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Fenway Park
Boston's most cherished landmark? Site of Boston's greatest dramas and worst defeats? To many Bostonians, it's not Bunker Hill or the Tea Party ship, but tiny old Fenway Park, home of the Boston Red Sox. Built in 1912, Fenway Park is one of the last survivors of old-style baseball parks. Only Wrigley Field in Chicago rivals its legendary status.
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First Corps Of Cadets Armory
Out of place amid Boston's Colonial, Federal and Victorian architecture, this medieval castle sits on a prominent corner. Complete with castle towers, oriel turrets and parapet walls, the building was constructed in 1891 as an armory for a volunteer militia of wealthy merchants and professionals.
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Fort Point Arts Community
Since 1978, dozens and dozens of artists live and work in a refurbished big-windowed warehouse from the turn of the century. This artists building is the hub of the Fort Point Arts Community, which contains a gallery featuring work from the talented collective. Expect to see huge psychedelic oils, prints inspired by 14th-century Venetian Laces, lampshades made from birch and mixed media films.
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Gallery Naga
Inside the Gothic digs of the Church of the Covenant, Gallery Naga exhibits contemporary painters (eg Bryan McFarlane) and has a warm place in many hearts for their specialization in unique and limited edition furniture.
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Gasp
Created by the wife and husband team of MM Campos-Pons and Neil Leonard, ambitious and independent GASP serves as a gallery, studio and performance space for cutting-edge contemporary art. Don't be fooled by the somewhat remote Brookline location: while plenty of Boston artists and performers use the space as a second home, this is an international house of experimentation, inviting curators and artists from Norway, Montreal and Egypt.
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Georges Island
Georges Island is the transportation hub for the islands, as the inter-island shuttle leaves from here. It is also the site of Fort Warren, a 19th-century fort and Civil War prison. While NPS (National Park Service) rangers give guided tours of the fort, it is largely abandoned, with many dark tunnels, creepy corners and magnificent lookouts to discover.
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Gibson House Museum
When Catherine Hammond Gibson moved to this Italian Renaissance row house in 1860, the Back Bay was barely filled in. This was one of the first houses built on Beacon St, and Ms Gibson was considered quite the pioneer (that she was a female homeowner in this 'New Land' was even more unusual).
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Granary Burying Ground
Adjacent to Park St Church, this ancient cemetery dates to 1660. As the name implies, the location of the church was formerly the site of the town granary. As the burying ground predates the church, it is named after the grain storage facility instead. While it is sometimes called the Old Granary Burying Ground, it is not the oldest - King's Chapel and Copp's Hill date back even further.
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Grape Island
Grape Island is rich with fruity goodness - not grapes, but raspberries, bayberries and elderberries, all growing wild amidst the scrubby wooded trails. The wild fruit attracts ample bird life. Park rangers lead an interesting 'wild edibles' tour highlighting the fruits of the earth.
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Great House Site
A sweet oasis in the midst of Charlestown, City Sq is also an archaeological site. Recent Central Artery construction unearthed the foundation for a structure called the Great House, widely believed to be John Winthrop's house and the seat of government in 1630. Winthrop soon moved across the Charles to the Shawmut Peninsula, and the Great House became the Three Cranes Tavern, as documented in 1635.
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Harvard Museum of Natural History
The Harvard Museum of Natural History is starting to cater to the casual science buff and even children, in addition to the botany, zoology and geology boffins that swarm around it like teenagers at a mall. The highlight is the famous botanical galleries, which feature more than 3000 lifelike pieces of handblown-glass flowers and plants.
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Harvard University
Harvard hosts a staggering number of lectures, symposia, meetings and tours, many of which are open to the public and many of which are free. Topics are as diverse as the university itself and are impossible to encapsulate in a review such as this. Representative events are gallery talks on botanical motifs in East Asian art, urbanism in Carthage or post-communist politics. Or go see a lecture by a NASA astronaut.
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Hooper-Lee-Nichols House
This c 1685 Georgian mansion has been changed several times over the course of its 300-plus year history, first to modernize and hide its original appearance, and then to recover its historically accurate appearance. Now the headquarters of the Cambridge Historical Society, the house is open for occasional architectural tours. Highlights include the massive stone fireplace in the Chandler room and hand-painted wallpaper in the Bosphorous room.
