At Grandma and Grandpa's Apartment Before Boston Trip. (Grandma had to stay home because of a foot problem.)

Boston Bunker Hill

Here comes Aliyah!

Old Ironsides

USS Constitution, also known as Old Ironsides, is a three-masted wooden-hulled heavy frigate of the United States Navy. She is the world's oldest ship of any type still afloat.^{[Note 1]} She was launched in 1797, one of six original frigates authorized for construction by the Naval Act of 1794 and the third constructed. The name "Constitution" was among ten names submitted to President George Washington by Secretary of War Timothy Pickering in March of 1795 for the frigates that were to be constructed.^[10]^[11] Joshua Humphreys designed the frigates to be the young Navy's capital ships, and so Constitution and her sister ships were larger and more heavily armed and built than standard frigates of the period. She was built at Edmund Hartt's shipyard in the North End of Boston, Massachusetts. Her first duties 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 noted for her actions during the War of 1812 against the United Kingdom, 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 "Old Ironsides"

USS Cassin Young

Built for speed and capability, USS Cassin Young engaged in seven Pacific battles in World War II, survived two Kamikaze hits, and served another full decade beyond her expected lifetime. Built in 1943 in San Pedro, California, she is one of 175 Fletcher-class destroyers built during World War II. Here in Charlestown, this navy yard built dozens of similar ships during the war. In the 1950s, Cassin Young and many other destroyers received regular repairs and modernization in Charlestown.

Maintained by the National Park Service and an army of dedicated park volunteers, Cassin Young remains to this day as a testament to the crews who sailed her, and the men and women who built and maintained her.

Start of Freedom Trail at Boston Commons

Boston Common

When Puritan colonists purchased the land rights to the Common, the price was 30 pounds, and each homeowner paid six shillings. The pasture then became known as the "Common Land" and was used to graze local livestock until 1830. A town shepherd was paid "two shillings and sixpence per head of cowe" to tend townspeople’s livestock.

The Common was a site for Puritanical punishments, home to a whipping post, pillory, and stocks. Pirates, murderers, and witches were hanged from the tree known as "The Great Elm," now gone. Mary Dyer and three other Quakers were also hanged on the Common for their beliefs. A statue of Mary Dyer now stands on the Massachusetts State House lawn.

Also referred to as a "trayning field," over 1000 Redcoats made camp on the Common during the British occupation of Boston in 1775. It was from here that three brigades of Redcoats embarked to make the fateful trip to Lexington and Concord.

Massachusetts Capital Building

Park Street Church

Park Street Church is a stop on Boston's Freedom Trail. The founding of the church is dated to 1804 when the "Religious Improvement Society" began weekly meetings with lectures and prayer.^[3] The society organized the church on February 27, 1809. Twenty-six local people, mostly former members of the Old South Meeting House, wanted to create a church with orthodox Trinitarian theology.

Park St. Church, 1904

The church's cornerstone was laid on May 1, 1809, and construction was completed by the end of the year, under the guidance of Peter Banner (architect), Benajah Young (chief mason) and Solomon Willard (woodcarver). Banner took inspiration from several early pattern books, and his design is reminiscent of a London church by Christopher Wren. Park Street church's steeple rises to 217 feet (66 m), and remains a landmark visible from several Boston neighborhoods.^[4] The church was the tallest building in the United States from 1810 to 1828. For much of the early 19th century, it was the first landmark travelers saw when approaching Boston.

The church is next to the historic Granary Burying Ground and was site of granary building for which the burial grounds was named. The first worship service was held on January 10, 1810. The church became known as "Brimstone Corner", in part because of the fervent missionary character of its preaching,^[5] and in part because of the storage of gunpowder during the War of 1812.^[6]

Granary Burying Ground

There is a discrepancy between the number of headstones and the number of people buried in the Granary - it is estimated there are over 5,000 Bostonians who have made the Granary their final resting place. At one time the Granary was part of Boston Common, and the livestock that grazed the Common handled landscaping at the burial ground as well. During the Victorian era, the headstones were reorganized into neat rows to make way for a modern innovation of the time, the lawn mower.

The Infant’s Tomb, where hundreds of children have been interred, is located near the central obelisk that marks the grave of Benjamin Franklin’s parents. Alongside the far wall, an elaborately embellished obelisk marks John Hancock’s tomb. Paul Revere is buried near the back of the Granary; a large marker placed in the 19th century stands by a smaller, older slate marker. Matching stones in the two front corners of the burial ground commemorate James Otis and Samuel Adams. Next to the stone for Adams is the grave marker for the victims of the Boston Massacre. On the right hand wall is a plaque marking the tomb of Robert Treat Paine, the third signer of the Declaration of Independence buried in the Granary (the others being John Hancock and Samuel Adams).

Death trying to snuff out the candle of life.

Benjamin Franklin Statue

Boston's Town Meeting Hall

Faneuil Hall quickly became an invaluable part of Boston's civic and social life. Indeed, when a fire gutted the interior of the building in 1761, the town leaders quickly put together a series of lotteries where the proceeds funded a reconstruction and rehabilitation of the building. The Hall reopened in 1763. Its reopening coincided with the end of the French and Indian War and the beginning of controversial financial policies from the mother country of Great Britain. The Stamp Act of 1765, for example, directly taxed the British American colonists. Even though Bostonians had a direct voice in town affiars at town meetings and chose their representatives for the Massachusetts legislature in annual votes at Faneuil Hall, they had neither direct nor indirect voice in Britain's Parliament. As such, many members supported political leaders such as James Otis and Samuel Adams who led a campaign against the Stamp Act and "Taxation without Representation."

Lunch at Faneuil Hall

Boston Holocaust Memorial

Founded by Holocaust survivor Stephan Ross (of blessed memory), the memorial is designed to inspire remembrance, reflection, and hope. A beacon of light to fight darkness, these luminous spires stand more than 50 feet high, engraved with numbers representing the six million Jews killed during the Holocaust.

The North End

Heading towards Old North Church

Paul Reever and the Old North Church

Paul Revere Monument

Within just a few minutes walk from PR house right on the Freedom Trail, Boston North End visitors will find two other landmarks connected with the name of Revere. Paul Revere Mall with an equestrian statue of the famous patriot and the Old North Church are both located just of the touristy Hanover Street.

The PR mall is a nice little brick-paved park with a fountain and shady trees. Other than the statue you can find tablets on the wall that describe the famous people and places in the history of the North End.

The statue of Revere is one of the most photographed sculptures in Boston. Not surprisingly the sculptor portrayed Revere during the famous Midnight Ride, but unlike many illustrations where PR is showing galloping full speed, the motion of the bronze Revere seems to more dignified.

Although the statue is one of the most recognized landmarks in Boston, it is hard to imagine that it has quite an uneasy history, taking 16 years to create and 40 years to install in its present place. The sculptor Cyrus Edwin Dallin began working on it in 1883, more than 20 years after the name of Revere was immortalized by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow in his poem in 1860.

Old North Church (officially, Christ Church in the City of Boston), at 193 Salem Street, in the North End, Boston, is the location from which the famous "One if by land, two if by sea" signal is said to have been sent. This phrase is related to Paul Revere's midnight ride of April 18, 1775, which preceded the Battles of Lexington and Concord during the American Revolution.

The church is a mission of the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts. It was built in 1723 and is the oldest standing church building in Boston.