July 12, 1972 (original, in NRHP also including Boston Public Garden) February 27, 1987 (new, in NHL of Boston Common alone)
Designated NHLD
February 27, 1987
The Common is part of the Emerald Necklace of parks and parkways that extend from the Common south to Franklin Park in Jamaica Plain, Roxbury, and Dorchester. The visitors' center for the city of Boston is located on the Tremont Street side of the park.
William Blaxton was the first European owner of the land. He arrived in the Massachusetts Bay Colony as chaplain to the Robert Gorges expedition that landed in Weymouth in 1623. Every other member of this colonization attempt returned to England before the winter of 1625. Blaxton migrated five miles north to the Shawmut Peninsula, then a rocky bulge at the end of a swampy isthmus surrounded on all sides by mudflats. Blaxton lived entirely alone for five years on the peninsula that became Boston.
In 1630, Blaxton wrote a decisive letter to the Puritan group led by Isaac Johnson, whose colony of Charlestown was then failing from lack of fresh water. Blaxton advertised the excellent natural springs of the peninsula and invited Johnson's group to settle with him on it, which they did on September 7, 1630. Johnson died less than three weeks later and Blaxton negotiated a grant of 50 acres around his home on the western edge of the peninsula from Governor John Winthrop. This amounted to approximately 10 percent of the available land on the Shawmut Peninsula and stretched from Beacon Hill to Boylston Street.
One of Johnson's last official acts as the leader of the Charleston community was to name the new settlement across the river Boston after his original home in Lincolnshire, England. He had immigrated to Massachusetts Bay Colony with his wife Arbella and John Cotton, grandfather of Cotton Mather, during the Puritan Migration.
However, Blaxton quickly tired of his Puritan neighbors and the difficulty of retaining such a large plot of land in a town that had grown to nearly 4,000 people by 1633. This led him to sell all but six of his 50 acres back to Winthrop in 1634 for £30 ($5,455 adjusted). The governor purchased the land through a one-time tax on residents amounting to 6 shillings (around $50 adjusted) per person. Those 44 acres became the town commons of Boston and today form the bulk of Boston Common.
During the 1630s, the Common was used by many families as a cow pasture. This traditional use for a commons quickly ended when the large herds kept by affluent families led to overgrazing and the collapse of the Common as pastureland. In 1646, grazing was limited to 70 cows at a time. The Common continued to host cows until they were formally banned in 1830 by Mayor Harrison Gray Otis.
The Granary Burying Ground located at the southern edge of the Common was established in 1660. Two years later, part of this land was separated from the Common, with the southwest portion used for public buildings—including a granary and jail—and the north portion dedicated to an almshouse (probably the first in the Thirteen Colonies).
Boston Common took over from the gibbet outside the gate of Boston Neck as the town execution grounds and was used for public hangings until 1817. Most of these executions were carried out from the limb of a large oak, which was replaced with a gallows in 1769. Those executed included common criminals, military deserters, Indians, captured pirates, and religious dissidents. The most famous victims of the Common's era as an execution grounds were the group of Quakers known almost immediately after their deaths as the Boston Martyrs. The most famous of the Boston Martyrs was executed on June 1, 1660. This was Mary Dyer, who was hanged from the oak by the Puritan government of Boston for repeatedly defying a law that banned Quakers from the Massachusetts Bay Colony.
John Hancock's house across from the Boston Common in 1768
The Common's status as a civic property led to its use as a public speaking grounds, frequently used by evangelists such as George Whitefield.
On May 19, 1713, 200 citizens rioted on the Common in the Boston Bread Riot in reaction to a serious food shortage in the city. They later attacked the ships and warehouses of wealthy merchant Andrew Belcher who was exporting grain to the British West Indies for higher profits. The lieutenant governor was shot during the riot.
An 1890 map of Boston Common and the adjacent public gardenAn Aerial view of Boston Common
Firework displays over Boston Common began as early as July 3, 1745 in celebration of the fall of Louisburg, followed by the celebration of the repeal of the Stamp Act on May 19, 1766 and the first anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1777. True park status seems to have emerged no later than 1830, when the grazing of cows was ended and renaming the Common as Washington Park was proposed. Renaming the bordering Sentry Street to Park Place (later called Park Street) in 1804 already acknowledged the reality. By 1836, an ornamental iron fence fully enclosed the Common and its five perimeter malls or recreational promenade. Tremont Mall was an imitation of St. James's Park in London and had been in place since 1728.
