Boston

Content:

Boston…………………………2

Weather and Geography…………………………2

Advantage BOSTON…………………………2

Questions about BOSTON…………………………2

Short about Sights & Activities………………………..6

Historic Sites and Attractions………………………..7

A Quick Tour Along the Freedom Trail…………………………10

Getting around…………………………13

Expert Travel Tips…………………………13

Nightlife…………………………14

Entertainment…………………………14

Best Sights & Activities:…………………………14

• SIGHTSEEING…………………………14

• HISTORIC SITES…………………………15

• MUSEUMS (art, history, science)……………………17

• PARKS…………………………19

• ZOOS, AQUARIUMS & RESERVES…………………………20Boston

Some people believe that Boston’s character is very much like London. This is certainly true for its melting pot of history and grace. Besides that, it’s eccentric and bears a cosmopolitan character. The Boston Tea Party. Bunker Hill. Old North Church. Boston offers a glimpse of American history like nno other city. But while you’re walking in the footsteps of America’s founding fathers, don’t think for one minute that Boston is only about the past. Boston (600,000 inhabitants), is a modern, waterfront metropolis artfully blends contemporary architecture with colonial landmarks and lively ethnic neighborhoods. Bostonalso is also a fashionable city that has it all: shopping areas, melodrama, films, people, nightlife and many students. Hall Marketplace entertains with jugglers and street performers. Boston is meant for walking, and most of tthe city’s sights are contained in a surprisingly small area. Blocks of cafes, bookstores and shops beckon academic types to Harvard Square and Faneuil. Harvard University is just across the river in Cambridge. Speaking of the river and festivals, Boston oon the 4th of July sports a day of music, fireworks and food. Boston is the capital of the state of Massachusetts, known as ‘the Cradle of American Independence’; the city houses the capitol building, with its famous gold dome (painted grey during WWII). Famous figures from Massachusetts include the Pilgrims from Plymouth, American patriots, and U.S. Presidents John F. Kennedy, John Adams, John Quincy Adams, and George Bush Sr. Cosmopolitan Boston pulses with a vibrant and diverse theatre, music, nightclub and restaurant scene. Long famous for its chowders, codfish cakes, baked beans, apple pies and local brew pubs, a young generation of chefs is creating a style of cuisine unique to the region’s local bounty.Weather and Geography

Boston is the eeconomic and cultural hub of New England, and is located on Boston Harbor on the Northeast Atlantic Coast. Winter weather can be cold, with temperatures averaging in the high 30s, and frequent snowfall. Spring and summer weather is usually in the high 60s to low 80s, and fall days are crisp, usually in the 50s and 60s, and perfect for taking in the area’s beautiful foliage and walking through Boston’s many different neighborhoods and historical sites.Advantage BOSTON

Advantage BOSTON is aa comprehensive, national marketing campaign and service program built to show why Boston is the best convention venue on earth, bar none. Through a massive advertising, promotional, direct mail and web-based program, Advantage BOSTON tells the story about Boston’s new Boston Convention & Exhibition Center (along with the Hynes Convention Center), new hotels, new transportation infrastructure, airport modernization, and more. Advantage BOSTON also embraces a whole new set of service advantages Boston has to offer for events of all kinds, including association events, trade shows and conferences, and corporate events and meetings.Questions about BOSTON

Why should you bring your event to Boston?

Boston has been rebuilt and redesigned to be the most exciting and visitor-centric convention city in the world. The city now has the world’s best convention facilities – over 35,000 hotel rooms that enjoy best-in-the-U.S. proximity to the airport, convention centers, and city sights – and a new transportation infrastructure that has spawned the country’s fastest travel times between the airport and the convention centers as well as between the convention centers, and the hotels.

Want more attendees? Boston offers the largest and most valuable attendee base within a two-hour travel-time radius of any city in the country. It has aa uniquely rich base of professionals in the most high-end vertical industries – high-tech, medicine, higher education, finance, and more. Boston’s geographical location makes it an ideal and easy gateway for both national and international access. Holding your event in Boston gives you your best chance to maximize attendance quantity and quality.

