Freedom Trail Pro Tips: WHERE ARE THE BATHROOMS?

People have got to go! There is no more pressing issue on Boston's historic Freedom Trail than the need to pee. I'm here to help. Below is every bathroom stop I know of. I'll make sure to clarify what is a public bathroom and what is a "private bathroom" that you can use.

Visitor Information Center on Boston Common

Boston Common (public bathrooms): The obvious bathroom stop is the Visitor Information Center on Boston Common, though truth be told, they have very small bathrooms that are often overrun by school groups, the homeless, and other visitors. The pros go to the Frog Pond bathrooms. They are also small, but less known, so they are also usually less gross and less full.

Boston Athenaeum (private bathrooms): This is located at 10 1/2 Beacon St., just around the corner from the Boston Common, and also close to the side entrance of the Granary Burying Ground. The first floor of the Athenaeum is open to the public, though you do have to sign in. There is a bathroom on the first floor. You see where I'm going with this?

Omni Parker House Hotel (private bathrooms): As a general rule, hotels are good for a bathroom break. The Parker House is tops, though. They have two bars and a restaurant on the first floor, and are the oldest hotel in America, so they are more accommodating than most to walk-ins. Their bathrooms are on the "mezzanine level," which is essentially the second floor. When you get to the top of the stairs, boys go right, girls go left. This hotel is located at the corner of Tremont and School, near the Granary Burying Ground and across from King's Chapel.

"What's that big clock tower in Boston?"

There are some questions visitors always ask. "Where is the closest bathroom" usually tops the list, and "is that Ben Franklin" when they see the "Franklin" monument in the Granary Burying Ground is also popular. Another top-tier inquiry is "what's that big clock tower?"

The big clock tower in question is the the old custom house. Not actually our oldest custom house ever, its domed base was built in 1847 to replace an older building which was itself a replacement to our original. The tower completed in 1915, making it the tallest building in Boston until 1964. Just off State Street in McKinley Square, the custom house was built just steps away from Long Wharf, where much of Boston's shipping arrived in the 19th century.

While this particular building has no exciting history of note (though it did play a prominent role in Boston scribe Dennis Lehane's novel Prayers for Rain), it is iconic in Boston's waterfront skyline. Currently under the management of Marriott, it serves as a luxury hotel. What many people who see it don't know though is that the base of the building is still very much open to the public. Go inside and get literature free of charge from the front desk, and then you can take a tour through the antebellum structure's breathtaking Greek revival interior, including the original dome, which resides underneath the tower today. Hanging from the ceiling around the dome, you will find very strange flags, representing prominent merchant houses of the custom house's hayday: J.H. Shattuck & Co., Z. Azarian & Co., John Mayo & Co., Gilden & Williams, H. Oxnard, and Brocker & Stugis (see photos below).

John W. McCormack speaks to Boston about the war effort

In commemoration of the 70th anniversary of D-Day -- when Allied forces stormed the beaches of France and began their bloody eleven month march toward Nazi Germany -- I thought it might be interesting to reflect on the city of Boston during the war.

McCormack in the 1960s

One of my favorite moment's in Boston's WWII history is US Congressman John W. McCormack's Fourth of July oration. Speaking to a packed crowd in Faneuil Hall's second floor, known for two centuries as "Great Hall" and for slightly less as "the Cradle of Liberty," McCormack explained to Bostonians why they had to put in long hours at the Navy Yard or the factory, why they had to put every extra cent into war bonds, and why they had to send their sons and husbands to war:

"In this war more than any other," he said, "we are fighting powerful enemies who are imbued with the monstrous doctrine of hatred -- anti-religious hatred, economic hatred, and racial hatred -- determined to enslave the world." He ridiculed the Axis powers, criticizing their disdain for "the rule of majority, because their power lies in their own success in pillaging and destroying -- in the burning of books and the persecution of minorities, in the destruction of the dignity and personality of the individual."

Faneuil Hall

This speech, with was answered with thunderous applause and not a few war bond purchases, is an example of a countless number of local efforts to clearly and honestly explain the necessity of "the good war" to the American people on a local level. In reflecting on its origins -- coming from an America with a segregated army and from a home front torn asunder that same year (1943) with race riots, it is easy to dismiss speeches like McCormack's as propaganda. It is harder, but no less honest, to see it for what it was: a call to the people of Boston, and the United States, to strive toward a society free of these tyrannies. It could not have been lost on a politician regularly facing legislation and letters on both sides of the race issue that he was describing an America that was fantastical at the time, but looking back, it is equally difficult for us to recognize that we still have a long way to go, and that men like McCormack and his contemporaries put us on a path for a better tomorrow many yesterdays ago.

Congratulations to my American Culture in World War II Class!

Today marked the end of my first class - a five week course at UMass-Boston's OLLI program on American Culture on the Home Front. I want to commend all of my 70+ students for their outstanding work and thank them all for providing me the opportunity to explore history with them!

Check out the first session of the class here!

Join Paul Revere on April 20 at the Charlestown Navy Yard!

Paul Revere Row is an excellent event every year. Join the wonderful folks at the USS Constitution Museum for entertaining and family friendly programming, including "drills" with the Charlestown Militia, before getting your chance to meet Paul Revere, who will make his way across the Charles River under the cover of night, accompanied by the blazing of lanterns from the Old North Church back in Boston.

I cannot recommend this event enough for visitors in town for the weekend or locals looking for educational entertainment. Click here for more information!

The Guide's Guide talks about advertising in popular magazines during World War II

Here's some video from a talk I gave on advertising war bonds in popular magazines during World War II at The History List's "History Camp" on March 8, 2014. 

This presentation features some of the research conducted for my Masters Thesis in History at UMass Boston. 

Lecture: Boston's Orange Line

If you're like me, you can't get enough of old photos of Boston's subway system. To satiate that need, come to a lecture by Jeremy Fox and Andrew Elder about their new book, Boston's Orange Line, January 26, 2014 at 3pm.

Learn all about what older folks used to call "the scary line" from its beginning in 1901 as a private line to the present as a public one, and either celebrate its move from elevated to underground like a normal person, or mourn the loss of the creepy subway underpasses like me.

Better still, the lecture is being held at Doyle's, 3484 Washington St., Jamaica Plain (a short walk from the Orange Line's Green Street stop). This bar is in itself a historic site, seeped with history of the Boston Irish, prohibition, and municipal politics.

This event is free and open to the public. Sponsored by the Jamaica Plain Historical Society. Cash bar.