The park was originally "out of bounds" for Blacks and Indians, a restriction that was fought by the Black community in Boston until it was lifted on July 4, 1836.
Boston Street Scene (Boston Common), Edward Mitchell Bannister, a depiction of the street and Boston Common area in 1898–99
Execution of Ann Hibbins on Boston Common, on charges of witchcraft, June 19, 1656. Sketch by F.T. Merril, 1886
The Common was used for a variety of purposes until its formal conversion into a public park during the 1830s. These uses gradually became more urban as the city developed, shifting from pastureland to military drilling field, execution grounds, public gathering place, and finally parkland.
The Charles Street side of Boston Common and the adjacent portions of the Public Garden were initially used as an unofficial dumping ground due to being in the lowest-lying portions of the two parks. This resulted in the portions of the two parks being "a moist stew that reeked and that was a mess to walk over" and driving visitors away from these areas, but the cost of repair prevented the work from being undertaken. This finally changed in the summer of 1895, when the required quantity of soil was made available as a result of the excavation of the Tremont Street subway which was used to regrade the Charles Street sides of Boston Common and the Public Garden.
A hundred people gathered on the Common in early 1965 to protest the Vietnam War. A second protest happened on October 15, 1969, this time with 100,000 people protesting in the Moratorium to End the War in Vietnam.
The Common was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1987. It is managed by the Boston Park Department and cared for by Friends of the Public Garden, a private advocacy group which also provides additional funding for maintenance and special events.
Notable features
Boston Common in the fall of 2016
The Boston Common Frog Pond sits at the heart of the Common and is managed by the Skating Club of Boston in partnership with the City of Boston. Frog Pond is home to a winter ice skating rink and learn-to-skate school, a reflecting pool in the spring and fall, and a summer spray pool and children's carousel.
The softball fields lie in the southwest corner of the Common. A grassy area forms the western part of the park and is most commonly used for the park's largest events. A parking garage lies under this part of the Common. A granite slab there commemorates Pope John Paul II's October 1, 1979 visit to Boston. The Pope said mass that day to an estimated 400,000 people.
In 1913 and 1986, prehistoric sites were discovered on the Common indicating American Indian presence long before it was colonized.
Since 1971, the Province of Nova Scotia has donated the annual Christmas Tree to the City of Boston as an enduring thank-you for the relief efforts of the Boston Red Cross and the Massachusetts Public Safety Committee following the Halifax Explosion of 1917.
View of Boston Common and Park Street church at sunset
Structures
The Boston Common Tablet is installed near the corner of Park Street and Tremont Street.
Plaque to the Great Elm tree which had been adorned with lanterns to represent liberty, used as a point of fortification, and used for hangings. It was destroyed in a storm in 1876.
Boylston and Park Street stations were the first two subway stations in the United States; they lie underneath the southern and eastern corners of the park, respectively. Both stations have been in near-continuous operation since the opening of the first portion of the Tremont Street subway (now part of the MBTA's Green Line) on September 1, 1897.
Parkman Bandstand is in the eastern part of the park, used in musical and theatrical productions.
Parkman Plaza features the statues Industry, Learning, and Religion.
Beacon St. Mall, 19th century (photo by E.L. Allen)
The Boston Public Garden, a more formal landscaped park, lies to the west of the Common across Charles Street (and was originally considered an extension of the Common).
The MasonicGrand Lodge of Massachusetts headquarters sits across from the southern corner of the Common at the intersection of Boylston and Tremont Streets.
Across from the southern corner of the Common, along Boylston and Tremont Streets, lies the campus of Emerson College.
Women's Pole Vaulting on the Boston Common during Boost Boston Games 2017Frog Pond Skating Spectacular at the Boston Tree Lighting and First Night Boston, featuring skaters from The Skating Club of Boston
Friends of the Public Garden and Common; Moore, Barbara W.; Weesner, Gail; Lee, Henry; McIntyre, A. McVoy; Webster, Larry. "History of Boston Common"(PDF). City of Boston. Retrieved October 19, 2022.
