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Photo: en:User:Daderot, CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons
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".
Faneuil Hall is a historic building in Downtown Boston, Massachusetts, United States. Opened in 1742, the building was designed by artist John Smibert as a marketplace and meeting hall. Faneuil Hall is sometimes referred to as "the Cradle of Liberty", having been the site of many speeches, debates, and other events over its history. Over the years, the building, and especially its Great Hall meeting room, has received commentary for its symbolism. Faneuil Hall is part of Boston National Historical Park and is designated as a National Historic Landmark. It is owned by the Boston government and operated as part of the Faneuil Hall Marketplace.
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Faneuil Hall Marketplace
City Hall Plaza
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.
A glass memorial built in a small park near Fanueil Hall, inspired by survivors who resettled in Boston.
Construction financed by the King of England in 1713, this was the longtime seat of government in Boston, and remains its oldest public building. The Boston Massacre took place just in front of the State House, and in 1776 the Declaration of Independence was first read to Bostonians from the balcony. Saved from demolition in 1882, the building has housed numerous tenants and seen many faithful restorations over the years. For example the lion and unicorn statues—symbols of the monarchy—were replaced after being burned during a period of revolutionary zeal in 1776. Every 4th of July, the Declaration of Independence is read aloud once more from the same balcony.
Imported from England in the 17th century by a painter, today you can see the Boston Stone embedded in the foundation of a building in the Historic Blackstone District. No one really knows its exact function, or why it was placed there. The current theory is that it's 18th-century advertising for the shops and stores along this historic street; or a sort of London Stone copycat.
Get off the Freedom Trail for a second and spend a minute reading plaques in this narrow alley. Beneath your feet once flowed clean spring water used by the residents of Boston for hundreds of years. The lane runs parallel to Water Street so you know it's for real. Several other notes relating to Boston's history adorn adjacent building walls, if you're interested. Use caution during the evening, however, as the homeless sometimes use this semi-protected area as a campsite.