Add in Boston’s unsurpassed history, culture, and surrounding natural beauty, and you have a destination with more positive attributes to host your event than any venue anywhere.

Will Boston attract my event attendees?

Boston offers the largest and most valuable attendee base within a two-hour travel-time radius of any city in the country. Greater Boston itself has a uniquely rich base of professionals in the most high-end vertical industries including:

768,000 professionals working in Greater Boston’s five leading industries of financial services, healthcare, high technology, education and consulting and the visitor industry.

141,000 professionals working in Greater Boston’s financial services industry.

198,000 professionals working in Greater Boston’s health care industry.

218,000 professionals working in Greater Boston’s high tech industry.

127,000 professionals working in Greater Boston’s higher education and consulting industry.

84,000 professionals working in Greater Boston’s visitor industry.

Boston’s geographical location makes it an ideal and easy gateway for both national and international access. Bottom line: holding yyour event in Boston gives you your best chance to maximize attendance quantity and quality.

What convention facilities does Boston have to offer?

Boston boasts the best and most diverse lineup of convention facilities in the country. These include the brand-new Boston Convention & Exhibition Center; the Hynes Convention Center; the World Trade Center; the Bayside Convention Center; and many outstanding hotel venues. We have the right facility for your event.

What is the Boston Convention & Exhibition Center (BCEC)?

The Boston Convention & Exhibition Center is the world’s most spectacular, customer-driven convention facility. Located in Boston’s Seaport District, less than a ten-minute drive from Logan Airport, the BCEC features 516,000 square feet of contiguous exhibit space, 84 meeting rooms, a 40,020 square foot ballroom overlooking the city skyline and Boston Harbor, and a world of customer amenities and specifications. Even the architectural design of the BCEC reflects a unique, innovative and customer-centric approach. The features and benefits of the facility incorporate input from virtually every corner of the meetings and convention industry, including meeting planners, association and corporate executive, national and international trade show producers.

What is the Hynes Convention Center?

The John B. Hynes Veterans Memorial Convention Center is a

high-tech, state-of-the-art convention facility located in the heart of Boston’s beautiful and historic Back Bay, just steps away from dozens of the city’s most popular hotels and attractions. The facility features 360,000 square feet of space (all of which is fully handicap accessible), including 193,000 square feet of exhibit space and 38 dedicated meeting rooms.

I understand Boston has a large hotel inventory to .accommodate even very large events. How do I reach the appropriate parties to get space?

Yes, BBoston has over 35,000 hotel rooms. No other city offers more hotels in such close proximity to its major convention centers. Furthermore, Boston’s hotels are situated within easy walking distance of the city’s restaurants, shops and landmarks. As for accommodating large events, in the summer of 2004, Boston hosted the Democratic National Convention, an event that required over 18,000 hotel rooms in the city. That example is proof positive that the growth of Boston, including its ongoing addition of more hhotels, puts it in position to host events of any size and scale.

How does ground transportation in Boston work?

The Big Dig is complete – and it’s easier to get around Boston than ever before. Travel times are less than aany other major venue in the country. It’s only 8 minutes from the airport to the Boston Convention & Exhibition Center, and only 12 minutes from the new center to the Hynes Convention Center or Back Bay hotels. The Ted Williams Tunnel now connects the airport to major roadways north, south and west of the city. The Boston transformation is further enhanced by the modernization of Logan Airport. Of course, Boston remains “America’s Walking City,” and event attendees and other visitors will continue to enjoy the city by foot, with easy access to restaurants, shops and landmarks.

What kind of airport support do I get if I use Boston?

Boston’s Logan International Airport is a major national and international gateway. NNo city in the country has faster travel times from the airport to its convention centers. Travel time from Logan Airport to the new Boston Convention & Exhibition Center is 8 minutes. Travel time from Logan Airport to the Hynes Convention Center is 12 minutes. Logan Airport has recently been modernized and refurbished to enhance the user experience, including the world’s most advanced airport security program.

