It's prime tourism season in the Boston area, and two of the biggest tourist attractions in the region are surely two of its top universities: the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard.
Here to help your sight-seeing along is a map of eight spots worth seeking out that have absolutely nothing (or at least almost nothing) to do with M.I.T. or Harvard.
The 16-acre park includes three cannon that Washington's troops seized after the British evacuated the Boston area in 1776. There are other Revolutionary-related markers in the Common as well, including the tree beneath which Washington supposedly took command of the Continental Army. This public park is not to be confused with the private watering hole nearby (though we highly recommend that, too).
This cemetery is considered the first planned rural cemetery in the United States. It includes among its honored more than 900 people who served during the Civil War. The big sphinx statue is, in fact, a memorial to those who died in the conflict.
This park sports not only the oldest surviving fortification from the Revolutionary War, but five life-size, painted-steel silhouettes, four minutemen and a Victorian-era woman, to commemorate George Washington’s siege of Boston.
Julia Child lived for decades in the house at 103 Irving Street, just east of Harvard (it's a private home, still, so please don't ring the doorbell). She shopped for ingredients at Savenor's nearby at 92 Kirkland Street and received the Legion of Honor from the French government at the Meridien Hotel at 20 Sidney Street.
With an entrance just to the west of the Alewife Red Line stop, this 11-mile bike and hike trail runs along where the earliest fighting of the American Revolution took place. There are stops for souvenirs and food.
The first grave here dates from 1653. Because it was the only burying ground in Cambridge for about 200 years, it contains more than 1,200 resting places. It's sometimes called the Old Burial Ground, too.
The original Romanesque building dates from the late 1880s, and a massive, Modernist expansion opened adjacent to it in 2009. That addition was one of the first U.S. buildings to incorporate double-skin curtain walls. Old meets new, and just down the street from Harvard's main campus, full itself of notable buildings.
The house served as headquarters for George Washington during the Siege of Boston from July 1775 to April 1776. It was later the home of poetry giant Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. It is open during the summer for regular tours.
The 16-acre park includes three cannon that Washington's troops seized after the British evacuated the Boston area in 1776. There are other Revolutionary-related markers in the Common as well, including the tree beneath which Washington supposedly took command of the Continental Army. This public park is not to be confused with the private watering hole nearby (though we highly recommend that, too).
This cemetery is considered the first planned rural cemetery in the United States. It includes among its honored more than 900 people who served during the Civil War. The big sphinx statue is, in fact, a memorial to those who died in the conflict.
This park sports not only the oldest surviving fortification from the Revolutionary War, but five life-size, painted-steel silhouettes, four minutemen and a Victorian-era woman, to commemorate George Washington’s siege of Boston.
Julia Child lived for decades in the house at 103 Irving Street, just east of Harvard (it's a private home, still, so please don't ring the doorbell). She shopped for ingredients at Savenor's nearby at 92 Kirkland Street and received the Legion of Honor from the French government at the Meridien Hotel at 20 Sidney Street.
With an entrance just to the west of the Alewife Red Line stop, this 11-mile bike and hike trail runs along where the earliest fighting of the American Revolution took place. There are stops for souvenirs and food.
The first grave here dates from 1653. Because it was the only burying ground in Cambridge for about 200 years, it contains more than 1,200 resting places. It's sometimes called the Old Burial Ground, too.
The original Romanesque building dates from the late 1880s, and a massive, Modernist expansion opened adjacent to it in 2009. That addition was one of the first U.S. buildings to incorporate double-skin curtain walls. Old meets new, and just down the street from Harvard's main campus, full itself of notable buildings.
The house served as headquarters for George Washington during the Siege of Boston from July 1775 to April 1776. It was later the home of poetry giant Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. It is open during the summer for regular tours.
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