50plusDC- Boston Downtown and Financial District

Lionfish, New England Aquarium

And now for a more modern attraction. Located on the waterfront at at Central Wharf, the New England Aquarium dates back to 1969. It provides a mixture of education and entertainment as well as actively working to reduce serious threats to our oceans and their marine life. The Aquarium has more than 50 exhibits and has on show thousands of marine animals in in displays that recreate their natural habitats. The Lionfish, shown here, lives in warm waters on reefs and in rocky crevices. It is venomous and capable of delivering and extremely painful sting to humans. Click Tab 2 to see a Leafy Sea Dragon, superbly camouflaged against the sea plants in the background. Click Tab 3 to see an ice sculpture of penguins outside the aquarium.

Downtown & Financial District

Street Entertainers outside Quincy Market

London has Covent Garden while Boston has Quincy Market. This is the place to go if you fancy some street entertainment. We watched these guys juggling and leaping for some time, but had to leave before the end of the show because we had a train to catch. Honestly, we weren’t trying to avoid the passing round of the hat at the end of the performance!

Union Oyster House, Union Street

The date that this building was constructed is not known, but Union Street dates all the way back to 1636. The earliest record of the building is in 1742 when it was the premises of a clothing and silk importer Hopestill Capen. In the 1770’s Isaiah Thomas, a friend of Paul Revere, published an underground newspaper called The Massachusetts Spy from here. The paper took and anti-British line and promoted independence. In 1826 Capen's Dry Goods Store was replaced by the Atwood and Bacon Oyster House. The restaurant is still going, albeit long since known as the Union Oyster House.

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Boston’s downtown area is where it all began so it is sometimes called Old Boston. Well, some of this area goes back to the earliest days but in common with many other parts of Boston the original waterfront is now well inland. The area close to Boston Common is where you will find the oldest sights, especially those that date back to Colonial days. To the east, close to the waterfront, can be found the modern skyscrapers of the Financial District.

Old State House

Dwarfed by surrounding buildings and with a Subway Station built under one end, Old State House looks a slightly sorry sight, but at least it is still there. Dating from 1713 it was the centre of political life in colonial times. It was in front of this building that the Boston Massacre took place in 1770. British soldiers shot at a crowd that was harassing them resulting in five deaths. On July 18, 1776, the Declaration of Independence was proclaimed from the balcony on the east side. Following the building in 1798 of the ‘new’ State House overlooking Boston Common, it went into decline and by 1880 it had fallen into disrepair. A plan to dismantle the building and move it to Chicago eventually galvanised the City of Boston to restore it and now it houses a Museum of Boston’s history.

Faneuil Hall & Custom House tower from Dock Square

Built as a meeting hall and market place in 1742 using funds provided by by merchant Peter Faneuil, the market at Faneuil Hall and the one at the adjacent Quincy Market are now firmly targeted on tourists. Samuel Adams, whose statue stands in front of the building, was among those who used the hall to deliver speeches against British rule. The 30 story Custom House tower in the middle of the picture was a 1915 addition to the 1847 Custom House building. It now houses timeshare apartments.

King's Chapel & Burying Ground

The exact age of the oldest cemetery in Boston is not known, but it predates the chapel after which it is now named. The burying ground to the left contains the graves of some early colonists, including Mary Chilton who arrived on the Mayflower. King’s Chapel was built as an Anglican Church in 1688. It was built on a public burying ground because the local landowners were Puritans who would not sell land for such a church. After the Revolution it became a Unitarian church but even now it uses an Anglican/Unitarian hybrid liturgy. Click Tab 2 to see the interior of the chapel.

Graves of Samuel Adams & Boston Massacre victims, Granary Burying Ground

The Granary Burying Ground was established in 1660 on land that was originally part of Boston Common. It was the third cemetery in Boston, needed because the the city's first cemetery, the nearby King's Chapel Burying Ground, was fast running out of space. Three of the people who signed the Declaration of Independence are buried here, including Samuel Adams whose grave is on the right in the picture. The tall gravestone on the left marks the final resting place of the five victims of the 1770 Boston Massacre. Click Tab 2 to see the monument to founding father Benjamin Franklin who was born in Boston but is buried in Philadelphia. The monument was erected in 1827.