Downtown Boston

King’s Chapel

64 Beacon St.

(617) 523-1749

King's Chapel is a tribute to England's struggle to dominate America, built against the strong Puritan movement of the 1600s only after the English government seized part of the neighboring burying ground.

The original wooden church was built in 1688, with the present-day granite structure replacing it around 1754 on the design of “America’s First Architect,” Peter Harrison of Newport, RI. Two notable cost-saving measures are the lack of a steeple and the wood used in the columns near the front entrance, rather than the Quincy granite holding up the rest of the church.

The church’s interior is a Georgian style, noted in architecture text books everywhere as one of the finest examples of standing by the English style in the New World. Distinctive is the "wine glass pulpit" that puts the preacher above the pews and projects his voice to every corner of the structure. Built in 1717 by French Huguenot Peter Vintoneau, it is the oldest wooden pulpit in America to continuously stand in one spot. King William gave the church its communion table in 1696 to honor Queen Mary. All the pews are original to the building and are still lined with horse-hair padding. The Royal Governor's pew has a canopy and was used by Royal Gov. William Shirley and his first wife. The pair are among the 100-plus bodies buried in the church's crypt, a group that also includes State House architect Charles Bulfinch and the first Massachusetts Royal Governor, John Winthrop.

The American Revolution pulls strongly at visitors, despite the church's name and English roots. Joseph Warren, the doctor who died during the Battle of Bunker Hill, had his funeral there. Oliver Wendell Holmes sat in Pew 46, where an epitaph hangs calling him a "true son of New England." Paul Revere cast the church its 2,347-pound bell in 1816, after the original 1772 bell purchased in England cracked. Paul Revere called it the "sweetest bell," he ever cast. It was Revere & Sons largest piece and the last Revere himself personally crafted.

King’s Chapel Burying Ground

58 Tremont St.

The city’s oldest burial ground holds a crypt and gravestones of many famous Boston names, including John Winthrop, the first governor of Massachusetts Bay Colony, another Royal Governor William Shirley and William Dawes, who made the famous horse ride with Paul Revere on April 18, 1775. Woman buried there include Elizabeth Pain, believed to be the inspiration for Hester Prynne, in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s classic novel “The Scarlet Letter;” and Mary Chilton, the first female Mayflower passenger to step down onto Plymouth soil in 1620.

Old City Hall

45 School St.

(617) 523-8678

This French Second Empire building is on its second life, vacated in 1969 when the city moved its offices to Government Center.

The departure ended centuries of public tenancy on the site. The nation’s oldest public school Boston Latin operated there from 1704 – 1748. A new Suffolk County Courthouse went up in 1810 and the building was converted into Boston City Hall in 1841. The current building went up in 1865 and is now managed by a private company as an office building.

Outside the building statues of Benjamin Franklin and former Boston Mayer Josiah Quincy draw in the crowds. Franklin attended school on the site as a boy. Another pleasure is the sidewalk hopscotch recognizing Boston Latin.

Old Corner Bookstore

School and Washington streets

This site has seen controversy and great minds. Anne Hutchinson lived in a cottage there in the 1630s, eventually being banished to Rhode Island after the Puritan minds of early Massachusetts decided her belief in freedom of speech was a threat. Fire destroyed Hutchinson’s cottage in 1711 and an apothecary shop was rebuilt there in 1712. Its great literary period came in the 1800s, when publisher Ticknor and Fields Co. moved into the gambrel-roof building and began publishing legendary names like Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and Nathaniel Hawthorne. Today, it's home to the Boston Globe bookstore.

Old South Meeting House

310 Washington St.

(617) 482-6439

Set in the shadow of Downtown Crossing’s shopping, the Old South Meeting House holds an important spot in Boston history as the venue where Samuel Adams issued the order launching the American Revolution.

The Puritans built their first wooden meeting house at 310 Washington St. in 1669 and the current brick church went up in 1729. Its famous clock was installed in 1770, the same year the Boston Massacre left five colonists dead.

Colonists met at the Old South Meeting House each year to mark the Massacre’s anniversary, with revolutionaries like John Hancock and Joseph Warren igniting the crowd. Some 5,000 Colonists came out on Dec. 16, 1773, upset over the British decision to tax tea. Samuel Adams finished the heated gathering with his famous call for the Sons of Liberty to dump the tea into Boston Harbor.

Open April 1 - Oct. 31, 9:30 am - 5 pm

Nov. 1 - Mar. 31, 10 am - 4 pm

Faneuil Hall Marketplace

Faneuil Hall Square

Home of American democracy, Faneuil Hall is known as the “Cradle of Liberty,” and has hosted many speeches by strong-minded men like James Otis and Samuel Adams.

Built in 1742 and designed by John Smibert, the original red brick marketplace with upstairs meeting space was merchant Peter Faneuil’s gift to the city. It was topped with a famous grasshopper weathervane, the only original part of the landmark to survive a 1761 fire.

In 1826, Charles Bulfinch designed the Greek Revival Quincy Market, named for Boston Mayor Josiah Quincy. Originally erected along the water, the popular shopping destination is now located more inland as a result of the city filling in the harbor in the 1800s.

Union Oyster House

41 Union St.

(617) 227-2750

The Union Oyster House holds a special place in Boston’s heart, a favorite political gathering spot, both the city's oldest restaurant and America’s longest continually operating restaurant.

Hawes Atwood opened the restaurant as Atwood’s Oyster House in 1826. The original part of the Oyster House is believed to have been erected in the 1700s, serving as a residence and a dry goods store before restaurant. While the restaurant later expanded into adjacent buildings, visitors want to make sure to check out the original part of the building as it still holds the original oyster bar and stall-style booths.

Oyster House guests have included U.S. Senator Daniel Webster and U.S. Presidents Calvin Coolidge, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy and Bill Clinton. Kennedy was known to eat privately upstairs and Booth 18 on the second floor was dedicated in his memory in 1977.