 America’s oldest public park, Boston Common has been at the heart of Bostonian life for over 300 years.
Every American city has a public park and Boston has the oldest with Boston Common, a delightfully relaxing swath of tree lined lawns, manicured flowerbeds, a frog pond and famous Swan Boats.
Back when New England was being colonised, Boston Common was pastureland belonging to Boston’s first white settler Reverend William Blackstone (or Blaxton), in an area known to the local natives as Shawmut or ‘living waters’.
Blackstone lived here as a hermit quite happily, until 1630 when a group of new settlers led by Governor John Winthrop of the Massachusetts Bay Company, arrived in nearby Charlestown , across the river from Blackstone’s Shawmut settlement. When these new settlers realised their water supply was tainted, they bought Shawmut for £30 and he Blackstone moved down to Rhode Island. The new owners later changed the name from Shawmut to Boston, after the little village in Lincolnshire, England where many had come from.
Blackstone’s pasture was made into common land to be used for grazing cattle, to train the militia and to met out justice by flogging or hanging miscreants such as thieves, pirates and Quakers.
In 1830 the Common was transformed into recreational grounds for the residents of Boston and has since evolved into an urban oasis overlooked by the State House , Hancock Tower and other notable Boston landmarks. In recent times Boston Common hosted thousands who gathered to hear Martin Luther King and later Pope John Paul II.
Just across Charles Street are Boston’s elegant Public Gardens, with formally set out flowerbeds, varied trees and meandering pathways. In the centre of the park is a shallow 4 acre pond on which Boston’s famous (if slightly camp) Swan Boats carry visitors gracefully along. At Commonwealth Avenue entrance stands an equestrian bronze statue of George Washington, while you’ll also find a row of bronze ducks in tribute to Robert McCloskey’s children’s story: Make Way for Ducklings.
In the centre of Boston Common is the visitor centre from where the Freedom Trail begins. In the winter season the common’s Frog Pond is filled with skaters of all ages and abilities.
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