Boston Common
America’s oldest city park, where cows grazed, pirates were hanged and the British camped
The story
Before you is Boston Common, the oldest city park in America. In 1634 the Puritans who founded Boston bought this land from the first European who lived here, the Anglican minister William Blackstone. Each householder paid six shillings. The result was a shared pasture, hence the name: the “common,” land held in common. Cows grazed here until 1830. The Common was also a place of punishment. There was a whipping post, a pillory and stocks, and pirates, murderers and people accused of witchcraft were hanged from a great old elm. Four Quakers were executed here for their faith, among them Mary Dyer. Her statue now stands by the State House. In 1775, when the British occupied Boston, more than a thousand Redcoats camped on the Common. From here they marched off toward Lexington and Concord, where the War of Independence began. Later, volunteers enlisted here for the Civil War, and anti-slavery rallies gathered on the grass. In World War One the Common grew victory gardens, and in World War Two the city gave most of its iron fence away as scrap metal. In the twentieth century Martin Luther King spoke here, and in 1979 Pope John Paul the Second celebrated Mass. The Freedom Trail starts here, a walking route through the sites of the American Revolution.
Visiting
The park’s address is 139 Tremont Street, next to Park Street subway station. Free entry. In winter the Frog Pond is a skating rink; in summer it is a spray pool for children.
Photos
Sources
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