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ICA
This dramatic waterfront venue is Boston's focal point for contemporary art. The Diller Scofidio + Renfro designed building is a work of art in itself - a striking glass structure cantilevered over a waterside plaza. The spacious light-filled interior allows for multimedia presentations, educational programs and studio space. More importantly, it provides the venue for the development of the ICA's permanent collection of 21st-century art.
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Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum
The magnificent Venetian-style palazzo that houses the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum was also home to 'Mrs Jack' Gardner herself until her death in 1924. A monument to one woman's exquisite taste for acquiring art, the Gardner is filled with almost 2000 priceless objects, including outstanding tapestries and Italian Renaissance and 17th-century Dutch paintings.
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John F Kennedy Library & Museum
This striking, modern, marble building - designed by I.M. Pei - was dubbed 'the shining monument by the sea' soon after it opened in 1979. The architectural centerpiece is the magnificent glass pavilion, with soaring 115-foot ceilings and floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking Boston Harbor.
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John F Kennedy National Historic Site
In 1914, newlyweds Joseph and Rose Kennedy moved into this modest three-story house in the shady streetcar suburb of Brookline. Four of their nine children would be born and raised here, including Jack, who was born in the master bedroom in 1917. Matriarch Rose Kennedy oversaw restoration and furnishing of the house in the late 1960s; today her narrative sheds light on the Kennedys' family life.
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John Hancock Tower
Constructed with more than 10,000 panels of mirrored glass, the 62-storey John Hancock Tower offers an amazing perspective on Trinity Church, often reflected in its facade. Designed in 1976 by Henry Cobb, the tower suffered serious initial problems: when the wind whipped up, some panes popped out, falling hundreds of feet to the ground. Fortunately, the panes were replaced and the design problem fixed before anyone was hurt.
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King's Chapel & Burying Ground
Bostonians were not pleased when the original Anglican church was erected on this site in 1688. (Remember, it was the Anglicans - the Church of England - whom the Puritans were fleeing.) The granite chapel standing today was built in 1754. If the church seems to be missing something, it is: funds ran out before a spire could be added. The church houses the largest bell ever made by Paul Revere, as well as a historic organ.
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Larz Anderson Auto Museum
Larz and Isabel Anderson, a high-society socialite couple, bought their first automobile in 1899: a Winton Runabout. It was the first of 32 autos that they would purchase over the next 50 years. When one car would become obsolete, it would retire to the carriage house, forming the foundation for 'America's oldest motorcar collection.'.
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List Visual Arts Center
The stated goal of the List Center is to explore the boundaries of artistic inquiry - to use art to ask questions, not only about aesthetics, but also about culture, society and of course science. Rotating exhibits push the contemporary art envelope in painting, sculpture, photography, video and just about every other medium imaginable.
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Little Brewster
Little Brewster is the country's oldest light station and site of the iconic Boston Light. Although the first lighthouse was built on this spot in 1715, it was demolished by the British in the revolution; today's lighthouse dates to 1783. To visit Little Brewster, you must take an organized tour (reservations recommended). Learn about Boston's maritime history during a one-hour sail around the harbor, then spend two hours exploring the island.
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Longfellow National Historic Site
Brattle Street's most famous resident was Henry Wordsworth Longfellow, whose stately manor is now a National Historic Site. The poet lived and wrote here for 45 years, from 1837 to 1882, writing many of his most famous poems including Evangeline and Hiawatha . Now under the auspices of the NPS, the Georgian mansion contains many of Longfellow's belongings and lush period gardens.
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Lovells Island
Two deadly shipwrecks may bode badly for seafarers, but that doesn't seem to stop recreational boaters, swimmers and sunbathers from lounging on Lovells' long rocky beach. Some of the former uses of Lovells are evident: European settlers used the island as a rabbit run, and descendent bunnies are still running this place; Fort Standish dates from WWI but has yet to be excavated.
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Mary Baker Eddy Library
The Mary Baker Eddy Library for the Betterment of Humanity is an odd amalgam, housing the offices of the internationally regarded newspaper, the Christian Science Monitor , as well as one of Boston's hidden treasures, the intriguing Mapparium. The Mapparium is a room-size, stained-glass globe that visitors walk through on a glass bridge. It was created in 1935, which is reflected by the globe's geopolitical boundaries.