Logan is in the process of receiving $4.4 billion worth of enhancements. A new International GGateway will give world travelers a great first impression of Boston. Separate arrival and departure roadways – and completed walkways that connect all airport terminals – make travel easier and more convenient for Logan passengers. Also included is a new $146 million in-line baggage screening system, one of the first in the nation, that improves security without compromising speed, capacity and convenience.

Some other highlights of Logan International Airport include:

• Logan is the nation’s eighteenth busiest airport and the world’s thirty-fourth busiest airport based on passenger volume.

• It is New England’s largest transportation center: Serving more than 23 million passengers, Logan handles over 1 billion pounds of high value cargo and mail, employs over 15,000 workers and stimulates the New England regional economy by approximately $6 billion per year.

• Logan Airport has five passenger terminals, each with its own ticketing, baggage claim, and ground transportation facilities.

• There are eighty-four gate positions at Logan that are available for both scheduled and non-scheduled service.

What are the restaurants like in Boston?

Diversity, ethnicity, and proximity are the hallmarks of the Boston restaurant scene. The Seaport District, home of the Boston Convention & Exhibition Center, has some of the most famous waterfront seafood restaurants in tthe country. Back Bay, home of the Hynes Convention Center, offers a dynamic range of restaurants from steakhouses to sidewalk bistros. Event visitors have hundreds of restaurants within easy walking distance, with prices to suit all budgets and tastes. Boston is one of the great cities of North America for global variety, with an ethnic rainbow of cuisine covering everything from the Chinese food in Chinatown and the Italian specialties in the North End, to Thai, French, Latin American, Caribbean, African, Hungarian, Russian, Indian and mo.re. The seafood, of course, is among the freshest and best in the world, with lobster and New England clam chowder visitor favorites.

What’s the best way to get around Boston?

Known as “America’s Walking City,” Boston is a compact city that puts its convention facilities and most hotels and restaurants within easy walking distance for most visitors. Another great way to get from place to place is the “T” — the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) – which includes subways, elevated trains, and trolleys along four connecting lines. The new Silver Line will offers quick and convenient public transportation to and from the new Boston Convention & Exhibition Center. The Hynes Convention Center is jjust steps away from two Green Line stations – Copley Square and Symphony.

What else is there to do in Boston?

Boston is unrivaled when it comes to offering visitors a dynamic combination of historic, cultural, entertainment and special-destination options. The history is everywhere – along the famous Freedom Trail, and stretching from the Samuel Adams statue at Fanueil Hall to the gas-lit neighborhoods of Beacon Hill and Back Bay. Boston is home to two of the world’s most famous musical institutions, the Boston Symphony and the Boston Pops, as well as great museums and universities such as Harvard and MIT. Entertainment reigns in one of the country’s most vibrant theater districts, at nightclubs all around the city, and from some of most storied sports teams anywhere, including the Boston Red Sox and Boston Celtics.

Short about

Sights & Activities

Boston is meant for walking. This is a remarkably compact city whose labyrinthine streets will delight the stroller, although they can — and often do — push drivers over the edge. When it comes down to sights, Boston is probably everyone’s cup of tea. It is the cradle of the ‘Boston Tea Party’ which resulted in the formation of the first continental

congress. The city is packed with museums dedicated to historical events that took place in Boston or its vicinity. Take for instance the ‘African Meeting House’ which is the oldest black church in America. The oldest commissioned warship in the world, the U.S.S Constitution, resides in Charleston Naval Yard.Herman Melville wrote his classic ‘Moby Dick’ in these surroundings and Charles Dickens wrote a majority of „A Christmas Carol“ in a hotel in Boston. Memorial sites, parks, the harbour… Boston is aa marvellous place to explore.

One of the joys of wandering Boston is absorbing the character of each neighborhood. The redbrick elegance of Beacon Hill’s narrow streets sends visitors back to the 19th century. In contrast, the Boston Common exudes an attitude that is for, by, and of the people. The startling contrast of old and new side by side is nowhere more evident than in the Old West End. Bostonians love to hate the bleak architecture of Government CCenter, home of City Hall. The North End is Boston’s haven for Italian restaurants and cafés. Charlestown, home to the Bunker Hill monument and the USS Constitution, remains predominantly Irish-American.

