A Morning in Boston - Part 1

I was in Boston a month ago for a two-week assignment. I haven't been to Boston in a long while. Prior to this trip, the last time I was in this historic city was back in the early 90s when I spent Thanksgiving weekend there with some friends. It was a bit cold and rainy that time. It was mid-autumn and winter was just around the corner. Thus, due to the cold and wet weather, I didn't get to enjoy the place that much.

Thus, I was quite elated when I learned a couple of months ago that Boston was where my next assignment was going to be. It was August and it was summer. I felt that it would be great to finally tour this historic city since I expected to have quite a bit of time in my hands after work. Thus, I drew up a list of places to visit and I made sure that I brought my camera with me.

But to paraphrase what Robert Burns wrote in his classic poem To A Mouse, the best-laid plans of mice and men often go awry. Well, go awry my plans certainly did. Cold rain and wind greeted me as soon as my plane landed in Boston and both unfortunately stayed with me through the rest of my two-week stay. It wasn't until our last day in the area when the rains finally stopped and I finally got to enjoy a fairly decent amount of sunshine. It was a good thing that I had completed my work on Thursday of that second week. Since my return flight wasn't scheduled until early Friday afternoon, I had the entire morning to myself and that's when I finally got to make my long-awaited trip to downtown Boston.

Faneuil Hall was at the top of my places to visit. I first read about this place back in 1983, in the days after former Senator Benigno Aquino's assassination. I saw that famous picture of him, smiling and dressed in a pin-striped suit with Faneuil Hall in the background. The picture was taken earlier that year when he and his family still lived in the city of Newton in the Boston suburbs. That particular photograph was used as a cover on one of those Mr. and Ms. Special Edition magazine issues that came out right after his death.

Faneuil Hall was originally built in 1742 and housed a market and an assembly room. This Hall was where the doctrine of "no taxation without representation" was established when colonists protested the Sugar Act of 1764. The law, passed by the British Parliament, aimed to increase taxes on molasses produced by the New England colonies, as the Northeastern part of the United States was then called. Revenues from the tax were supposed to fund the British defense of the colonies. However, the imposition of the tax came at a time when the colonies were in the middle of an economic depression. Thus, the tax became unpopular and was one of those events that gradually led the colonists to revolt against the British a decade later.

The following photo shows the front of Faneuil Hall. In the square in front of it stands a monument to Samuel Adams,fourth governor of Massachusetts and one of the country's Founding Fathers.


The following is a shot of Faneuil Hall from the rear.


I walked through one of those doors and up the stairs to the second floor where the assembly room/meeting hall was located. The following is a shot of the assembly room taken from its main entry doors.


The picture below will show that front and center on the stage is a painting called Webster's Reply to Hayne done by the American painter, George P.A. Healy (1813-1894). The Mr. Webster who was the subject of the painting was the great American orator and senator Daniel Webster (1782-1852) who represented the state of Massachusetts in the U.S Senate from 1827 to 1841. One of the stands at the foot of the stage shows a diagram that identifies each person whose face is shown on the painting.


The following two photographs shows the left and right sides of this meeting hall. They show balconies on the upper sections to allow for more seating and better viewing.


The photo above and the one below show that the place has abundant natural lighting judging from the number of large windows we see on both sides of this hall.


The following is a shot of the rear section and it also shows a balcony section on the upper floor. The lady sitting by the door is a security person who works for the National Parks Office, a federal agency tasked with managing national parks and monuments.


This last shot shows Faneuil Hall's staircase. I took this photo on my way out of the building.


More recently, Faneuil Hall was the site where Senator John Kerry made his concession speech in 2004 after losing the presidential election to George W. Bush.

This meeting hall was my first stop that Friday morning. My next piece will show the marketplace and shops around this building.