Gale S. Pasternack, M.D., M.Ed.
I fell in love with Boston as a student in the sixties and made it my home. A compact, walking city with a glorious past and reverence for learning and innovation, Boston boasts the oldest public school, the oldest institution of higher learning, and the first municipal library. It was a hotbed for the American Revolution, Abolition, and in 2004, was the first state to legalize gay marriage. Boston’s storied past and high tech present create a unique 21st century town.
When you arrive for the 54th Annual Meeting in October, you’ll find fall foliage and a town lively with students, a rich arts scene, diverse neighborhoods, and too much traffic. The “T,” Greater Boston’s public transit system, ties it all together.
What follows is a list of some of my favorite things, more or less, by neighborhood, to help you start planning your trip to Boston.
Highlights for Kids
Restaurant Suggestions
The Back Bay
The AACAP Annual Meeting is located in the Back Bay, originally a tidal marsh along the Charles River that was filled in during the 19th century by lopping off part of Beacon Hill. In Copley Square, check out The Boston Public Library www.bpl.org, designed by Charles McKim. It was America’s first metropolitan library “Free to All.” The library was the first to loan books and first to have branch libraries and a children’s room. It is known for its glorious sculpted bronze doors, vaulted ceiling, and John Singer Sargent murals. Trinity Church, (left) designed by H. H. Richardson, is considered one of America’s 10 finest buildings. The church is reflected in the glass skin of the I.M. Pei-designed John Hancock Tower, the tallest building in New England. Between these landmarks, the square hosts farmers markets, ice sculptures (in season), and a lunch crowd.
Nearby, the Copley Place and Prudential Center complexes provide a vast array of shops and restaurants and the Skywalk Observation Deck on the 50th floor of the Prudential offers the big picture. The amphibious Duck Tour www.bostonducktours.com departs from Prudential.
Back Bay is the orderly part of Boston: Boylston Street in Copley Square parallels Newbury Street, Commonwealth Avenue, etc. down to the Charles River. Walk toward the Charles River Esplanade, a stretch of park, islands, and lagoons (where the Boston Pops give concerts in summer). You’ll see Cambridge and its Massachusetts Institute of Technology on the other shore, bridges, and sailboats. The Head of the Charles Regatta is October 20-21 www.hocr.org.
Take a stroll along Newbury Street (right) and enjoy its galleries, upscale boutiques, and restaurants in elegant row houses. The posh end is near the Public Garden (a must-see) and the cool stuff tends toward the Massachusetts Avenue end. Back Bay’s cross streets are alphabetical from Arlington at the Public Garden to Hereford at Massachusetts Avenue and they extend from the river through Copley Square to the South End, a favorite nearby neighborhood, particularly good for restaurants (Hammersley’s Bistro and B&G Oyster House), shopping and the arts.
I digress to highlight The Emerald Necklace www.emeraldnecklace.org an 1,100-acre chain of parks sweeping from the Back Bay. Designed by Frederick Law Olmstead—also the creator of Central Park in New York—the green space stretches from the Boston Common through the Public Garden. The Garden features beautiful plantings, Swan Boats in summer, and mallard statues commemorating Robert McCloskey’s 1941 Make Way for Ducklings. Commonwealth Avenue, a wide boulevard with grassy mall, magnolias, and mansions stretches the Necklace toward the Back Bay Fens. Fenway is the site of beautiful rose gardens and gateway to the Museum of Fine Arts and the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum (see below).The park system goes along the Riverway (near the Longwood Medical Area) to Jamaica Pond, the Arnold Arboretum, and Franklin Park to the zoo.
While in the Back Bay, you might stop for tea at the casual Tealuxe (also in Harvard Square), the more luxurious and venerable Taj Hotel abutting the Public Garden, or at the Bristol Lounge in the Four Seasons Hotel overlooking the Common. One appreciates the cost of liberty: 90,000 lbs of perfectly good tea were dumped into Boston Harbor.
The Freedom Trail
The famous Freedom Trail www.thefreedomtrail.org, a 2 1/2-mile walking tour of 16 historic landmarks, begins on the Boston Common where colonials rebelled and the British soldiers camped. The Massachusetts State House, (above) with its golden dome, was designed by Charles Bulfinch and served as the template for the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes dubbed it, “the hub of the solar system.” Nearby is the Park Street Church, bulwark of the antislavery movement and the adjacent Old Granary Burying Ground. (No. 9 Park is one of the best restaurants in the city). King’s Chapel is the oldest pulpit in continuous use. The trail goes to Old South Meeting House and Old State House where the Boston Massacre took place. The African Meeting House, 1806, is the oldest black church in the U.S. and is on the Black Heritage Trail www.afroammuseum.org/trail.htm.
