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| The Old State House view from the Boston Massacre site |
The
Old State House is the oldest public building in the city of Boston, and has had a myriad of uses over its 300 year history. Royal offices, lawyers, business people, post masters, and more have all had claim to the structure at one point on another. Remarkably well kept, this is the site of the infamous
Boston Massacre (just below that window you see above actually) and now is home to a museum and- subway station? Yeah, you read that correctly, coming right out of the side of the building is an entry into the subway system of Boston. A...unique way to keep a historic building relevant I must say.
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| Site of the Boston Massacre just outside of the OSH |
It was pretty much a straightforward museum- a very well stocked gift shop, with artifacts and informational maps and articles scattered about. A Few highlights for me were:
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| Our time traveling friend answering our questions |
1. The interactive question and answer session with a Boston resident from just before the Massacre had taken place. He explained, from his view point, what the climate was like in Boston that led up to all of the events we now learn about in US history class. I like that he didn't break character when speaking with people (for example, someone told him they were from Florida, and he looked confused and asked, "Do you mean the Spanish colonies? My we hardly ever meet any Spaniards in Boston!") Imagine how cool it must be to be a high school or college kid and your summer gig is to role play in colonial attire? I mean, probably not very cool temperature wise, but it beats burger flipping!
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| The Lion and Unicorn welcoming me into the galleries |
2. I really liked how the museum has taken the Lion and Unicorn emblem (symbols of the British monarchy) and really used them to introduce people to early American history. Throughout there are tidbits that speak to how the symbols went from being symbols of pride, to symbols of oppression (at one point the lion and unicorn figures at the top of the building were torn down and burned in a bonfire. Yikes!), to now symbols of a strong and noteworthy past. They are literally everywhere inside and outside the building- and while I don't quite remember exactly what the represented individually, it was explained on the panel you see pictured above.
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| Painting depicting the Boston Massacre |
3. I was especially glad to see that
Crispus Attucks was not ignored or overlooked in the history of this site. As the first person (of any race) to die in the fight for American liberty, he holds an important place in society and in African-American history (and let's be fair, Native American history too). I'm always amazed at people who don't know this fact- this is something I distinctly remember learning about in 3rd or 4th grade because we did several school projects on the Revolutionary War and French and Indian War (that's the 7 Years War for all of my European readers). And this took place at a public school in an urban, 99% black neighborhood- in the late 80s. Hmph. Maybe my school district was ahead of the ball.
Anyway, I have a few more Massachusetts entries to type up (and still have to add those picture captions...I'm so behind!) I have a soft Rhode Island mention to do, but I think I'm going to make a brief wrap up post for events and things that weren't big enough to warrant their own blog entry.
And, I leave for Washington/Alaska in just a few days! I'm so excited!
As always, thank you for reading along, and see you on the next adventure!