Many historic sites remain in the thoroughly Manhattanized downtown; aa number of them have been linked together to make up a fascinating section of the Freedom Trail. The Back Bay is a living museum of urban Victorian residential architecture. The South End’s redbrick row houses in various states of refurbished splendor are home to a polyglot mix of cultural and ethnic groups. Funky Kenmore Square is a favorite haunt for college students, and hope springs eternal for a World Series pennant at Fenway Park.

“The People’s Republic of Cambridge“ sums up this independent city west of Boston. Cambridge not only houses two of the country’s greatest educational institutions — Harvard and MIT — it also has a long history as a haven for freethinkers, writers, activists, and iconoclasts of eevery stamp. Like Boston, it is a city of neighborhoods; the raref.ied air of Harvard Yard and the mansions of Brattle Street are within a mile of the ethnic enclaves in Central Square and East Cambridge. The Boston area’s more than 300,000 students ensure a thicket of cafés, record stores, music clubs, street-chic boutiques, and bookstores.Historic Sites and Attractions

Revered Places

One of Boston’s most famous residents is honored at the Paul Revere Mall, behind the Old North Church. Cyrus Dallin’s landmark sstatue of Revere dominates the entrance to this neighborhood park. Not far away (and also along the Freedom Trail), the Paul Revere House is the oldest structure in Downtown Boston. This restored house was built around 1680. Revere purchased it in 1770 and owned it for 30 years; today, it is one of the country’s most visited historic house museums.

Home-style History

Boston has a number of homes that were occupied by some of this country’s most illustrious historical figures. George Washington stayed at the 1759 house now known as the Longfellow National Historic for nine months during the British siege of Boston, but poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, author of Hiawatha, Evangeline and “Paul Revere’s Ride,” later lived at the house much longer, residing here from 1837 until his death in 1882. The house is long gone, but the location of Benjamin Franklin‘s Birthplace is commemorated with a bust of the great American statesman and philosopher. Franklin lived in the house until he was 17, when he moved to Philadelphia. With its classic architecture and elegant furnishings, the 1796 Otis House Museum epitomizes high Federal style in Boston at the turn of the eighteenth century.

Center of Action

One of the country’s top attractions, FFaneuil Hall Marketplace is filled with colorful people, whether it’s street performers vying for attention, shoppers buzzing from store to store or diners chatting over a meal. The marketplace is fronted by historic Faneuil Hall, the “cradle of liberty,” which was built in 1742 by wealthy merchant Peter Faneuil, then rebuilt and expanded to its present size in 1805. The centerpiece of marketplace activities today, however, is 176-year-old Quincy Market, a fine example of Greek Revival architecture. It’s flanked by two more market buildings, the North and South markets. A food court, shops, restaurants and entertainment keep the area lively day and night.

Child’s Play

Boston sightseeing is particularly enjoyable if you have children along. Little Einsteins and Edisons will enjoy the Museum of Science. Changing exhibits from around the world are featured, in addition to a permanent collection that covers subjects from evolution to rocketry. The Children’s Museum is a treasure trove of fun and learning, including hands-on exhibits such as a two-story maze, an art studio and a Japanese house. Youngsters will love the “Clifford the Big Red Dog” exhibition. There’s also a play space devoted to kids ages 0–3. At the Children’s Zoo, kids can touch and learn about ssmall animals.

Dragons, Jellies and More

Discover all kinds of marine life at the New England Aquarium, where a 200,000-gallon circular glass tank contains many of the aquarium’s most fascinating animals. The new Amazing Jellies jellyfish exhibit opened in 2004. In the Edge of the Sea hands-on tidepool exhibit, experts teach the proper handling of creatures ranging from green sea urchins to horseshoe crabs. Also look for the exhibit of graceful, otherworldly seadragons. The Simons IMAX® Theatre is a $19-million facility that uses the world’s finest motion projection system. The aquarium also offers whale watch catamaran cruises from April to late October.

