Monday, September 16, 2013

Boston, Massachusetts

Unlike the other former colonies, Massachusetts chose its most populous and historically prominent city as its capital, rather than the most geographically central city. It is hard to get more historically pivotal than the city of Boston. Boston itself emanates colonial America; almost every block contains a culturally significant restaurant, store, building, or park. Even the streets seem to not have changed much since then, except for being paved. This results in the infamous Boston traffic, which was certainly a hindrance throughout my research. The three historical sites that I visited, Paul Revere’s House, The Massachusetts State House, and the Old State House, are located in a triangular formation across the city on Boston’s “Freedom Trail,” which is a marked walking path through Boston connecting various historical places.

Paul Revere’s House lies in Boston’s North End. It was built in 1680 for a wealthy merchant named Robert Howard, and it is the only remaining example of seventeenth century architecture in Boston.  Paul Revere did not buy the house until 1770, and he lived there for thirty years. Soon after Revere sold the building, it became a tenement with shops on the first floor. In 1902, Paul Revere’s great-grandson, John P. Reynolds Jr., purchased the building to prevent it from being demolished. The Paul Revere Memorial Association was created, which raised money for the restoration of the building, and in 1908, the Paul Revere House was open to the public.
The association charges a modest entrance fee, and requests that no pictures be taken inside the building. As I walked in, a small, replicated kitchen area greeted me. As with most replications of dwellings from hundreds of years ago, a plaque reminded me about the 21st century luxuries of my own life that were absent for many people for so long. In many ways, life is only a fraction as difficult as it was just a short time ago. Despite all of these humbling reminders from the plaque, it didn’t mention that air-conditioning has been added to the building to make visitors more comfortable during the sweltering Boston summers, which I greatly appreciated when I was there. 
By today’s standards, the house isn’t much. There are only two rooms on each floor in which Revere and his wife, his 11 surviving children, and his mother all lived. It was difficult for me to imagine living in such cramped conditions. The most remarkable thing to me was that in Revere’s time, the home was considered spacious, even for such a large family.
On the second floor, impeccable examples of Paul Revere’s silver are displayed, along with various other informative plaques. One of them in the back bedroom informed me that Revere’s mother lived with him until her death at 83 years old. This impressed me immensely, because living until 83 in the 18th century was by no means an easy thing to do. After about fifteen minutes in the house, there wasn’t much else to see, so I left and walked back to my car.
I battled my way through the Boston streets to the current Capitol, which overlooks Boston Commons. It was the middle of the afternoon, and I had to park five blocks away. I trudged up a steep hill and arrived in front of the famous edifice breathing heavily, perspiring fiercely, and already worn out. The building itself, designed by Charles Bulfinch, is incredibly famous and served as the model for many other Capitols in the country. The columns, numerous steps, and tall gate were impressive, and I could understand why so many other states would want their Capitol to emulate this example.
            The building was large, ornate, and lavishly decorated. As I explored on my own, the significance of the building became more and more clear. Boston is one of the most historical cities in the U.S., and the Capitol is the representation of that. Although it is far more ornate than the Capitols in Montpelier, Augusta, or Concord, it is not without taste.

Both of the legislative chambers are on the third floor. The House of Representatives has the honor of being home to the Sacred Cod. My favorite part of the whole building due to its whimsy, the Sacred Cod is a model of a codfish that hangs from the gallery in the House chambers. Its sanctity comes from the fact that cod fishing was the first industry practiced by Europeans in Massachusetts. In 1933, the Sacred Cod was ‘cod-napped’ by members of the Harvard Lampoon as a prank. Students of the University of Massachusetts Boston took it again briefly in 1968. The Sacred Cod has hung for three centuries, and has had three incarnations, all before 1800. The current Cod was installed in 1784 in the Old State House, which was in use from 1776 to 1798. In 1798 it was moved the current State house, originally over the Speaker’s desk, but in the 1850s, they moved it to its current position in the rear of the room.
After seeing the legislative chambers and many of the other rooms in the building, the frenzy of the day was beginning to catch up with me. In addition to it being over 90 degrees outside, I did not have time to eat lunch and still make it to all of my destinations. After meandering slowly back to my car, I began my next crusade to the final stop on my journey, the old State House. Once I arrived, I discovered with a small measure of dismay that the entrance fee was the steepest of any I had paid in my entire journey thus far. Even more frustrating was the fact that the exhibits were not terribly interesting, and I was so exhausted at this point in the day that I found that I did not have the patience to hear about many of the historical events that were covered repeatedly by guides or literature provided in the previous two buildings.
Walking away from the Old State House, I came to the conclusion that Boston’s culture is very difficult to digest in a mere day. The city has so much significance, culture, heritage, attitude, and spunk that it is almost impossible to encapsulate all of it. Unlike many of the other capitals that I have visited, Boston is a big city with all of the diversity, density, and complexity that comes along with that. It has more variety and more quantity than all of the other capital cities I have been to so far. Even with the small sliver of Boston that I was able to experience, I felt a strong anchor to the origins of our country throughout the city. Despite being worn out, at the end of the day I felt that I could appreciate Boston as the big, historical capital that it is.
When I arrived back to my car, the sun was setting behind the skyscrapers, beaming segmented, golden rays onto the streets. The familiar seat felt so relieving when I first climbed in that I just sat for a moment before I started the ignition. It had been a long day, but nonetheless a rewarding and worthwhile one. Next stop, Providence.

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