Tag Archives: history

The Old State House

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Walking to the “T” station I was stopped by a group of Asian Tourists. By pointing and broken English they managed to ask me what the “Pretty Building in Gold” was. I tried to explain what the Old State House meant to us Americans and especially Bostonians. I think I managed to convey some of it in spite of the language limitations. That tiny building is still a grand and shining symbol.

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The Old State House is the  oldest surviving public building in Boston. It was built in 1713 to house the government offices of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. It stands on the site of Boston’s first Town House of 1657-8, which burned in 1711. The Old State House was a natural meeting place for the exchange of economic and local news. A Merchant’s Exchange occupied the first floor and the basement was rented by John Hancock and others for warehouse space. As the center of political life and thought in the colonies, the Old State House has been called one of the most important public buildings in Colonial America.

Official proclamations were read from the Old State House balcony, on the east side of the building, looking down State (formerly King) Street. The area beneath the balcony was    the site of the Boston Massacre on March 5, 1770, when a handful of British soldiers fired into a taunting crowd, killing five men. Today a circle of paving stones marks the spot of the Massacre.

On July 18, 1776, the Declaration of Independence was first proclaimed from here, to the jubilant citizens of Boston.

The Old State House continued as the seat of Massachusetts government until a new State House was built on Beacon Hill. On January 11, 1798, all government functions left the building when the governor, state legislature, and other state officials moved to the new State House.

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The building continued to be used for commercial use and entered a period of decline. Eventually a group of concerned citizens formed the Boston Society to rescue the building.

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Today this tiny building stands proudly surrounded by modern skyscrapers. It is a stop on the Freedom Trail and houses a museum of Boston History.

The entrance to the State Street Station, a stop on the MBTA’s  Orange Line, is accessed by entering the historical building.

Reference: http://www.bostonhistory.org/

National Monument to the Forefathers

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What do you think of when someone says Plymouth, MA? I bet Plymouth Rock and the Mayflower come to mind right away. Maybe you think of Pilgrims and Plimouth Plantation. But I wonder if you knew that Plymouth is also home to  the world’s largest solid granite monument,the third-tallest statue in the United States?

As you follow RT 44 into Plymouth there’s a little sign pointing to the National Monument to the Forefathers. I have driven by that sign so many times that I’ve lost count. Every time I drive by I say to myself, “I need to check that out sometime.” but I never seem to take the time. Sometimes fate has to take a hand.

The other night I was heading home just about dusk. As I started up RT 44 I ran into a detour for road construction. The detour routed traffic down Allerton St. As I followed the detour signs I turned a corner and my mouth dropped. I was glad I had the camera with me because I was looking at a huge statue. I had no idea the National Monument to the Forefathers was so impressive. I walked up to take a closer look.

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The monument, which faces northeast to Plymouth Harbor (and, roughly, towards Plymouth, England), sits in the center of a circular drive. On the main pedestal stands the heroic figure of “Faith” with her right hand pointing toward heaven and her left hand clutching the Bible.  Counter-clockwise from the feet of “Faith” are Morality, Law, Education, and Liberty. Each was carved from a solid block of granite, posed in the sitting position upon chairs with a high relief on either side of minor characteristics. Under “Morality” stand “Prophet” and “Evangelist”; under “Law” stand “Justice” and “Mercy”; under “Education” are “Youth” and “Wisdom”; and under “Liberty” stand “Tyranny Overthrown” and “Peace”.

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As I explored this colossus and its little park, more and more cars pulled up and stopped. I bet there were more people visiting the monument thanks to the detour than normally visit all summer!

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If you’re coming to Plymouth, MA it will only take a minute to stop by this monument and it is definitely worth those few minutes.

Newport Tower

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Our Mystery photo from Monday was the Newport Tower. Located in Touro Park in Newport, RI. The tower masquerades under many names : Round Tower, Touro Tower, Newport Stone Tower and Old Stone Mill.

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I got to thinking about this tower because it was recently featured on a program on the History Channel called America Unearthed.advertisement In AMERICA UNEARTHED, forensic geologist Scott Wolter, trys to reveal that the history we all learned in school may not always be the whole story.

