping. They walk the narrow streets and stately avenues, soak up the local and international accents, marvel at the natural and manmade scenery, and lament the fact that they can't spend even more time exploring.
Boston is a living landmark that bears many marks of its colonial heritage, but where it's theoretically possible (this is an observation, not a suggestion) to spend days without going near anything built before 1960, or even going outdoors. Pick out a suitcase that has room for your walking shoes and get ready for your own adventure.
Written in Stone -- All over central Boston, you'll see plaques commemorating some long-gone people, event, or even place ("On this site stood . . ."). Each one tells a little story, not just in its text but also in its context. A plaque commemorating the first Catholic Mass in Boston (on School St. near Borders, across the street from the Freedom Trail) doesn't seem like a big deal now, but in a Puritan city, toleration of "popery" couldn't have come easily. On Commercial Street near Hull Street, a marker describes the Molasses Flood of 1919, during which 2 million gallons of raw molasses spilled out of a ruptured storage tank into the streets, killing 21 people. The story recalls the days when manufacturing and industry dominated the area that's now the residential North End and scenic waterfront. Look around as you walk around -- history is everywhere, just waiting for you to discover it.
We're Number 1!
Boston's list of firsts is a long one. Here are some highlights:
- America's first public school (Boston Latin School, 1635)
- America's first printing press (in Cambridge, 1638)
- America's first post office (1639)
- America's first regularly published newspaper, the Boston News Letter (1704)
- America's first chocolate factory (1765)
- First operation under general anesthesia (removal of a jaw tumor, at Massachusetts General Hospital, 1846)
- America's first subway (1897)
- First successful human-to-human organ transplant (of a kidney, at Peter Bent Brigham Hospital, 1954)
- First successful reattachment of a human limb (a 12-year-old boy's right arm, at Mass. General, 1962)