J. Besse, A Collection of the Sufferings of the People called Quakers, 1753, Vol. 2, pp. 203-05.
ODNB article by John C. Shields, 'Leddra, William (d. 1661)', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, Sept 2004; online edn, May 2007 [1], accessed August 16, 2009
Winthrop Saltonstall Scudder, An historical sketch of the Oneida football club of Boston, 1862-1865 (Boston, 1926)
Further reading
The public rights in Boston Common: Being the report of a committee of citizens. Boston: Press of Rockwell and Churchill, 1877 Google books
Samuel Barber. Boston Common: a diary of notable events, incidents, and neighboring occurrences, 2nd ed. Boston: Christopher Publishing House, 1916. Internet Archive
External links
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Boston Common.
The Boston Common is a public park in downtown Boston Massachusetts It is the oldest city park in the United States Boston Common consists of 50 acres 20 ha of land bounded by five major Boston streets Tremont Street Park Street Beacon Street Charles Street and Boylston Street Boston CommonAerial view of Boston Common in Downtown Boston in June 2017TypePublic parkLocationBoston Massachusetts U S Area50 acres 200 000 m2 Opened1634DesignerMultiple including Augustus St GaudensU S National Register of Historic PlacesU S National Historic Landmark DistrictNRHP reference No 72000144 original 87000760 new Significant datesAdded to NRHPJuly 12 1972 original in NRHP also including Boston Public Garden February 27 1987 new in NHL of Boston Common alone Designated NHLDFebruary 27 1987 The Common is part of the Emerald Necklace of parks and parkways that extend from the Common south to Franklin Park in Jamaica Plain Roxbury and Dorchester The visitors center for the city of Boston is located on the Tremont Street side of the park The Central Burying Ground is on the Boylston Street side of Boston Common and contains the graves of artist Gilbert Stuart and composer William Billings Also buried there are Samuel Sprague and his son Charles Sprague one of America s earliest poets Samuel Sprague was a participant in the Boston Tea Party and fought in the Revolutionary War The Common was designated as a Boston Landmark by the Boston Landmarks Commission in 1977 The Common is sometimes erroneously referred to as the Boston Commons HistoryBoston Common identified at the western edge of this 1775 British artillery survey of the city with Boston Neck visible at roughly at 7 o clock Granary Burying Ground on Boston Common William Blaxton was the first European owner of the land He arrived in the Massachusetts Bay Colony as chaplain to the Robert Gorges expedition that landed in Weymouth in 1623 Every other member of this colonization attempt returned to England before the winter of 1625 Blaxton migrated five miles north to the Shawmut Peninsula then a rocky bulge at the end of a swampy isthmus surrounded on all sides by mudflats Blaxton lived entirely alone for five years on the peninsula that became Boston In 1630 Blaxton wrote a decisive letter to the Puritan group led by Isaac Johnson whose colony of Charlestown was then failing from lack of fresh water Blaxton advertised the excellent natural springs of the peninsula and invited Johnson s group to settle with him on it which they did on September 7 1630 Johnson died less than three weeks later and Blaxton negotiated a grant of 50 acres around his home on the western edge of the peninsula from Governor John Winthrop This amounted to approximately 10 percent of the available land on the Shawmut Peninsula and stretched from Beacon Hill to Boylston Street One of Johnson s last official acts as the leader of the Charleston community was to name the new settlement across the river Boston after his original home in Lincolnshire England He had immigrated to Massachusetts Bay Colony with his wife Arbella and John Cotton grandfather of Cotton Mather during the Puritan Migration However Blaxton quickly tired of his Puritan neighbors and the difficulty of retaining such a large plot of land in a town that had grown to nearly 4 000 people by 1633 This led him to sell all but six of his 50 acres back to Winthrop in 1634 for 30 5 455 adjusted The governor purchased the land through a one time tax on residents amounting to 6 shillings around 50 adjusted per person Those 44 acres became the town commons of Boston and today form the bulk of Boston Common During the 1630s the Common was used by many families as a cow pasture This traditional use for a commons quickly ended when the large herds kept by affluent families led to overgrazing and the collapse of the Common as pastureland In 1646 grazing was limited to 70 cows at a time The Common continued to host cows until they were formally banned in 1830 by Mayor Harrison Gray Otis The Granary Burying Ground located at the southern edge of the Common was established in 1660 Two years later part of this land was separated from the Common with the southwest portion used for public buildings including a granary and jail and the north portion dedicated to an almshouse probably the first in the Thirteen Colonies Boston Common took over from the gibbet outside the gate of Boston Neck as the town execution grounds and was used for public hangings until 1817 Most of these executions were carried out from the limb of a large oak which was replaced with a gallows in 1769 Those executed included common criminals military deserters Indians captured pirates and religious dissidents The most famous victims of the Common s era as an execution grounds were the group of Quakers known almost immediately after their deaths as the Boston Martyrs The most famous of the Boston Martyrs was executed on June 1 1660 This was Mary Dyer who was hanged from the oak by the Puritan government of Boston for repeatedly defying a law that banned Quakers from the Massachusetts Bay Colony John Hancock s house across from the Boston Common in 1768 The Common s status as a civic property led to its use as a public speaking grounds frequently used by evangelists such as George Whitefield On May 19 1713 200 citizens rioted on the Common in the Boston Bread Riot in reaction to a serious food shortage in the city They later attacked the ships and warehouses of wealthy merchant Andrew Belcher who was exporting grain to the British West Indies for higher profits The lieutenant governor was shot during the riot The Common was used as a military camp by the British before the American Revolutionary War and it was from the Common that they set off for the Battle of Lexington and Concord An 1890 map of Boston Common and the adjacent public gardenAn Aerial view of Boston Common Firework displays over Boston Common began as early as July 3 1745 in celebration of the fall of Louisburg followed by the celebration of the repeal of the Stamp Act on May 19 1766 and the first anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence on July 4 1777 True park status seems to have emerged no later than 1830 when the grazing of cows was ended and renaming the Common as Washington Park was proposed Renaming the bordering Sentry Street to Park Place later called Park Street in 1804 already acknowledged the reality By 1836 an ornamental iron fence fully enclosed the Common and its five perimeter malls or recreational promenade Tremont Mall was an imitation of St James s Park in London and had been in place since 1728 The park was originally out of bounds for Blacks and Indians a restriction that was fought by the Black community in Boston until it was lifted on July 4 1836 Boston Street Scene Boston Common Edward Mitchell Bannister a depiction of the street and Boston Common area in 1898 99Execution of Ann Hibbins on Boston Common on charges of witchcraft June 19 1656 Sketch by F T Merril 1886 The Common was used for a variety of purposes until its formal conversion into a public park during the 1830s These uses gradually became more urban as the city developed shifting from pastureland to military drilling field execution grounds public gathering place and finally parkland The Charles Street side of Boston Common and the adjacent portions of the Public Garden were initially used as an unofficial dumping ground due to being in the lowest lying portions of the two parks This resulted in the portions of the two parks being a moist stew that reeked and that was a mess to walk over and driving visitors away from these areas but the cost of repair prevented the work from being undertaken This finally changed in the summer of 1895 when the required quantity of soil was made available as a result of the excavation of the Tremont Street subway which was used to regrade the Charles Street sides of Boston Common and the Public Garden A hundred people gathered on the Common in early 1965 to protest the Vietnam War A second protest happened on October 15 1969 this time with 100 000 people protesting in the Moratorium to End the War in Vietnam The Common was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1987 It is managed by the Boston Park Department and cared for by Friends of the Public Garden a private advocacy group which also provides additional funding for maintenance and special events Notable featuresBoston Common in the fall of 2016 The Boston Common Frog Pond sits at the heart of the Common and is managed by the Skating Club of Boston in partnership with the