Granary Burying Ground: Where All the Cool Revolutionaries Go to Get Buried

A few weeks ago, I awoke early on a Saturday, got ready, and left my apartment with the initial intention of heading to my friend Anna's apartment down in Roslindale. A change in plans led me to take a spur-of-the-moment trip into downtown Boston instead, where I headed into one of the old historic cemeteries, snapped a few photos, and then popped into Downtown Crossing and did some Christmas shopping.

The Granary Burying Ground is located beside the Park Street Church on Tremont Street in Boston, and it's old as shet - founded in 1660. While there are about 2300 gravestone markers in the cemetery, there are said to be up to 5000 Bostonians buried there - several of them notable historic figures from the Revolutionary War era. 

.  click for a larger view!  .

Not to drop names, but here are some of the more recognizable people buried in the Granary Burying Ground:

• John Hancock
• Paul Revere
• Samuel Adams
• Benjamin Franklin's parents
• Victims from the Boston Massacre
• Legend has it that the "real" Mother Goose may even be buried here!

.  this is a newer grave marker, obviously  .
.  there is an older one next to it  .

As you can see, the old gravestones are super thin and creepy looking.

Many of them are adorned with skulls...

While the above depicts a skull and cross bones, many of the other gravestones are topped with an engraving of a skull with wings. According to the Freedom Trail website, "One of the most popular motifs was the 'Soul Effigy,' a skull or 'death’s head' with a wing on each side that was a representation of the soul flying to heaven after death." So. Now you know.

.  the park street church  .

This particular cemetery is along Boston's Freedom Trail, so if you're ever in the area doing that touristy activity, you'll get to see this historic gem. There's also another old church and burying ground just a few blocks away at the King's Chapel. 

For more pictures of Revolutionary-era Boston things, check out this blog that I wrote last year!

Have you ever been to Boston? The Freedom Trail and other historic adventures await you :)

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Concord Battlegrounds and a Bit of Boston

At this point, it's been kind of awhile since I got back from my voyage to Massachusetts, but I am still coming across photos from my trip that I haven't posted here yet!

Dave and I have a sort of unique habit of splitting up when we go home to Mass. to visit. His family lives about 2 ½ hours away from mine, which usually results in the two of us retreating to our separate parts of the state and spending time with family/friends separately. So though we flew into the state together, we were then actually apart for about 2 ½ weeks. #WompWomp.

When only a few days remained in our trip before we'd be flying back to Seattle together, the two of us reconnected at Dave's parents' house in Boxboro, MA for a few days of relaxing alone. (His family was vacationing down on the Cape.)

Boxboro is about 40 minutes northwest of Boston, right smack in the middle of tons of historic points of interest. There are super old rock walls all throughout the town as well as plenty of old-as-hell houses. The town is neighbored by nearby Concord, Lincoln and Lexington with Cambridge also just down Route 2.

If you were to make the trek from Boxboro back southeast towards Boston, you could make quite the historical "American Revolution" tour out of it. So we did!

On a sunny Sunday afternoon, Dave and I set out from his parents' beautiful Boxboro home and made the short trip to Concord. We parked at the Visitor Center and took a look around the building's exhibit before beginning our afternoon of walking along the Battle Road Trail.

Battle Road Trail is definitely interesting, especially if you are into American history. Along the 5-mile trail you'll pass historic houses, taverns and farmlands, as well as Revolution-related sites, like the spot where Paul Revere was stopped and detained by British militia on the night of his infamous midnight ride.

There are still old rock walls along each side of the historic road, so you can really envision what it would have been like for it to have been an active road hundreds of years ago.

.  click to enlarge!  .

Some of the old houses were actually open to the public, complete with employed re-enactors performing and answering questions.

.  hartwell tavern  .

Here I am as a tavern bar wench:

.  don't i look like i might serve you a drink and then punch you in the face?  .

.  captain william smith house  .

.  featuring ya girl!  .

The following day, a sunny and perfectly-temperatured Monday, we drove into Boston to continue our historic crawl.

But the first order of business on a beautiful Boston summer day is to relax on the grass in the Boston Common (America's oldest public park) - soaking in the sunshine, blue skies, and wonderfully familiar skyline:

.  le sigh  .

The Common's Frog Pond transforms from an ice skating rink in the Boston winters to a shallow community waterhole in the hot Boston summers:

After basking in the Common's summer energy for a bit, we jumped onto the freedom trail and spent the afternoon following it through Boston's Financial District and North End.

Here's the Old State House - where the Declaration of Independence was read to the people for the first time. It was also the site of the Boston Massacre:

Part of the charm of Boston is that there is so much history surrounded by modern elements. You can see in the above photo that the Old State House is overlooked by skyscrapers.

.  the old city hall  .

Have you ever walked the Freedom Trail or Battle Trail Road in Massachusetts? They'd probably both be lovely in the fall!
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{Linking up with What I Learned Wednesday}
p.s. I am featured today over on the Much Ado About Somethin/One Fine Wire Tell Us Tuesday linkup: