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Greater Boston Convention& Visitors Bureau VisitorCenter

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Boston: Americas Walking City

Explore Boston on foot! Walking is an easy, pleasantand stress-free way to enjoy your visit. It is o ne ofthe best forms of exercise to keep you fit. Known forhistoric and picturesque neighborhoods, Boston hasoutstanding pedestrian features including:

A compact and relatively flat layout with European

style streets that are safe, lively and diverse. Centrally located points of interest: history,

entertainment, nightlife, architecture, culture,

science and arts abound.

A great feeling of openness against a backdropof skyscrapers, thanks to inviting green spaces likethe Boston Common, Commonwealth Avenue Malland the Charles River Esplanade.

A convenient and affordable subway and bus system

that takes you within steps of your destination.

Everything is within walking distance. And everyonein Boston walks. So walkyoull feel better for it!

Walks for visitors

This self-guided walkincludes points of interest,major conference hotels and the convention site. You

might combine the walk with dining. Nearby Boylstonand Newbury Streets are lined with restaurants andshops. A stroll in the other direction brings you to thecharming South End. This neighborhood contains astunning array of Bostons top restaurants. To reachthe heart of this district, walk along Dartmouth orClarendon Street to Tremont Street. Along the way,admire the brick bowfronts and bay windowsof the 1850s residences that line the streets.

The Greater Boston Convention & Visitors Bureau

lists many walks and tours, including the Freedom Trailand the Black Heritage Trail. For a complete listing,see www.BostonUSA.com or call 888-SEE-BOSTON.

If you have a bit more time, the book WalkBoston:

Walking Tours of Bostons Unique Neighborhoodscontains 30 self-guided walks tracing history, exploringneighborhoods, and visiting parks and the oceanfront.Available for $14.95 in bookstores, at GBCVB booths,or through the WalkBoston office at 617.367.9255.

walk/with stops: 1 hour

walk/no stops:30 minutes

distance: 13 blocks/1.25 mi.

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work from 1869 honors Washington, beloved for freeingBoston from the clutches of the British after the longsiege of 1775-76. The sense of motion and imperturbablemight quaking in the giant bronze is most fitting. Thesword clutched in his right hand disappears from time totime, a target of overzealous collectors, and is replacedby the city from its reserve. Cross Arlington Street andenter the Commonwealth Avenue Mall.

3Alexander Hamilton was sculpted by Dr. WilliamRimmer in 1865, shortly after the Mall opened.Hamilton faces his mentor George Washington. Thebrooding Machiavellian statesman is in stark contrastto Washingtons triumphal pose. The statue, inquintessential New England granite, is the onlystone sculpture on the Mall.

Starting at Arlington Street, Commonwealth Avenuefollows a straight line [unusual for Boston] through theBack Bay. Note that the cross-streets are in alphabeticalorder: Arlington, Berkeley, Clarendon, Dartmouth,Exeter, Fairfield, Gloucester, Hereford. They alternateas one-way streets; careful as you cross!

4 John Glover was a Revolutionary War hero whohelped Washington cross the Delaware and whosebrigade helped give the Marines their name. MartinMilmore sculpted the piece in 1875. Glovers left leg

is perched on a cannon barrel in a defiant gesture ofconquest, perhaps from one of his skirmishes withBritish troops and his capture of artillery installations.

5 First Baptist Church was designed by Henry HobsonRichardson in 1871. Built of local Roxbury puddingstone,it features a frieze on the upper reaches of the bell towerby Auguste Bartholdi, sculptor of the Statue of Liberty.Trumpeting angels perched high on the campanile gaveit a local nickname Church of the Holy Bean Blowers.

6 Patrick Andrew Collins was mayor of Boston from1902-1905. His bust was commissioned by communityleaders after Collins premature death while in office. Itwas sculpted by Henry and Theo Alice Kitson in 1908.Neoclassical female figures stand impassively on either

side, one holding a harp and the other a tree frond.7 Vendome Firefighters Memorialhonors the ninefirefighters who died in the Vendome Hotel fire in 1972.Created in 1997 by Ted Clausen, aided by Peter White,

it marks the tragic events 25th anniversary. It juxtaposesstark modernism in the polished granite base withpoignant realism in the firemans coat and hat drapedacross it. The inscriptions tell the story of the fire andthe unexpected collapse of the buildings rear portion.

