Boston is currently in the midst of an unprecedented building boom on the scale of Chicago, a city five times as large. Yet Boston maintains the historical sites which make it unique. Sixteen of Boston’s and America’s historical attractions are connected by a red line painted on the sidewalk?EUR??,,????'??+the line of the Freedom Trail.

The Freedom Trail was conceived in 1950 William G. Schofield, chief editorial writer for the Boston Herald Traveler, realized that the greatest number of sites sacred to the beginnings of the United States were located in Boston, and more over, were all within walking distance of each other. Schofield was able to get the city to post some signs and he wrote several editorials promoting the idea of the Freedom Trail.

The starting point of the Freedom Trail, appropriately, is the Boston Common. The park itself is the oldest public park in the United States, and has been Boston’s foremost landmark since 1634.

Today on the Common there are street musicians, political protests, outdoor lunches and art-in-the-park exhibits. Major outdoor events such as the first Papal Mass and the 100th Birthday of the Boston Symphony Orchestra took place on the west side of the Common, facing the Public Garden.

The State House was built on land that belonged to the John Hancock family. Samuel Adams laid the cornerstone. The golden dome has become one of the city’s chief landmarks. The dome, covered with 24-carat gold-leaf, was painted dull gray during World War II to hide it from possible enemy bombers. The State House archives contain many original documents including the Charter of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, the Massachusetts Constitution of 1780, the muster roles of the Minutemen, Bradford’s history of Plimoth Plantation and a request by Captain Kidd’s wife to visit him in jail before he was sent to England and hanged for piracy in 1701.

Above the door of the House Chamber, is a wooden-carved “Sacred Cod,” proving the importance of fish to the early settlers. And also inside one of the most beautiful rooms in the United States is the “Hall of Flags,” displaying battle flags (some with bullet holes) of Massachusetts regiments which fought from Gettysburg to Normandy.

Down the street is the Park Street Church (1809). Gunpowder was stored there during the War of 1812 and the intersection is still called “Brimstone Corner.” William Lloyd Garrison gave his first anti-slavery address here in 1829.

The list of beautiful old churches in the country includes King’s Chapel, completed in 1754 as the first Anglican church in America. Next to King’s Chapel is the church’s burying ground, which from 1630-1660 was the city’s only burial place. William Dawes, who rode with Paul Revere, Governor John Winthrop and many other colonial notables are buried here, but very few of the names on the stones are legible. The inside of the chapel is considered one of the finest colonial church interiors in existence.

Another church along the Trail is the Old South Meeting House, which was built in 1729 as a Congregational Church. Members of the Meeting House included patriots James Otis, Thomas Cushing and Thomas Dawes. Another member of Old South was Phyllis Wheatly, America’s first published black woman poet. The Meeting House was used to discuss the 1773 tea tax, after which the consensus was to throw the Boston Tea Party.

An eight-foot bronze Benjamin Franklin, Boston’s first portrait statue, the work of Richard S. Greenough in 1856, is on the site of the country’s first public school house, built in 1645. Many distinguished Bostonians got their training at the Boston Latin School, among them leaders of the Revolutionary period, Samuel Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin and Josiah Quincy, Jr. In 1812, Charles Bulfinch, also a graduate of the Latin School, replaced the 1748 Latin School with a still larger school house.

The seat of government in colonial days was the Old State House. It is a beautiful structure, with a blue and gold sundial on the wall and decorated with the symbols of the British monarchy, the lion and the unicorn, which were torn down by angry Bostonians but replaced when tempers cooled. The interior contains ship models and maritime records.

The Boston Massacre site is marked by a circle in white stones in front of the Old State House. The “Massacre” was started when an unruly crowd of 150 persons arrived with clubs, pieces of ice and stones and surrounded Private Hugh White of the 29th Worcester regiment. White called for help. Nine redcoats came to his aid and the mob began to attack with clubs. One soldier panicked and fired. When it was over, five members of the crowd had been killed, including Crispus Attucks, the first black man to die in the Revolution.

Faneuil Hall was built in 1742 by Peter Faneuil, and it was enlarged in 1806. The lower floor has always been a market. The second floor was used as a meeting hall, where protests against the British were abundant. The third level is the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company Museu.

Paul Revere’s House at 19 North Square is the only surviving 17th century structure left in Boston proper, and it is the oldest building in the city. The house was built between 1676 and 1680. Revere purchased the house in 1770, a few weeks before the Boston Massacre. He brought his first wife and five (one had already died) of his eventual sixteen children. Except for the period when the patriot army was beseiging Boston, the Reveres lived here until 1780, then rented the place to others while they stayed with relatives in the economically grim final years of the war. They owned the house until 1800.

Not far from Paul Revere’s house, there is the oldest standing church still in use today, the famous Old North Church. Built in 1723, it is the church from which lanterns where hung signaling Paul Revere that the British were on their way by sea.

During the Revolution, the British set up cannons to fire on Charlestown from Copps Hill Burial Ground. Edmund Hartt, who built the U.S.S. Constitution, is buried here. The ship, also known as “Old Ironsides,” is visible from the hill. It is the oldest commissioned ship in the U.S. Navy. It was launched in 1797, with its fittings made by Paul Revere. During the War with Tripoli and the War of 1812, it took part in 44 naval battles without a defeat. Every year the ship is towed to sea, turned around and reberthed so it won’t warp from the sun being on only one side.

The final stop along the 2-1/2 mile Freedom Trail is the Bunker Hill Monurnent, which commemorates what was probably the bloodiest battle during the Revolution. The British went up Bunker Hill three times. In the first attack, the colonials fired 30,000 musket balls in ten minutes, wounding or killing 450 men. Every officer and sergeant in the British 35th Light Infantry was killed or wounded, while the 10th Grenadiers lost all their officers. When the colonials were driven off the hill because they ran out of ammunition, the British had lost 1,054 men including 92 of their officers. The Americans lost 476 men. The battle was 90 minutes long.