In Memoriam

Along the historic Freedom Trail, six luminous glass towers, each 54 feet high, pierce the Boston cityscape. Beneath grates at the base of each tower, steam rises from rocks resembling glowing coals. The New England Holocaust Memorial, just steps from Faneuil Hall, was designed by architect Stanley Saitowitz. The project was begun by a group of Holocaust survivors who now live in the Boston area. Each of the towers represents one of the six major death camps of World War II. Quotes from survivors are inscribed into the granite and glass panels, a silent testament to the personal and emotional

toll. From a distance, the glass surfac.es of the towers appear thinly veiled, but upon closer inspection, one sees the etchings of six million numbers, a stark reminder of Nazi atrocities.

Whites of Their Eyes

It’s said that the Patriot defenders at the Battle of Bunker Hill, greatly outnumbered and short of ammunition, were ordered, “Don’t fire until you see the whites of their eyes.” The Bunker Hill Monument honors their valor — they lost the battle, but their heroism inspired legions oof others to eventually win the war. Hardy visitors are welcome to climb the 294 steps to the top of the 221-foot monument, which is along the Freedom Trail. It’s free, and the view is terrific. A 10-minute walk from the monument, the Bunker Hill Pavilion presents a 20-minute multimedia show called “Whites of Their Eyes” that re-creates the battle.

Historic Churches

It is said that, on the night of April 18, 1775, sexton Robert Newman climbed the steeple of the Old NNorth Church and hung two lanterns, signaling to Patriots in Charlestown that the British planned to cross the Charles River the next morning on their way to Lexington. The church, in the North End, is the oldest church building in BBoston. The song “America” was first sung publicly at Park Street Church on July 4, 1831. Both Old North Church and Park Street Church are on the Freedom Trail. In the Back Bay, Trinity Church, designed by H. H. Richardson and completed in 1877, is a fine example of the Richardsonian Romanesque style. Trinity Church is known for its John La Farge murals and beautiful stained-glass windows. The domed First Church of Christ, Scientist is the Christian Science church’s world headquarters, known as the Mother Church. It’s set in a plaza with a fountain and reflecting pool.

Following the Trail

Explore 16 historic buildings, sites and monuments along the two-and-a-half-mile Freedom Trail. The trail documents Boston’s contributions to American history and takes vvisitors past places such as Boston Common, the State House, the First Public School Site, the Old South Meeting House, the Boston Massacre Site and the docking place of the USS Constitution.

Black History on Beacon Hill

Beacon Hill may have been home to “Boston Brahmins,” but its north slope was also once the center of Boston’s free black community. Bostonians, both black and white, played a key role in the fight to abolish slavery. Visitors can learn about both tthese subjects on the Black Heritage Trail. It begins at the Robert Gould Shaw and 54th Regiment Memorial on Boston Common and leads to 13 other important historic sites on Beacon Hill, including the 1806 African Meeting House, the Abiel Smith School and homes built by free blacks, such as the Lewis and Harriet Hayden House. The New England Anti-Slavery Society was founded in the African Meeting House in 1832, and during the Civil War, Robert Gould Shaw recruited soldiers here for the black Massachusetts 54th Regiment (they trained in nearby Hyde Park). It’s the oldest black church building still standing in the country. Today, the side-by-side African Meeting House and Abiel Smith School compose Boston’s Museum of Afro-American History. The museum houses permanent and changing exhibits, as well as a museum store, in the school building.

Uncommon Park

Located across Beacon Street from the gold-domed Massachusetts State House and one block from the busy Downtown Crossing retail district, Boston Common (bounded by Beacon, Charles, Tremont and Park Sts., Boston) is the oldest public park in the country. More than 300 years old, the park was the site for everything from Puritan sermons to anti-British rallies. After the Revolution, a network of llong, tree-lined promenades was built in the park, and a small lake was created in the 1830s. As the nineteenth century progressed, Boston Common began to draw tens of thousands of people during Fourth of July festivals. It’s still a gathering place for numerous events large and small, and any time, it offers people-watching op.portunities. The Park Street subway station and a Visitor Information Center are also here.