The Parker House is the country’s oldest hotel. There Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Henry David Thoreau met and made Boston’s reputation as the “Athens of America.” (Another good trail to follow is in the book, The Literary Trail of Greater Boston by Susan Wilson for the Boston History Collaborative, which takes in sites of Boston, Cambridge, and Concord).
Off the Freedom Trail but close at hand is Beacon Hill (left) www.beaconhillonline.com, a charming neighborhood of 18th century cobbled streets and townhouses, some designed by Bullfinch. Louisburg Square remains one of Boston’s most prestigious addresses, the last private square in the city. On Charles Street, the main shopping and dining area of the hill, you will find upscale grocers, antique stores, and fine restaurants like Lala Rokh, a cozy Persian dining room at the corner of Mt. Vernon, and Todd English’s Figs.
Along Beacon Street, note the venerable mansions and the Boston Athenaeum www.bostonathenaeum.org, a private library organized in 1807. The Athenaeum donated much of its art to start up the Museum of Fine Arts.
The Freedom Trail leads on to Faneuil Hall, “the cradle of liberty,” a market-place as well as meetinghouse. On the third floor, the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company has had its charter since 1638 and displays colonial arms and artifacts. The Quincy Market, renovated in the 1970s is a happening place with shops, food stalls, and musicians, popular with tourists and fun for kids www.faneuilhallmarketplace.com. For the real deal in Yankee fare, try Durgin Park, “established before you were born.” (Rumor has it that the waitresses are less surly, so it has lost some of its charm). Ye Olde Union Oyster House is the oldest restaurant in continuous operation and is near Government Center.
The Freedom Trail continues to the North End with Paul Revere House and Old North Church, then goes across the bridge to Charlestown with the U.S.S. Constitution and Bunker Hill.
In the North End, Boston’s oldest residential neighborhood, you’ll find great Italian food—Mama Maria’s in tiny North Square is an elegant ristorante. On Hanover Street, there are many choices including Mike’s Pastry and Caffe dello Sport for espresso. Christopher Columbus Park, a place to picnic, offers views of the waterfront, Custom House, and financial district.
Boston Harbor
Long Wharf www.bostonislands.org for tours is the nation’s oldest continuously operated wharf and is used for commutes to Logan Airport, Provincetown, Charlestown Navy Yard, and tours of the Harbor Islands.
The John F. Kennedy Library and Museum (right) www.jfklibrary.org in Dorchester, another striking building by I.M. Pei, stands at the mouth of the Boston Harbor on Columbia Point. The images, artifacts and commanding views pay tribute to the life and times of JFK.
All of Boston is excited about the spectacular new waterfront location of the70-year-old Institute of Contemporary Art www.icaboston.org. It displays dramatic and dynamic views of the water with its diverse exhibitions. It relocated from Copley Square to South Boston, the neighborhood featured in Martin Scorcese’s Oscarwinning The Departed as well as Good Will Hunting with local boy, Matt Damon. Southie was formerly infamous for school busing confrontations in the 70s but is now diverse with young professionals alongside the tradionally Irish American community.
Patriots reenact the Boston Tea Party protest at Griffin’s Wharf. The New England Aquarium www.neaq.org presents a fabulous four-story ocean tank and a colony of penguins. Kids enjoy the sea lion shows and hands-on tide pool exhibit.
Boston’s interactive Children’s Museum is one of the country’s best. www.bostonchildrensmuseum.org. My kids loved the Japanese House, transplanted from Kyoto, Boston’s sister city.
The Fenway
Fenway, the elegant extension of the Emerald Necklace, is home to Symphony Hall, the Museum of Fine Arts, Horticultural Hall, and the Isabella Stuart Gardner Museum. There’s also a ballpark. I cannot promise a World Series, but tours of Fenway Park bostonredsox.mlb.com are readily available.
The Gardner Museum www.gardnermuseum.org is a Venetian palazzo dismantled and transplanted to Boston in the late 19th century as home and museum for “Mrs. Jack” Gardner’s magnificent collection of old masters and modern work. The courtyard is brimming with blooms of the season and it is a wonderful space for chamber music. Sadly, in 1990, thieves made off with 13 magnificent works of art, as yet an unsolved heist. According to Isabella Stuart Gardner’s will, nothing can be moved, so one can see the gaping blanks where masterpieces by Vermeer, Rembrandt, Degas, and Manet once hung.
