A walking tour of Historic Beacon Hill Boston, Massachusetts

Quincy Mass granite Greek Revival Doric portico with beautiful yellow hibiscus topiaries

Today we are exploring Beacon Hill, Boston's charming 18th & early 19th century neighborhood rich in history and architecture. Its picturesque streets, brick sidewalks, ancient elms, antique gas lamps, interesting doors, doorknockers, and window boxes impress locals and visitors alike. It is a neighborhood of red brink Federal-style & Greek Revival rowhouses protected by architectural restrictions that govern such details as the color of the doors. Today, Beacon Hill is regarded as one of the most desirable and expensive neighborhoods in Boston.

Like many similarly named areas, the neighborhood is named for the location of a former beacon atop the highest point in central Boston, once located just behind the current site of the Massachusetts State House. The hill and two other hills nearby were substantially reduced in height to allow the development of housing in the area and to use the earth to create land by filling the Mill Pond, to the northeast.



Black Beacon Hill was on the north slope. Many famous black leaders, including Frederick Douglas, Harriet Tubman, David Walker and Sojourner Truth, spoke at the African Meeting House on Joy Street. Rebecca Lee Crumpler, who lived for a time on Joy Street, was the first African American woman to become a physician in the United States. In 1860 she was admitted to the New England Female Medical College (which later merged with Boston University) to earn her M.D. degree. Her publication of "A Book of Medical Discourses" in 1883 was one of the first by an African American about medicine. The two Hills were largely united on the subject of Abolition. Beacon Hill was one of the staunchest centers of the anti-slavery movement in the Antebellum era.



In 1937 The Late George Apley, a Pulitzer Prize winning novel, gave a satirical description of the upper-class white residents on Beacon Hill. The photo's are from two year ago when I visited Boston for two weeks for my birthday.

Interesting Antique shop sign

19th century Cast iron horse head

18th century Georgian wood frame building

Federal style building

The Charles Street Meeting House, The church was built between 1804 to 1807 to the designs by noted American architect Asher Benjamin for the Third Baptist Church, which used the nearby Charles River for its baptisms. In the years before the American Civil War, it was a stronghold of the anti-slavery movement, and was the site of notable speeches from anti-slavery activists Frederick Douglass, William Lloyd Garrison, Wendell Phillips, Harriet Tubman, and Sojourner Truth. Pastors of the Third Baptist Church included Caleb Blood (1807-1810), Daniel Sharp (1812-ca.1853) and J.C. Stockbridge (1853-ca.1861). The congregation was eventually "absorbed by the First Baptist Church." The Baptist congregation sold the structure to the First African Methodist Episcopal Church in 1876. Pastors included William H. Hunter and J.T. Juniper.

The Charles Street Meeting House, The church was built between 1804 to 1807 to the designs by noted American architect Asher Benjamin for the Third Baptist Church, which used the nearby Charles River for its baptisms. In the years before the American Civil War, it was a stronghold of the anti-slavery movement, and was the site of notable speeches from anti-slavery activists Frederick Douglass, William Lloyd Garrison, Wendell Phillips, Harriet Tubman, and Sojourner Truth. Pastors of the Third Baptist Church included Caleb Blood (1807-1810), Daniel Sharp (1812-ca.1853) and J.C. Stockbridge (1853-ca.1861). The congregation was eventually "absorbed by the First Baptist Church." The Baptist congregation sold the structure to the First African Methodist Episcopal Church in 1876. Pastors included William H. Hunter and J.T. Juniper.

Federal doorway with beautiful fanlight

Neoclassical wrought iron with brownstone lintel

Federal doorway with brownstone surround

Federal doorway with beautiful fanlight

Federal doorway with brownstone surround

Federal double row house

Greek Revival Doric portico

Click on photo. Another interesting feature about Beacon Hill are the “purple glass” windows of the old Federal homes. The impurities found in the imported English glass would react with the sunlight and form a distinctive purple color  over time.

A very nice Federal townhouse

Interesting wrought iron door bell

Beautiful  wrought iron light bracket

Beautiful Federal fanlight

2nd Harrison Gray Otis House Federalist (Neoclassical) style

A 1840's Egyptian Revival brownstone mansion

2nd Harrison Gray Otis House Federalist (Neoclassical) style

Greek Revival Houses on Louisburg Square, Beacon Hill.

Greek Revival Houses on Louisburg Square, Beacon Hill. Currently it is one of the most expensive residential neighborhoods in the country, and an oft-included landmark in walking tours and guidebooks. U.S. Senator John Kerry owns a townhouse on Louisburg Square. The average cost of a townhouse on the street exceeds $6 million and reaches as high as $20 million.

Greek Revival doorway on Louisburg Square, Beacon Hill.

Greek Revival Houses on Louisburg Square, Beacon Hill. Currently it is one of the most expensive residential neighborhoods in the country, and an oft-included landmark in walking tours and guidebooks. U.S. Senator John Kerry owns a townhouse on Louisburg Square. The average cost of a townhouse on the street exceeds $6 million and reaches as high as $20 million.

Greek Revival Doorway with cast-iron urns on Louisburg Square, Beacon Hill.

Greek Revival Doorway on Louisburg Square, Beacon Hill. The door is painted to look like Mahogany known as Faux Bois French for false wood, this is a very good artistic imitation of wood grains very good job.

Greek Revival Doorway at the Nichols House Museum is a museum in Boston, Massachusetts. It was designed by the architect, Charles Bulfinch, and built by Jonathan Mason, the politician, in 1804. The building was renovated in 1830. The museum is named for Rose Standish Nichols (1872–1960), the renowned landscape gardener, suffragist, pacifist, and member of the Cornish Art Colony, who lived in the house between 1885 and 1960. She left the house to be used as a museum after her death. The museum preserves the lifestyle of the American upper class during Nichols' lifetime, with turn-of-the-century period rooms.

Swan at The Boston Public Garden.  A beautiful park located near Beacon Hill In the center of the garden is an artificial lake, sometimes locally referred to as the lagoon.

I fed the Swans a loaf of bread every day

I was hoping the Swan lovers would make a heart shape with there necks. Maybe next time I visit this lovely city.