Offshore

Scattered along the Massachusetts coast are the 34 islands that constitute the Boston Harbor Islands National Park Area. Each has its own distinct character and offers a unique view of Boston’s maritime heritage. National historic landmarks within the park area include Boston Light, at the country’s oldest continually used lighthouse site (Little Brewster Island), and Fort Warren, a Civil War–era fort on Georges Island. Visitors to the islands will enjoy the unspoiled natural habitats, native wildlife and recreational diversions. Spectacle Island is scheduled to reopen to the public in summer 2005. Closed while massive amounts of rock and dirt from the now-completed Big Dig project were deposited there.

Where the Wild Things Are

The Franklin Park Zoo, the largest zoo in New England, is a 72-acre urban oasis whose attractions include the Australian Outback Trail, wwith wallabies and kangaroos, and Butterfly Landing (late May through September), an enclosure for more than 1,000 butterflies. Serengeti Crossing is a mixed-species habitat where wildebeests, antelope, zebra, ostrich and ibex coexist. The Tropical Forest is home to gorillas, DeBrazza’s monkeys, saddle-billed storks, capybaras, mandrills, pottos and tropical birds. There are also a children’s zoo, reptile house, simulated wetlands and more.A Quick Tour Along the Freedom Trail

The Freedom Trail is a three-mile tour of the Boston National Historical Park (BNHP). The sites along the Trail are connected by history, and are preserved under the direction of the National Park Service (NPS). To begin, visit the Information Center on the Tremont St. side of Boston Common to pick up a Trail guide and map. Follow the brick line imbedded in the sidewalk through Beacon Hill, down around the financial district, over through the North End and across the bridge into Charlestown. The tour ends at the Bunker Hill Monument. The Freedom Trail is a fantastic historical place to visit on your trip to Boston.

Boston Common

The starting point of the Freedom Trail. The Boston Common is known to be one of the oldest public parks in the country. The park is almost

50 acres in size. Today, Boston Common is the anchor for the Emerald Necklace, a system of connected parks that winds through many of Boston’s neighborhoods. The „Common“ has been used for many different purposes throughout its long history. Until 1830, cattle grazed the Common, and until 1817, public hangings took place here. British troops camped on Boston Common prior to the Revolution and left from here to face colonial resistance at Lexington and Concord in April, 1775.

Massachusetts State House

Built iin 1798, the „new“ State House is located across from the Boston Common on the top of Beacon Hill. The land was once owned by Massachusetts first elected governor, John Hancock. Charles Bullfinch, the leading architect of the day, designed the building. The dome, originally made out of wood shingles, is now sheathed in copper and covered by 23 karat gold. In the House of Representatives chambers hangs a wooden codfish that signifies the importance of the fishing industry to tthe Commonwealth.

Park Street Church and Granary Burying Ground

Park Street Church, the site of the old town granary where grain was kept before the Revolution, dates back to 1809. This Evangical Church of „firsts“ is the location of the first Sunday sschool in 1818 and the first prison aid in 1824. On July 4, 1829, William Lloyd Garrison gave his first public anti-slavery speech here and two years later, „My Country ‘Tis of Thee“ was sung for the first time by the church children’s choir.

Founded in 1660, the Granary is the third oldest burying ground in Boston proper. In 1737, when grain was stored where the present Park Street Church stands, the burying ground was renamed the Granary. Along with Massachussetts Governors, Clergymen, and Mayors, three signers of the Declaration of Independence are buried here.

King’s Chapel and King’s Chapel Burying Ground

King’s Chapel Burying Ground is Church of England in America, King James II ordered an Anglican parish to be bbuilt in Boston. Since none of the colonists were interested in selling suitable land for the Church, the King ordered Governor Andros to seize a corner of the burying ground for the Church of England. The burying ground is the final resting place for many colonists, including John Winthrop, the Colony’s governor; Hezekiah Usher, the colony’s first printer; Mary Chilton, the first women to step off the Mayflower.the oldest burying place in Boston proper. The Peter Harrison designed church was cconstructed on land taken from the burying ground. ...