Boston Arts Festival

This area used to be known as Scollay Square and was demolished in the 1960s to build a new city hall for the city of Boston. The Hall is a hulking Brutalist architecture and an expansive brick plaza, contrasting sharply with the Fanueil Hall facade directly behind it. Some people love the bold choice of color, form and materials. Everyone else hates it, and considers it to be an eyesore of the first degree. The windswept plaza was mostly deserted until the city began holding seasonal events, festivals, and sports viewings here. Life is slowly creeping back to the center after Government Center station was rebuilt, and plans to make the area more pedestrian friendly are ongoing.

Home of a 200,000-gallon (757,000-L) fish tank, the New England Aquarium offers a riveting museum experience which showcases an incredible variety of fish and other types of animals. It has a humongous IMAX theatre, whale-watching tours operating from its pier, and a marine mammal arena out back. It also is known for its penguins, which are a fascinating experience even on their own. It's well worth a visit.

Old City Hall, unlike the current city hall, is undeniably beautiful. This Second Empire style building was built in 1865 and served as Boston's City Hall until 1969. It has since been converted to office space and also houses an expensive steak house. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1970 and is a much touted example of adaptive re-use in architecture.

Many transit routes go through this station, notably several Amtrak and MBTA train routes. The building was built in 1899 and once had a train shed that was the largest in the world. Architectural features inside the station include the coffered ceiling, the Ionic columns, a hand-operated clock which is the largest of its kind in New England and its curved entrance.

It was built in 1742 as a market building adjacent to a busy waterfront dock. Town meetings held here between 1764 and 1774 heard Samuel Adams and others lead cries of protest against the imposition of taxes on the American colonies. The building was enlarged in 1806. Social justice leaders like Frederick Douglass, William Lloyd Garrison, and Lucy Stone brought their struggles for freedom here in the 19th century. A museum and gift shop dominate the first floor. Most people pronounce it with two syllables like "FAN-yull", while a minority prefer the three syllable "fan-YOU-ull" pronunciation. You'll be fine as long as you don't say anything crazy like "fa-KNEW-lee".

Founded as an Anglican congregation in 1686, the first King's Chapel was built of wood around 1688. Today's stone building dates from 1754 and was built encasing the original wooden structure. Once complete, the wooden frame was disassembled and removed through the stone windows. The beams were shipped off to Lunenburg and reused in a new church. The church bell was forged in England and hung high in the belfry during 1772. Cracked in 1814, it was recast by Paul Revere and would be the largest—and final—bell ever to make its way out of his foundry. The bell is still rung during church services today.