8 Hotel Vendome [1871] is a Second Empire stylestructure that now houses galleries, offices, andresidences. In 1882 it was the first public buildingin Boston to have electric li ghts. For many gloriousyears, it was Bostons premier hotel.

9 William Lloyd Garrison was sculpted in 1886 by

Olin Levi Warner. The stern abolitionist is seated,manuscripts in hand and scattered beneath his chair,staring contemplatively, perhaps envisioning a futurein which man no longer enslaves his fellow man. Besure to read the inscription of Garrisons statementsfrom his publication, The Liberator. The green oxidizedcopper surface of the statue is unique along the Mall.Garrisons presence here is unquestionably fitting, ashe was largely based in Boston.

bkSamuel Eliot Morrisonsailor, Harvard professor,maritime historian, and author of many books on maritimeand Massachusetts historywas sculpted by PenelopeJencks in 1982. Perched on a pedestal that mimics acoastal rock formation, Morrison is rendered in a casual,

engaging way that is a welcome contrast to the stiff19th-century figures preceding him. Many visitors posefor photos with Morrison.

blAlgonquin Club, at 217 Commonwealth Avenueon your right, has a gracious facade designed by therenowned architectural firm of McKim, Meade andWhite [architects of the Boston Public Library]. Bothbuildings are High Italian Renaissance Revival in style,but the club boasts the delicate surface articulationand decorative carvings associated with the firmsgregarious partner Stanford White, while the grandmasculine lines and bulk of the library are the work ofthe more staid and conservative Charles Follen McKim.

bmBoston Womens Memorial was created by Meredith

Bergmann in 2003. It represents a trio of three notablelocal figuresformer first lady Abigail Adams, journalist/suffragist Lucy Stone, and the first published Africanwriter in America, Phyllis Wheatley. The grouping isone of the few city sculptures designed by a woman.

bnDomingo Sarmiento [full-length bronze of the diplomat, donated by Arconnection stems from hisof localeducation reformerhe designed his countryManns principles. The scCompagnion, recalls the almost pockmarked bron

boBurrage Mansion, at 3was designed in the Chate

in 1899 for lumber magnaintricately carved detailsand a magnificent steel, conservatory on the Here

bpLeif Eriksson and his VAnne Whitney in the 1887on a ship pedestal. Ebenbaking powder, commissbelieved that Eriksson caColumbus and discovereon the Charles River.

At Charlesgate East, the connected to Frederick LNecklace parks. This link

20th century by intrusive

Commonwealth Avenue Sculptures

Bostons Commonwealth Avenue finds its 19th-century inspiration in the boulevards of Europe.The centerpiece of the elegant Back Bay, the avenueis 200 feetwide, with generous carriageways andsidewalks. The gracious central walkway, called theMall, is enlivened with sculpture and landscaping.Installation of statuary began in 1865 and continuesto this day. Because nearly all of the sculptures faceeast toward the Public Garden, this walk is devisedto allow you to go west and approach each frontally,

as sculptorsmeant them to be seen.

Commonwealth Avenue attracted the citys newlyrich financiers, industrialists and Civil War profiteers,who commissioned the pre-eminent architects ofthe day to design luxurious townhouses that stillstand from this bygone era. Uniform setbacks andheights of dwellings, combined with the ta stefullandscaping and plantings of the Mall, culminatein a richly harmonious whole. In the 20th century,many structures became condominiums, but facadeswere protected in this largest cohesive Victorianneighborhood in the nation.

As you walk along the avenue, be sure to admirethe many fine examples of late 19th-century

architecture that line it. Architectural stylesinclude French Academic, Gothic, RichardsonianRomanesque, Beaux-Arts . . . an eclectic mlangeof historic styles typical of the Victorian era.

Points of interest

1Copley Square is framed by the Boston PublicLibrary, Fairmont Copley Plaza Hotel, the 60-storyHancock Building, Trinity Church, and New Old SouthChurch. Statues of Art and Science crafted by B.L.Pratt in 1911 stand at the main library entrance. Thehandsome bronze doors are by Daniel Chester French.Walk down Boylston Street and turn left at ArlingtonStreet. The sculptures begin inside the Public Gardenwhere Arlington Street meets Commonwealth Avenue.

2George Washington on a large horse rides justinside the Public Garden. Sculptor Thomas Balls

Old City Hall | 45 School Street

F: 617.367.9285 | info@walk

walkM A K I N G O U R C O M M U

Map: Ken Dumas Design:

Text: Duncan Sanger