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For years the tower was thought to have been built in the 17th century as a windmill but  more recently there has been speculation that the structure is really  centuries older. Some of the current theories are that the tower was built as an observatory.

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Another theory by the author Gavin Menzies is that the tower was built by a colony of Chinese sailors and concubines from the junks of a Chinese explorer. This  theory is said to have been debunked.

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There’s also the theory that Portuguese navigators built the structure as a watchtower.

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But my favorite theory is not the most popular but maybe the most “romantic” and it is the theory that  Scott Wolter tries to prove in his episode about he tower. That theory is that the remnants of the Knights Templar came to the New World and built the tower as a signpost for other to follow. He highlights the astronomical alignments and draws comparisons with known Templar built structures .

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I have a soft spot for the Templars and would love to have this theory proved true however remote the chance. But even if the tower is  eventually proved to be something as mundane as a windmill it will have been fun speculating about its origin.

The Merry Minuet

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I’m going to digress from my usual insubstantial banter to share an experience I had with a co-worker. Now understand that this person is not just a co-worker but I also consider him as friend so I am not being critical. In fact it’s because of his comments that I got to thinking about how much or how little the world has changed.

My friend is about 30 years younger than I am. He is very political and passionate about this upcoming election. I happened to ask him if he was aware that neither candidate was planning to extend the payroll tax cuts from the Bush-era. That would mean about $20/week more in taxes or $80/mo. out of my paycheck. I suppose I can live with it because the argument is that Social Security needs it but I haven’t seen the economy improve. Everything costs more and keeps going up…except my paycheck.  Anyway that simple question had him off and running.

His biggest point was that America is worse off now than ever before. The world hates us, they had the bombing in Libya that killed 4 Americans, the economy is the worse it’s ever been etc.

Well, when I got home the last presidential debate was on almost all of the channels. So I got to thinking…Are we worse off than ever before? My conclusion is no. We’ve had recessions and depressions before. Humans are warlike people. Wars have been going on since the cavemen learned to use clubs. It won’t matter who is president because we don’t have a dictatorship. There are checks and balances. Congress (who I blame for our troubles more than the president) has as much if not more to do with our policies than the president.

But I don’t want to get too long-winded here and I’m not a fan of politics so my opinions are just that…opinions. But music has always been used for protest and social commentary so here are the lyrics from a song from 1958. It was performed by the Kingston Trio.

The Merry Minuet

They’re rioting in Africa, they’re staving in Spain.

There’s hurricanes in Florida, and Texas needs rain.

The whole world is festering with unhappy souls.

The French hate the Germans, the Germans hate the Poles.

Italians hate Yugoslavs, South Africans hate the Dutch.

And I don’t like anybody very much!

*

But we can be tranquil, and thankful, and proud,

For mans’ been endowed with a mushroom-shaped cloud.

And we know for certain that some lovely day

Someone will set the spark off, and we will all be blown away.

*

They’re rioting in Africa, there’s strife in Iran.

What nature doesn’t do to us , will be done by our fellow man.

In 2009 a comedian updated the lyrics by plugging in the names of the countries that were squabbling at that time. Afghanistan showed up then and Iran was still there. Unfortunately I haven’t been able to find those lyrics again But my point is, all we have to do is plug in the countries doing battle today and everything still rings true.

I’m not clever enough to do it but I can see Iran is still in there, throw in Egypt. Florida’s still getting hurricanes and Texas is still in a drought. Pakistan needs mention and we’ll keep Afghanistan too. So my conclusion is that the only thing that changes is the name of the players.

Once it was Britain hates France..then Britian hated us (1812) and so on. World Wars and conflicts… someone is always hating someone and the United States, since it’s birth, has always been right in the middle of it. We were born of conflict.

I’m not condoning all the bickering and fighting. Makes me think of a dysfunctional family out to murder each other but do I agree that we’re worse off now than ever before? No I think it’s business as usual. That’s just the way of the world and any other catch phrase you can think of to mean “Its all the same”.

Maybe we won’t have to worry about it much longer if the Mayan’s are right. Guess we’ll know if we’re all still here on 12/22/2012.