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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.
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Two statues commemorate the 1845 Irish Famine, depicting a starving Irish family on their knees, and a well fed family walking away. The natural rise of the land here is used to great effect by the sculptor. As you walk up or down from the statues, it's easy to empathize with the predicament of either family. The physical pain of starvation and the emotional pain of leaving loved ones behind are each masterfully rendered in bronze.
Built in 1729, this church has been an important meeting place for centuries. Famous today due to events during 1773, when colonists used the space to organize what would become known as the Boston Tea Party. Almost destroyed by the fire of 1872, Bostonians saved the structure and it's now an important stop on the Freedom Trail.
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.
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.
Predating King's Chapel, this cemetery was founded in 1630, and is the oldest in Boston. Notable figures buried here include: John Winthrop, first governor of Massachusetts, Mary Chilton the first European woman to step ashore in New England, and Elizabeth Pain, whose headstone supposedly inspired the book The Scarlet Letter.
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.