City of Boston Frog Pond is home to a winter ice skating rink and learn to skate school a reflecting pool in the spring and fall and a summer spray pool and children s carousel The softball fields lie in the southwest corner of the Common A grassy area forms the western part of the park and is most commonly used for the park s largest events A parking garage lies under this part of the Common A granite slab there commemorates Pope John Paul II s October 1 1979 visit to Boston The Pope said mass that day to an estimated 400 000 people In 1913 and 1986 prehistoric sites were discovered on the Common indicating American Indian presence long before it was colonized Since 1971 the Province of Nova Scotia has donated the annual Christmas Tree to the City of Boston as an enduring thank you for the relief efforts of the Boston Red Cross and the Massachusetts Public Safety Committee following the Halifax Explosion of 1917 View of Boston Common and Park Street church at sunsetStructures The Boston Common Tablet is installed near the corner of Park Street and Tremont Street Declaration of Independence Tablet Plaque to the Great Elm tree which had been adorned with lanterns to represent liberty used as a point of fortification and used for hangings It was destroyed in a storm in 1876 The Robert Gould Shaw Memorial to Robert Gould Shaw and the Black 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry stands at Beacon and Park Streets the northeast corner of the Common opposite the State House The Soldiers and Sailors Monument is a victory column on Flag Staff Hill in the Common commemorating Civil War dead The Boston Massacre Monument was dedicated November 14 1888 The Oneida Football Club Monument memorializes the Common as the site of the first organized football games in the United States played by the Oneida Football Club in 1862 Brewer Fountain stands near the corner of Park and Tremont Streets by Park Street Station Boylston and Park Street stations were the first two subway stations in the United States they lie underneath the southern and eastern corners of the park respectively Both stations have been in near continuous operation since the opening of the first portion of the Tremont Street subway now part of the MBTA s Green Line on September 1 1897 Parkman Bandstand is in the eastern part of the park used in musical and theatrical productions Parkman Plaza features the statues Industry Learning and Religion Beacon St Mall 19th century photo by E L Allen Old Elm tree 19th century Plaque to the Great Elm tree Robert Gould Shaw Memorial Soldiers and Sailors Monument Boston Massacre Memorial The Frog Pond Parkman Bandstand Massachusetts State House Massachusetts Statehouse New State House Boylston station Boston Common Aerial view of Parkman BandstandNeighboring structures Massachusetts State House overlooks part of the CommonThe Massachusetts State House stands across Beacon Street from the northern edge of the Common The Boston Public Garden a more formal landscaped park lies to the west of the Common across Charles Street and was originally considered an extension of the Common The Masonic Grand Lodge of Massachusetts headquarters sits across from the southern corner of the Common at the intersection of Boylston and Tremont Streets Across from the southern corner of the Common along Boylston and Tremont Streets lies the campus of Emerson College Across from the Common to the southeast Suffolk University has a dormitory on Tremont Street Notable recurring eventsWomen s Pole Vaulting on the Boston Common during Boost Boston Games 2017Frog Pond Skating Spectacular at the Boston Tree Lighting and First Night Boston featuring skaters from The Skating Club of Boston Commonwealth Shakespeare Company s Shakespeare on the Common Boston Lyric Opera s Outdoor Opera Series Ancient Fishweir Project Installation Event Massachusetts Cannabis Reform Coalition s Freedom Rally Lighting of the Christmas tree gifted by Halifax Nova Scotia Fireworks display on the evening of December 31 as part of Boston s First Night celebrationSee alsoAlameda Central Boston martyrs Common land Granary Burying Ground King s Chapel Burying Ground List of National Historic Landmarks in Boston List of parks in Boston National Register of Historic Places listings in northern BostonReferencesJames H Charleton November 1985 National Register of Historic Places Inventory Nomination Boston Common PDF National Park Service Retrieved June 22 2009 and Accompanying photos one aerial from 1972 and three from 1985 1 43 MB National Register Information System National Register of Historic Places National Park Service January 23 2007 National Historic Landmark summary listing