DK Travel : Boston : History & Culture

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Anne Bradstreet

Bradstreet (c.1612–72) was America’s first poet, publishing The Tenth Muse , Lately Sprung Up in America in 1650.
Appalachian Mountain Club Headquarters

The Appalachian Trail, or the A.T. as it is known to hiking cognoscenti, is America’s premier walking path. Snaking through 2,168 miles (3,492 km) of pristine eastern wilderness – including 90 miles (145 km) in Massachusetts – the trail is maintained by members of the club. With a scale model of the trail, informative plaques on the walls, maps, guidebooks, and a knowledgeable staff, this is an essential stop for those planning a hike.
Baby Formula

The New England Medical Center devised nutritionally enhanced baby formula in 1919.
Back Bay Fens

This lush ribbon of grassland, marshes, and stream banks follows Muddy River and forms one link in the Emerald Necklace of parks (see Boston Common & Public Garden). The enclosed James P. Kelleher Rose Garden in the center of the Fens provides a perfect spot for quiet contemplation. A path runs from Kenmore Square to the museums and galleries on Huntington Avenue, which makes a pleasant short cut through the Fens.

Back Bay Fens
Beacon Street

Although it extends well beyond the Fenway, Beacon Street finds its true essence in the section between the Massachusetts State House (see Massachusetts State House) and Charles Street. Here it passes such highlights as the Bull and Finch Pub – of Cheers TV fame – and the Boston Athenaeum, one of the oldest independent libraries in the country.
Boston Center for Jewish Heritage

This synagogue testifies to the area’s former vibrancy as Boston’s first predominantly Jewish quarter. The congregation was founded in 1903 by immigrants from Vilna, Lithuania. While services are no longer held here, there are plans to rededicate the synagogue as a Jewish cultural center.
Boston University

Founded as a Methodist Seminary in 1839, BU was chartered as a university in 1869. Today it enrolls approximately 28,000 students from all 50 states and some 125 countries. The scattered colleges and schools were consolidated at the Charles River Campus in 1966. Both sides of Commonwealth Avenue are lined with distinctive university buildings and sculptures. The Special Collections department of the Mugar Memorial Library is big on the memorabilia of show biz figures, displayed on a rotating basis. Artifacts include Gene Kelly’s Oscar and a number of Bette Davis’s film scripts. It also exhibits selections from its holdings of rare manuscripts and books. The Photographic Resource Center, a focus for Boston’s considerable photographic community, frequently mounts challenging exhibitions of local and international photographers.

Mugar Memorial Library, Boston University
Concord

Concord Rebels put the Redcoats to rout at North Bridge, Concord’s main revolutionary battle site. This historical town was also the epicenter of American literature in the mid-19th century. Visitors can tour the homes of writers Ralph Waldo Emerson (Cambridge Turnpike), Nathaniel Hawthorne (455 Lexington Rd), and Louisa May Alcott (399 Lexington Rd). Henry David Thoreau’s woodland haunts at Walden Pond now feature hiking trails and a swimming beach.
David Mamet

Playwright and screenwriter Mamet (b.1947) brings a gift for gritty language to explorations of lost morality.
Donald McKay (1810–1880)

McKay built the largest and swiftest of the clipper ships in his East Boston shipyard in 1850. The speedy vessels revolutionized long-distance shipping at the time of the California gold rush and gave Boston its last glory days as a mercantile port before the rise of rail transport.