The Museum of Fine Arts www.mfa.org is said to be second only to New York’s Metropolitan in the size and quality of its collections and has the finest and largest collection of Japanese art outside Japan. Founded in 1876, it moved from Copley Square to its present location in 1909. The West Wing, designed by I.M. Pei was built in 1981, and a new addition is in the works. Check out the Web site to narrow your focus and see what you can—it’s wonderful.
Symphony Hall www.bso.org is the home of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, founded 1881 and now directed by maestro James Levine. It was the first hall constructed using acoustical principals (in 1900) and is considered one of the two or three finest halls in the world. The Handel and Haydn Society www.handelandhaydn.org founded in 1815, is the oldest choral society in the nation, renowned for historically informed performances. There is always music in the city in places like New England Conservatory’s Jordan Hall, Harvard’s Sanders Theater, and numerous jazz venues and clubs in Cambridge, the South End, and Roxbury (find listings at www.bostonnightclubnews.com).
Downtown
Try to get to Chinatown, south of Boston Common near the theater district. It’s the country’s third largest. We love the restaurants, particularly Chau Chow and East Ocean City. All are child-friendly.
The theater district features opera, ballet, comedy, Broadway shows, and restaurants such as Teatro and Blu. The American Repertory Theater in Cambridge and the Huntington Theater across from Symphony are other favorites. See the Boston Globe Web site, www.boston.com/ae/theater_arts/.
Kids Also Love
In addition to the Aquarium and Children’s Museum, the Museum of Science www.mos.org in Cambridge and the Museum of Fine Arts www.mfa.org off the Fenway offer special programs for kids. Further on, the Concord museums including the Alcotts’ Orchard House, give tours with living history.
Cambridge, Too
In Harvard Square, tour Harvard University, enjoy trendy shopping (alas, now too many chain stores) and eat at Mr. and Mrs. Bartley’s Burger Cottage.
For a serious dinner, try Upstairs on the Square or Rialto. Legal Sea Foods, which started 50 years ago in Inman Square, Cambridge, is hugely popular. In Cambridge you’ll find Legal at both Charles and Kendall Squares (near Harvard and MIT). In Boston you can eat at Copley Place, Prudential Center, Long Wharf, and Park Square.
Herrell’s, on Dunster Street, has the best ice cream in the square. Up Mass Ave. near MIT is Toscanini’s. Christina’s in Inman Square may be the best ice cream of all.
Don’t miss the Harvard Museums www.harvard.edu/museums including the Carpenter Center for Visual Arts designed by Le Corbusier, the Fogg, the Busch-Reisinger, and the Sackler museums of art; the Museum of Natural History, famous for the amazing glass flowers, and the Peabody Museum of Archeology and Ethnology.
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is at the other end of Massachusetts Avenue (where it crosses the Charles from Boston’s Back Bay). MIT offers campus tours and kids (yes, all ages) have a fabulous time exploring invention, ideas, and innovation at the MIT Museum http://web.mit.edu/museum.
We’re proud of all our schools, medical schools, and hospitals. You or your family members may take college tours while in the area www.searchboston.com/college.
For More Information
For arts and events listings: www.cityofboston.gov/visitors and www.artsboston.org.
Visit our Hospitality Desk. The Greater Boston Convention and Visitor’s Bureau www.bostonusa.com will be with us supplying maps, brochures, and concierge services.
Periodicals
The Boston Globe www.boston.com with its Sidekick section daily and pullout Calendar on Thursday covering taste, music, nightlife, arts, kids, and events; Boston Magazine and The Improper Bostonian.
And I recommend Zagat Boston Restaurants, In And Out of Boston with (or without) Children by Bernice Chesler, Boston A to Z by Thomas H. O’Connor, Common Ground by J. Anthony Lucas, Black Mass by Dick Lehr and Gerard O’Neil, Eyewitness Travel Guide.
Find books and maps at the Globe Corner Bookstore at 90 Mt. Auburn Street, Cambridge and the former Old Corner Bookstore, 1712, now the Boston Globe Store on the Freedom Trail.
Enjoy your visit to Boston!
All photos in this section by FayFoto, Inc. and the Greater Boston Convention and Visitors Bureau.