National Park Service Archived from the original on February 3 2015 Retrieved April 16 2008 Boston Common CelebrateBoston com 2006 Retrieved March 26 2011 City of Boston Boston Common Study Report Boston Landmarks Commission PDF Boston Common City of Boston Retrieved November 9 2011 Place Names Boston English Adam Gaffin and by content posters Retrieved November 9 2011 Friends of the Public Garden and Common Moore Barbara W Weesner Gail Lee Henry McIntyre A McVoy Webster Larry History of Boston Common PDF City of Boston Retrieved October 19 2022 Boston Common The Freedom Trail www thefreedomtrail org Retrieved October 19 2022 Loewen James 1999 Lies Across America What Our Historic Sites Get Wrong New York The New Press p 414 ISBN 0 9650031 7 5 Lowen James 1994 Planning the City Upon a Hill Boston Since 1630University of Massachusetts Press Boston ISBN 0 87023 923 6 ISBN 978 0 87023 923 6 p 53 Boston Common amp Public Gardens Great Public Spaces Project for Public Spaces November 8 2011 at the Wayback Machine PPS Retrieved on August 21 2013 Vale Lawrence J 2000 From the Puritans to the Projects Public Housing and Public Neighbors Cambridge MA Harvard University Press p 13 ISBN 978 0674025752 Vale Lawrence J 2000 From the Puritans to the Projects Public Housing and Public Neighbors Cambridge MA Harvard University Press p 28 ISBN 978 0674025752 Shurtleff Nathaniel Bradstreetl 1871 A Topographical and Historical Description of Boston Boston Boston City Council pp 211 Rogers Horatio 2009 Mary Dyer of Rhode Island The Quaker Martyr That Was Hanged on Boston pp 1 2 BiblioBazaar LLC J Besse A Collection of the Sufferings of the People called Quakers 1753 Vol 2 pp 203 05 ODNB article by John C Shields Leddra William d 1661 Oxford Dictionary of National Biography Oxford University Press Sept 2004 online edn May 2007 1 accessed August 16 2009 Zinn Howard A People s History of the United States New York Perennial 2003 p 51 ISBN 0 06 052837 0 Gaskell Philip Franklin Benjamin LeMay J A Leo Zall P M October 1984 The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin A Genetic Text The Modern Language Review 79 4 908 doi 10 2307 3730147 ISSN 0026 7937 JSTOR 3730147 The Union Club of Boston Archived from the original on April 1 2012 Retrieved October 4 2012 Hayden Robert C 1991 African Americans in Boston More than 350 Years 2nd ed Boston Massachusetts Trustees of the Public Library of the City of Boston p 34 ISBN 0 89073 083 0 Most Doug 2014 The Race Underground Boston New York and the Incredible Rivalry that Built America s First Subway St Martin s Press pp 233 234 ISBN 978 1 250 06135 5 Zinn Howard p 486 Hastings Max 2018 Vietnam An Epic Tragedy 1945 1975 1 ed New York NY ISBN 978 0 06 240566 1 OCLC 1001744417 a href wiki Template Cite book title Template Cite book cite book a CS1 maint location missing publisher link Friends of the Public Garden The Boston Common Frog Pond The Skating Club of Boston scboston org Retrieved November 3 2017 Boston marks 35 years since Pope St John Paul II s visit www thebostonpilot com Research at Boston University Bu edu January 10 2007 Retrieved on 2013 08 21 Boston Common tree arrives Mayor will virtually light tree on December 3 Boston gov November 19 2020 Boston Common Great Elm celebrateboston com Winthrop Saltonstall Scudder An historical sketch of the Oneida football club of Boston 1862 1865 Boston 1926 Further readingThe public rights in Boston Common Being the report of a committee of citizens Boston Press of Rockwell and Churchill 1877 Google books Samuel Barber Boston Common a diary of notable events incidents and neighboring occurrences 2nd ed Boston Christopher Publishing House 1916 Internet ArchiveExternal linksWikimedia Commons has media related to Boston Common A View on Cities article on Boston Common Boston National Historical Park Friends of the Public Garden an advocacy group formed in 1970 to preserve and enhance Boston Common New York Historical Society Boston Common from Charles Street Mall Watercolor by George Harvey 19th century BPL Illus by Winslow Homer City of Boston Archives Ticket for July 4 1883 bicycle race City of Boston Boston Landmarks Commission 42 21 18 N 71 03 56 W 42 35500 N 71 06556 W 42 35500 71 06556 Preceded byFirst location beginning of trail Locations along Boston s Freedom Trail Boston Common Succeeded byMassachusetts State House, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library, article, read, download, free, free download, mp3, video, mp4, 3gp, jpg, jpeg, gif, png, picture, music, song, movie, book, game, games, mobile, phone, android, ios, apple, mobile phone, samsung, iphone, xiomi, xiaomi, redmi, honor, oppo, nokia, sonya, mi, pc, web, computer