Verdant Boston Common has hosted auctions, cattle grazing, and public hangings over its 380-year history, in addition to festivals and the requisite frisbee tosses. The adjacent Public Garden, opened in 1839, was the US’s first botanical garden. Its swan boats and weeping willows are emblematic of Boston at its most enchanting. The French-style flowerbeds may only bloom in warmer months, but the garden exudes old-world charm year round.
NEED TO KNOW
Bounded by: Beacon, Park, Tremont, Arlington, & Boylston streets • “T” station: Park Street (red/green line), Boylston & Arlington (both green line) • Open 24 hoursBoston Common Visitors’ Center • 139 Tremont St • 617 426 3115 • open 8:30am–5pm Mon–Fri, 9am–5pm Sat & SunBoston Parks & Recreation • 617 635 2090 • www.cityofboston.gov/parks • Swan boat rides: 617 522 1966 • mid-Apr–mid-Sep: usually 10am–5pm daily • Adm: $3; • www.swanboats.com- Quick, food court-style bites can be had inside the Corner shopping center, at Washington and Summer streets.
- The Commonwealth Shakespeare Company stages free performances during summer. Contact 617 426 0863 or check the website www.commshakes.org
1.Frog Pond
During summer, children splash under the iridescent spray of the pond’s fountains. Come winter, kids of all ages lace up their skates and take to the ice. Skate rentals and delicious hot chocolate are nearby.
Frog Pond
2.Lagoon Bridge
This elegant 1869 bridge that spans over the lagoon is a National Historic Landmark, and is a favorite spot for wedding pictures.
3.Make Way for Ducklings Statuettes
Eight little ducklings seem to have sprung from the pages of Robert McCloskey’s much-loved kids’ book and fallen in line behind their mother at the lagoon’s edge.
Make Way for Ducklings Statuettes
4.Shaw Memorial
Augustus Saint-Gaudens’ lifelike bronze pays homage to the “Fighting 54th” – one of the only entirely African-American regiments in the Civil War. Led by Boston native Robert Shaw, the 54th amassed an impressive battle record.
5.Bronze of George Washington
The nation’s first president cuts a stately figure at the western end of the Public Garden. Local sculptor Thomas Ball’s 1869 bronze was the first to show Washington astride a horse.
Bronze of George Washington
6.Soldiers and Sailors Monument
Over 25,000 Union Army veterans remembered their fallen Civil War comrades at the 1877 dedication of Martin Milmore’s impressive memorial. Bas-reliefs depict the soldiers’ and sailors’ departure to and return from war.
7.Founders’ Memorial
William Blaxton, Boston’s first white settler, is depicted greeting John Winthrop in John F. Paramino’s 1930 bronze. Note the use of the word “Shawmut” – the Native American name for the land that would become Boston.
8.Swan Boats
Summer hasn’t officially arrived in Boston until the swan boats emerge from hibernation and glide onto the Public Garden lagoon. With their gracefully arching necks and brilliantly painted bills, each distinctive swan can accommodate up to 20 people.
9.Parkman Bandstand
Built in 1912 to honor George Parkman, a benefactor of the park, this elegant bandstand is modeled on Versailles’ Temple d’Amour (temple of love). In summer it hosts everything from concerts to graduations.
10.Ether Monument
This 1868 statue commemorates the first etherized operation, which took place at Massachusetts General Hospital in 1846 (for further details see Paul S. Russell, MD Museum of Medical History and Innovation). Controversial from the outset, this is the West’s only monument to the powers of a drug.
EMERALD NECKLACE
Boston Common and Public Garden may seem like solitary urban oases, but they are two links in a greater chain of green space that stretches all the way through Boston to the suburb of Roxbury. The Emerald Necklace, as this chain is called, was completed in 1896 by Frederick Law Olmsted, the man behind New York’s Central Park.
