6 Best Sights in Boston, Massachusetts

Faneuil Hall (pronounced Fan-yoo'uhl or Fan-yuhl) was erected in 1742, the gift of wealthy merchant Peter Faneuil, who wanted the hall to serve as both a place for town meetings and a public market. It burned in 1761 and was immediately reconstructed according to the original plan of its designer, the Scottish portrait painter John Smibert (who lies in the Granary Burying Ground). In 1763 the political leader James Otis helped inaugurate the era that culminated in American independence when he dedicated the rebuilt hall to the cause of liberty.

In 1772 Samuel Adams stood here and first suggested that Massachusetts and the other colonies organize a Committee of Correspondence to maintain semiclandestine lines of communication in the face of hardening British repression. In later years the hall again lived up to Otis's dedication when the abolitionists Wendell Phillips and Charles Sumner pleaded for support from its podium. The tradition continues to this day: in presidential-election years the hall is the site of debates between contenders in the Massachusetts primary.

Faneuil Hall was substantially enlarged and remodeled in 1805 according to a Greek Revival design of the noted architect Charles Bulfinch; this is the building you see today. Its purposes remain the same: the balconied Great Hall is available to citizens' groups on presentation of a request signed by a required number of responsible parties; it also plays host to regular concerts.

Inside Faneuil Hall are dozens of paintings of famous Americans, including the mural Webster's Reply to Hayne and Gilbert Stuart's portrait of Washington at Dorchester Heights. Park rangers give informational talks about the history and importance of Faneuil Hall every half hour. There are interactive displays about Boston sights, and National Park Service rangers at the visitor center on the first floor can provide maps and other information.

On the building's top floors are the headquarters and museum and library of the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company of Massachusetts, which is free to visit (but a donation is welcome). Founded in 1638, it's the oldest militia in the Western Hemisphere, and the third-oldest in the world, after the Swiss Guard and the Honourable Artillery Company of London. The museum is open Wednesday through Friday from 11 am to 3 pm.

When such men as Andrew Jackson and Daniel Webster debated the future of the Republic here, the fragrances of bacon and snuff—sold by merchants in Quincy Market across the road—greeted their noses. Today the aroma of coffee wafts through the hall from a snack bar. The shops at ground level sell New England bric-a-brac. This is Freedom Trail stop 11.

Both somber and dramatic, King's Chapel looms large. Its distinctive shape wasn't achieved entirely by design; for lack of funds, it was never topped with a steeple. The first chapel on this site was erected in 1688 for the establishment of an Anglican place of worship, and it took five years to build the solid Quincy-granite structure seen today. As construction proceeded, the old church continued to stand within the rising walls of the new, the plan being to remove and carry it away piece by piece when the outer stone chapel was completed. The builders then went to work on the interior, which remains essentially as they finished it in 1754; it's a masterpiece of proportion and Georgian calm (in fact, its acoustics make the use of a microphone unnecessary for Sunday sermons). The pulpit, built in 1717, is the oldest pulpit in continuous use on the same site in the United States. To the right of the main entrance is a special pew once reserved for condemned prisoners, who were trotted in to hear a sermon before being hanged on the Common. The chapel's bell is Paul Revere's largest and, in his judgment, his sweetest sounding. For a behind-the-scenes look at the bell or crypt, take a guided tour. You won’t be disappointed. This is Freedom Trail stop 5.

At one end of the Paul Revere Mall is a church famous not only for being the oldest standing church building in Boston (built in 1723) but also for housing the two lanterns that glimmered from its steeple on the night of April 18, 1775. This is Christ (or Old North) Church, where Paul Revere and the young sexton Robert Newman managed that night to signal the departure by water of the British regulars to Lexington and Concord. Newman, carrying the lanterns, ascended the steeple, while Revere began his clandestine trip by boat across the Charles.

Although William Price designed the structure after studying Christopher Wren's London churches, Old North—which still has an active Episcopal congregation (including descendants of the Reveres)—is an impressive building in its own right. Inside, note the gallery and the graceful arrangement of pews; the bust of George Washington, pronounced by the Marquis de Lafayette to be the truest likeness of the general he ever saw; the brass chandeliers, made in Amsterdam in 1700 and installed here in 1724; and the clock, the oldest still running in an American public building. Try to visit when changes are rung on the bells, after the 11 am Sunday service; they bear the inscription, "We are the first ring of bells cast for the British Empire in North America." The steeple itself is not the original—the tower was destroyed in a hurricane in 1804 and was replaced in 1954. On the Sunday closest to April 18, descendants of the patriots reenact the raising of the lanterns in the church belfry during a special ticketed evening service, which also includes readings of Longfellow’s renowned poem, “Paul Revere’s Ride,” and Revere’s first-person account of that fateful night. Visitors are welcome to drop in for a self-guided tour or a 15-minute guided crypt tour.

Behind Old North is the Washington Memorial Garden, where volunteers cultivate a plot devoted to plants and flowers favored in the 18th century.  This is Freedom Trail stop 13.

Although it once was, Castle Island is no longer, well, an island. Today, this tip of South Boston is accessible by car and by foot from Day Boulevard. Castle Island's centerpiece is Fort Independence, built in 1801 (although there have been battlements on-site since 1644) and open for free tours on summer weekend afternoons. Castle Island is a popular spot for South Boston residents to walk their dogs, jog, or cycle, whether just around the island itself or along the water-set Pleasure Bay Loop. There's also a nice playground for kids. If you get peckish, stop by Sullivan's (known locally as Sully's). Open February through November, come to this Castle Island institution of more than 60 years for a hot dog and fries. Views of the harbor and its outlying islands are expansive.

If this Congregationalist church at the corner of Tremont and Park Streets could sing, you'd hear Samuel Smith's iconic hymn "America," which was first sung here in 1831. But that's only one fun fact about this historic site. It was designed by Peter Banner and erected in 1810. The Handel & Haydn Society was founded here in 1815. William Lloyd Garrison began his long public campaign for the abolition of slavery here in 1829. Just outside the church is Brimstone Corner, and whether the name refers to the fervent thunder of the church's preachers, the gunpowder that was once stored in the church's crypt, or the burning sulfur that preachers once scattered on the pavement to attract potential churchgoers, we'll never know—historians simply can't agree. This Freedom Trail site is not open for tours, only services. This is Freedom Trail stop 3.

Tiny, but well worth the 15 minutes you'll spend here if you're already in the neighborhood, this operating theater is open to the public because of its historical significance. In fact, it served as Mass General Hospital's first operating room, in use from 1821 to 1867, and it was here where the world witnessed the first public demonstration of surgical anesthesia, in 1846. Today, the room contains two 19th-century operating chairs complete with red velvet to mask patients' blood, a teaching skeleton, and, interestingly, an authentic Egyptian mummy.